I agree that they should’ve released it by now. I’m just not sure what exactly it would be even trying to hide. Like, would it be trying to hide the fact that modern cards are extraordinarily common? Because that’s a fact that can already be learned simply by looking at the PSA pop report.
It’s not clear what CGC would have to gain by keeping it hidden. Whereas it’s very clear what WATA has to gain from keeping theirs hidden, because there’s literally no reference point for the rarity of video games. Whereas in the TCG world, we already have PSA/BGS pop reports (as well as print run numbers in MTG).
That or just lack of being prioritized. This happens with online games all the time. Basic, seemingly trivial usability features often aren’t implemented for months if not years after a game’s release. I could give dozens of examples, but I don’t think I have to.
CGC is a $500 million company (based on the valuation used in the recent Blackstone acquisition). There are countless layers of bureaucracy that can delay things for long periods of time. I’m not worried about the lack of pop report yet. If there were something CGC could possibly have to gain from not releasing it, I’d be more worried.
Probably. Would-be $20 junk slab sells for $100 because you can’t search up “9 pop = 655” yet, ensuring that customers are incentivized just enough to keep submitting. It’s not that farfetched. What is more farfetched is how the pop report is still “on its way”.
But the pop report isn’t a trivial usability feature. This is like someone made Super Mario 64 and said “oh, we haven’t implemented the stars yet, but rest assured, all 120 of them are coming in the DLC in a few years”.
I didn’t call it a trivial usability feature. My point was that even trivial usability features can take years to implement, let alone a non-trivial usability feature like a comprehensive pop report.
As it relates to your other point, I disagree. I agree that those slabs are inflated, but I disagree that a pop report would deflate them. Just look at the PSA pops of the same cards – astronomical pops, yet those cards are selling for $100+ all day. Pop reports don’t deflate junk slabs; time and consistent saturation will.
If the lack of a pop report masks what would otherwise be massive, consistent saturation, it all becomes a matter of semantics. The people buying this crap aren’t running statistics to keep up with the volume.
But there’s not a lack of pop report – the PSA pop report for the exact same cards shows just how massively common these cards are. Yet the PSA slabs are selling for more than the equivalent CGC slabs with no pop report. If pop reports deflated the prices, we would see the reverse – CGC slabs would be selling for comparable amounts or more than equivalent PSA slabs. But that isn’t happening.
You seem to assume that the PSA pop report is indicative of the CGC report, I assume that some of those CGC populations are massive compared to PSA. Not that they would have to be of course, if they’re even just remotely close to PSA, they are massively overpriced.
I agree that the CGC pops for many modern cards aresignificantly larger than the PSA pops of those same cards. And I agree that these slabs (CGC or PSA) are massively overvalued in the market.
But what I disagree with is the notion that the lack of CGC pop reports is hiding anything. No one is buying modern cards under the pretense of them being anything close to rare. People know that these cards were printed in oblivion and are being preserved and encapsulated en masse in mint condition. CGC releasing pop reports wouldn’t tell the people buying these slabs something they don’t already know. Anyone buying modern slabs evidently doesn’t give a shit about the supply side. Releasing a pop report isn’t going to affect people like that.
I think you underestimate human stupidity, just a little bit.
But no huge disagreements here, I don’t necessarily think it is going to have a profound impact. But like I said, I don’t think the notion of it is farfetched, we have seen equally dumb things happen time and time again.
But, in fairness, do you really think that people who don’t realize how massively common modern cards are know or care to look at pop reports? Clearly they don’t. I don’t think CGC modern slabs are inflated due to the lack of pop report. I think they’re inflated for entirely separate reasons lol.
They know how to look up the pop report, but that’s about it. There are so many things the casual buyer fails to comprehend; the link between pops and market supply, modern vs vintage, when the pop is relevant and when it isn’t, what part of the pop is relevant, what it means etc. All clouded in horseshit, misinformation and manipulation by scumbags in the thousands on every social media platform.
So WATA Games have just listed Mark Haspel as one of the five people on their “Executive Team” with the role of “Chief Advisor” on their ‘Who Are We’ page for fun? www.watagames.com/who-we-are
The Queen came to my school once and told me (and everyone else at my school, but she was definitely looking at me…) that I had a promising future ahead. Maybe I should add an Executive Team page to PokéMetrics and list her as Chief Advisor.
Yeah it is weird he has a wata email. Maybe he is some sort of consultant/advisory role. Those are always an awkward middle ground. Its like an open relationship, yeah you aren’t fully committed, but you spend time in bed together.
However many days after this video was published, it has definitely had the effect of giving people online a reason to respond to listings for £200 ungraded games (with prices completely unaffected by any of the legitimate points made in the video) with “scam,” “bubble,” “fraud” etc. A lot of people who clearly did not care about any of this stuff two weeks ago seem to have developed passionate expert opinions on the subject. I am actually wondering if the video’s popularity and spread is drawing more new people into retro game collecting and even WATA and other grading services. I wouldn’t be surprised if WATA submissions have massively increased since the video came out - they announced extended return estimates on August 24th.
Just feels like there are these guys out there who feel like they have an emotional stake in the entire history of video games, and they want to either know the games that they own are really valuable - or, if not, they want to be reassured that the games now too expensive for them to justify buying are a scam, in a bubble, buyers will be burned eventually etc. They have that reassurance, but I doubt the “correction” they’re hoping for is coming anytime soon. There is an imaginary WATA executive or evil scalper in their mind holding all this stuff to ransom. In reality there are just too many people exactly like them all trying to buy the same limited supply of old games at the exact same time.
I agree this phrasing is confusing. I thought he meant the (1) he has never personally acted as grader for any games that have been submitted to Wata and (2) when he submits games to Wata (to be graded by other people) he doesn’t get special treatment.
