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:
- Accusations Of Foul Play Surface Around Record-Breaking Graded NES Game Auctions
- Talking Point: Million-Dollar Retro Game Auctions Help Remind Us What Matters Most
What do you think of Heritage Auctions' response? Share your thoughts down below.
[source videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 39
I hope they end up in jail this time
What accusations? All I've heard is pure market research into what may or may not be BS. No need to make a mountain out of a molehill that will only affect such a tiny amount of people in general already...like...do something more worthwhile with your time?
Well, they weren't gonna say "Oh, you got me"
@EmmatheBest Serious accusations, though. Somebody is going to a federal resort if this winds up being true.
"we have investigated ourselves and have found no instances of wrong doing. anyway please buy this copy of Atari E.T. for 2.4 million."
Thanks for the update Liam! Looking forward to more!
The reason why it's so easy to draw conclusions of fraud is because prior allegations of shill bidding are rather convincing. I'm sure they deny that too, but of course they do. Part of committing fraud is to insist it's not fraud to the very end. There's no other way to succeed in the grift, which this firm almost certainly is.
'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."
Yes, so they could perhaps intimidate Karl or attempt a bribe to shut him up. Too bad they probably didn't know ol Karl is already waiting on a lawsuit from Billy Mitchell so he has nothing to lose exposing more scumbag practices.
"Heritage Auctions wishes it had been given the opportunity to respond before the video’s publication"
Yeah, that's not how investigative journalism works guys.
Regardless of the actions of the auction house, who is buying these items at these prices? People need to just walk away.
It's obvious that Jobst is right. I hope people stay away from the scam.
Terrible decision to respond with this statement. They need to hire a new PR person. Someone that understands the gaming market.
Honestly cannot believe they responded with this... and inviting him to their HQ?! This is such a naive response!
I watched the video yesterday, it's really good. He has totally wrapped them up in their own neatly buttered sh@t sandwich. It won't make a difference of course, but it's great that their reputation has got what it deserves.
Their statement says they’re not involved in it, which doesn’t mean they haven’t got a third party doing all the shill bidding for them. It gives them legal separation and plausible deniability.
Someone bought a copy of Super Mario Bros. at that Rally auction house for $2 million earlier this month and they’re trying to tell us there’s no market manipulation or shill bidding… It’s either that or the people spending that amount of money are certifiably insane.
In general, denial is in itself a pretty strong indicator. Especially when it happens as a reflex. Someone who is genuinely not aware of an issue such as this would not feel the need to react strongly using generic statements that are wholly focused on casting doubt on the source of the matter being denied.
Reading how the WATA and Heritage are connected it's hard not to be suspicious of that alone!
I really enjoyed the series of articles around this topic. Whether guilty or not, if you look at the asset price rises retro games are currently in a speculative bubble - buy/invest at your own risk.
Jim Halperin and co. Should go to prison if this is true.
Let’s be honest, no videogame is worth anywhere near what they are selling for on those auction sites … except maybe ET on the Atari2600
Thank you for covering this, it’s a very interesting subject.
Mass effect remastered is 40 pounds, and here I am um ing and ahh ing whether to splash the cash. Great games to be sure but maybe should leave in the past and get something new. I want 2 million pounds xxx
I gave them a zero on the IWATA scale.
They just want to avoid this subject to stay away from the spotlights and then, avoid investigations about this.
Any kind of market is subject to fraud, money laundry and deception. In the end, when a fraud is proven, those Heritage Auctions will just say they were the victims and they couldn't do anything to stop this.
I want them THOROUGHLY investigated and every legal action available taken against them if even half of what Karl says is accurate, and from watching his video, I have very little reason to doubt anything he's saying.
And the proof is out there lol
I wonder if they're actually breaking any laws. At the end, it's their money and they can do whatever the f*ck they want with it.
Wonder how many million they can sell Billy Mitchell's MAME machine for?
Jobst is usually the type to avoid jumping to conclusions; I'm kinda surprised that he's dropping judgement so harshly in this case.
Has there ever been a case where fraud like this gets uncovered and the guilty party just straight up comes out and admits it?
Surprise surprise, dishonest scammers will lie about what they're doing.
@Tandy255
That's part of the issue. There's credible allegations they're buying items from themselves to establish a track record of sales at increasing prices, so that their (combined) 25%+ commissions continue to grow.
If what they're claiming is true, that the video contains numerous falsehoods, then they have an excellent libel case on their hands.
The question is, is what they're claiming really true?
@ATaco Karl will just add it to the list. Hopefully Notch would back him in a potential lawsuit for this case too.
My feeling is they won't proceed with a lawsuit because if he doesn't fold they leave themselves open to deposition. Given the history of the auction house I don't think that would be pretty.
The world's best gamer sued because he's a fragile clown. These people just want to run their dodgy scam.
@Edu23XWiiU https://www.theguardian.com/business/2002/apr/23/1
@i_happen Hahahaha, nowm that's funny. Wonder waht'll happen with their "valuations". Should all of them be labeled "illegal"? Auction market has always been subjective as hell. Who should put price to stuff like that? At the end of the day, it's a market that only affects the small percentage of people that collects stuff, so, let them put an offer on the punishment and future rates for their crap.
This whole "story" pushes the market somehow more. I cant believe in these rumors so far. Doing my small blog here https://retronrare.com/blog/ about rare and sealed games auctions and cant see its going down somehow with the prices and the demand. Hope to see more classic computer games in these high priced auctions soon.
That's why Jim Halperin and the Founder of Wata Grading company were the one who purchased the original Mario Brothers game for 100k . Then they have the balls to completely deny that they are committing fraud. They need not be just fined they need to put out of business and go to prison where they belong
They do this with intellectual property as well. They are scum
@Edu23XWiiU yes its caused auction fraud, shill bidding ever heard if it. Its illegal
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