NES & Super Mario Bros - Nintendo Life IMG
Image: Nintendo Life

Following on from yesterday's accusations about "fraud and deception" in the retro video game market, a Heritage Auctions spokesperson has now issued a statement.

It "strongly refutes" allegations of its involvement in shill bidding, market manipulation, or any other illegal or unethical practices and wishes it was given an opportunity to respond before the video by Karl Jobst went live. Here it is, courtesy of VGC:

“Heritage Auctions wishes it had been given the opportunity to respond before the video’s publication, because there are numerous misstatements of fact and inaccurate conclusions contained within the piece.

“Heritage strongly refutes any allegation that it or its officers are involved in shill bidding, “market manipulation” or any similarly illegal or unethical practices. Heritage prides itself on our transparency and being a place built by and for collectors."

Heritage Auctions now welcomes the opportunity to discuss the video game market further with Mr. Jobst by inviting him to the company headquarters in Dallas to tour operations and speak with leadership.

Jobst has shared his own thoughts about the company's response in a short message on social media:

https://twitter.com/karljobstgaming/status/1430201061248180225

Wata Games has also provided Nintendo Life with the following statement:

Wata Games is the trusted leader in collectible video game grading and we're honored to play a key role in this booming industry that we are incredibly passionate about. We're humbled by the support of our thousands of customers who trust us to provide accurate and transparent grading. The claims in this video are completely baseless and defamatory and it is unfortunate that Mr. Jobst did not contact us to give us the opportunity to correct him

If you want to learn more about what's going on here, and didn't catch the original story yesterday, here's everything you'll need to get up to speed:

What do you think of Heritage Auctions' response? Share your thoughts down below.

[source videogameschronicle.com]