OK... I'm super confused as how people brains operate internally.
I got a email request asking me if there was "grading service" for sealed laserdiscs...
I had honestly no clue what it even meant. Had to google it and check eBay.
"VHS grading" seems to cost anywhere from $100 to $300.
Why would anyone in his/her right mind pay hundreds of $$$ to have a sealed VHS (the type that was mass-produced in the millions and must exist as old new stock all over the world) "graded", encased and slapped with various stickers?
Are people crazy?
I would think the smart guy is the company providing the grading... that costs real money. But hoping to sell your "graded" T2 or Goonies VHS for $1,000? Unlikely.
You only need to find one crazy person per tape (assuming you're not just laundrering money) to cash in, so the good news is that this doesn't mean people at large are crazy. The other side to this isn't craziness but old-fashioned speculation: "The price of [thing] is going up, so I'll buy it and sell it again before the price falls." The thing can be literally anything. All you need are a few hucksters to get in bid wars with their own alt accounts to make the illusion of a collectable on the rise to get some suckers in on the game.
So we've got a few crazy people, a few frauds, and a few more speculator suckers but still not many. In general, people don't go in for this nonsense.
And anyway, most of us here understand that a sealed disc or tape is less desirable than one that's been verified in a player.
Pay a premium for a sealed (technically perishable) item that's been laying dormant for 10 to 40+ years and may be broken, moldy, rotten or just plain not working? No thanks.
As for 'grading' physical media. What are they grading? The box? The cover condition? Shelf wear?
Pricing an item based on rarity, but which is also tested and 100% proven to be working is a different matter. 'Grading' an unopened item that could be in bits is just lunacy. People want their heads checking.
It probably is a lie. That grading company probably bought that tape for marketing propaganda. They probably paid that website to feature this sale or that website indirectly belongs to them. It is so easy to create a hype with the internet.
It is a stupid idea. First of, grading should cost much more than $300. It would only get you about 2 labor hours to perform all grading work. That’s barely watching the tape from finish to end. The cost should be more like $1,500 for it to be feasible. Who is going to pay that for a VHS?
_________________ Wanted HD-VMD Discs Hi-Vision/Muse Discs Only complete/mint!
It probably is a lie. That grading company probably bought that tape for marketing propaganda. They probably paid that website to feature this sale or that website indirectly belongs to them. It is so easy to create a hype with the internet.
Read the website article first
The author also thinks it's probably of a scam/fraud with impossible to confirm eBay sales and screenshots of prices he can't confirm.
While he acknowledges that some VHS tapes can be rare and expensive (obscure horror movies, first batch with errors, etc.), "grading" them looks more like pump'n'dump from the grading service companies.
(that's the asking price) The Goonies - $75,000 The Natural - $50,000 UFC1 the beginning - $50,000 Rookie of the year - $25,000 Ferris Bueller's Day Off - $25,000 Rocky - $23,000 Karate Kid - $22,000 GI Joe - $22,000 Last Starfighter - $22,000 Stand by Me - $20,000
Of course they won't sell but each "grading case" made the grading service at least $100 richer.
("Sold" removing best offers because we don't know what the final price was)
Jaws - $6,100 Jaws - $5,600 Jaws - $4,638 First Blood - $2,250 The Super Bowl Shuffle - $1,450 Akira - $1,350 Rocky - $1,325 Karate Kid - $1,225 Star Wars - $980 The Goonies - $888 Street Fighter - $799 Big - $548 Jurassic Park - $500
I was watching a documentary on Japanese trading cards on NHK World today. Crazy what some of these cards go for. Some are worth millions. Crazy. And the grading business most certainly contributed to it.
You expect me to believe that out of all the things you could've put in your time capsule, you decided that for some reason Rocky III would be the movie that somehow becomes unavailable in 50 years??? I mean it's not an impossible scenario, but I do find this whole story the guy puts forth rather sketchy.
The sad reality is that there is no organized crime element to any of this, like money laundering; it's merely by the book pump and dump scheme. You get something that is of low value, buy it in bulk, then start artificially hyping it as being valuable through fradulent auction sales - a lot of those insane prices people have paid have, in fact, been paid by the person selling them, meaning no money actually changed hands - just to create the impression of these items going for absurd amounts of money, and outlandish story pitches to newspaper who will of course carry these stories because it's not like any of them know any better.
All to lure suckers hoping to get rich quick buying their literally overpriced crap.
I would think the smart guy is the company providing the grading... that costs real money.
Yes.
I don't know how much of this has been fabricated but we saw the whole video game situation with WATA and Heritage auctions awhile back. There was some shady stuff there but certainly there were some actual speculator investors involved that have now lost their lunch (the market crashed hard, for anyone that hasn't been following).
What a lot of people don't realize is WATA made a ton of money by getting regular people to believe that game grading is a valuable service. The same company that recently graded one of the most common bootlegs of all time as authentic. They finally released population reports awhile back. 895 people have graded a copy of GTA: San Andreas for PS2. If you properly declare the value of the game at the lowest amount ($0-99 tier), are okay with a 2 month turn around (which they won't meet but that's another discussion) and have ZERO add-on services (of which there are many) this will run you $50. Prices start going up when you declare games above $1,000 in value (hence trying to inflate the market with speculation being valuable to them).
I haven't looked into the VHS stuff as much because it's not something I am interested in but I wouldn't be surprised if there were some malevolent forces at work.
Edit: The linked article is rather interesting. He's right in that there is basically no actual proof that people bought any of these. I get that plenty of buyers would want to be private but to not find anything at all? Very interesting.
_________________ I have added a shop on lddb.com. Check it out, items are priced to sell.
Here's another one. The fact that it used to be owned by a cast member makes it at least a little bit more palatable, but come on, couldn't you at least sign the f'ing thing first??
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot post attachments in this forum
Thanks list
