Exposing FRAUD And DECEPTION In The Retro Video Game Market

In today's video we take a look at the current retro video game bubble. We learn who caused it to happen, who is profiting, and what needs to be done to fix it.

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Music:

GTA V - Pause music
Galaxy map - Mass Effect
Steady - Veritas
Deep Sea - Perfect Dark
Carrington Institute - Perfect Dark
Maian Tears - Perfect Dark
Resurrections - Celeste
Home Bay - Ecco
Level 0 - Tetris Cd-i

[karljobst]

These people have a lot of power and money, so let's hope they don't attack me for this. A lot of people talk about money laundering but I didn't go into it because it's all pure speculation. Money laundering doesn't CAUSE bubbles. People can take advantage of a bubble that exists, but it's not the root cause. I just focused on what I could prove.

[mossbag]

Gamers don't even want to spend $70 on a game, of course they aren't spending 1.5 mil smh

[jeffreyrhoten]

I'm not sure if it's Karl's intention, but he is seriously becoming one of the best investigative journalists in video games

[KMACKTIME]

I’m a huge retro collector and have been for years. Ive NEVER has any interest in owning a graded game. I own sealed games that would grade high but ive always seen these companies as scams and that they were ruining the hobby. Glad that others are finally seeing the truth. I hope wata is exposed and forced to close.

[enzoTHEferrari]

I remember when the worlds most expensive video game was Gold Nintendo World Championship with a staggering price of $18, 000. And that's a game with only *26* Cartridges ever made. So how does a game with over *11 MILLION* copies sell for $1, 500, 000?

[carlphilippgaebler]

"Babe, what are you watching?"
"Um... a true crime documentary?"

[CatusMagus]

This felt like an actual documentary. My jaw actually literally dropped when Heritage and Halperin came up in the coin bubble segment. Absolutely amazing work, Karl.

[morganqorishchi]

My niece loves collecting N64 games. This bubble has made it impossible for her; she has managed to add to her collection, but only through near-religious devotion to going to garage sales and digging through thrift stores. I hope this bubble bursts soon. Thank you for explaining how this problem got this bad to start with.

[DubYuhGChoppa]

Karl is a man on a mission to expose all video game nonsense, and I absolutely love it

[paragonalex]

This is honestly groundbreaking, professional reporting. Puts the big names to shame. I hope this gets wide recognition and publication. Dishonest profiteering and this retro game price bubble need to end, and those who genuinely appreciate retro games ought to be the ones to collect and enjoy them when prices return to realistic levels. Keep up the incredible work!

[Codyumm]

Holy shit, the connection to the coin grading companies is wild.

[Mr.Spongecake]

I cannot imagine having even a fraction of the money these scammers have and still wanting more.

[ScenicFights]

Thank you so much for creating this piece! This is legit journalism that true gaming websites should be covering. I'm a retro game collector myself, and any legit collector can tell the prices right now are insane and inflated. Most of us collect games because we play it and we want to preserve the history of it, not to resell for profit. For the most part, we wish it wasn't so expensive so future collectors can get into the action. WATA is the biggest scam right now and I avoid graded games like the plague, it's clear the grading system they use is tainted. Who knows how many fakes also get through.

[commanderkeen]

In a gold rush, the people who get rich are the ones selling the shovels

[Stevel_]

The joy of retro gaming has been ruined by greedy profiteers. I miss those days of going and picking up loose carts for $3-$5 bucks, complete games for $5-$15. This video was eye opening and spot on; thanks for the great work!

[shukterhousejive]

Karl's accent is making Pawn Stars sound much more exciting than it really is

[PatTheNESpunk]

Thanks for including me as a part of this video. I appreciate it!

[loganmyall]

What's really strange to me is although sealed boxes are very sought after; they have largely misread the market. The most expensive pieces (at least when I was following collecting) were bit mint in box pieces, they were obscure and rare items that either a)never had full releases b)never had any releases or c) some developers tool. While inbox pieces are pricey it was usually this kind of stuff that was the most valuable in large part due to scarcity of their original run and the details behind it's manufacturing

[CriticalNobody]

Karl really likes poking bears and it's great. I hope this exposé doesn't lead to another series of spurious lawsuit threats

[GeeFunk]

You, Sir, have massively outdone yourself with the amount of research and the work that has gone into the production of this video. I myself have done some investigative journalism in the past and I know how tedious this work can be, going through thousands of pages of documents just to get some background info on some topic, talking to people that are hard to get otherwise, get the best sources possible. And I was just writing, which - from a production point of view - is the easiest thing to do. Massive congratulations!