All about the methods without revealing tactics, and how people should trust us. What people have done (example Acid NWC) and why they need to trust experts. How certain cleaning helps the grade and others don’t (stickers can go either way)
GameSig
When launched this will be big
Prototype Dumping with Matrix Access
How we dump the data for prototypes and preserve more than just the cartridge condition. Also how this can be done for specific game files, and accessed in a secure database via the matrix.
Information: Price Tracking and GoCollect
All about how to track pricing with Wata games and how the matrix helps
Information: Matrix
General information that’s pilled from matrix – web based versus secure static (grading, photos, pricing)
Security: Matrix + Flow (Ryan)
This is some special stuff, you must read
From the Founders: The Essence of Collecting (Ken, Mark, Den)
What collecting means to each of us in our own words. A 3 part article by Kenneth Mark and Deniz.
Our Lingo
Tied to our glossary or the “correct” terminology to use (No Rev vs non rev, Oval and Round SOQ not color)
Why we chose the name “Wata”
We are a young company, born from the community of video game collectors. We are here to serve your needs. We thrive on responding and contributing back to the community that made us the collectors we are today.
We stand for providing transparency and information parity to help level the playing field by making information available and easy to understand no matter if you’ve been collecting for years or you’re just getting started.
We have fair, objective grading standards you can count on to help assess a game’s true identity and condition. Wata certification reveals the true value of your treasured video game. It eliminates uncertainty, measures the game’s condition against an absolute scale, and gives buyers and sellers complete confidence in their transaction.
The inspiration for our name, Wata, comes from Bruce Lee:
“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.
Empty your mind, Be formless, shapeless, like water. Now if you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. Put it into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or creep or drip or crash. Be water my friend.”
- 1971 TV series Longstreet, Episode 1.1, The Way of the Intercepting Fist
- Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee’s Wisdom for Daily Living by Bruce Lee and John Little
Like water, we strive to be flexible, adaptable, persistent, and to listen and respond swiftly to your needs and desires. Our service will grow and develop based on what you need and want us to do. If there are enough members with a certain need, we will do our best to provide a solution.
Our logo has a crystalline, icy appearance to convey that when we grade, certify and seal a video game in a case, it is frozen in time.
We will stay true to our community roots, focused on building and sustaining our relationships, and serving you with excellence. At our core, we are inspired to be like water.
How-To: Understand the Importance of Certification
How to Understand the importance of certification
When you buy a Wata certified game, you’re assured of the game’s condition. Certification ensures all buyers have equal access to information and can purchase games with 100% confidence.
From the other side of the fence, Wata certified games sell way faster than raw games due to the buyer’s confidence in their purchase. Certification works for the buyer and the seller!
| Certified comics, coins, paper money, stamps, baseball cards
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Certification is the process of impartially and professionally appraising the condition of a collectible, encasing it in a tamper-evident holder, and displaying all relevant information regarding its condition on a label within the holder. |
| High grade raw video game next to image of same video game in below average condition | Have you ever bought two vintage video games (or any other collectable) on eBay that were both described as being in “excellent condition”? You get them in the mail and discover one is in significantly better condition than the other. Why is that?
In both cases, the sellers are using their knowledge and experience in determining how to describe the item, but their knowledge could be flawed. They might have little experience with vintage video games, or maybe even none at all.
Sellers want to get higher prices for their games, so they might be tempted to overstate their condition a little…. sometimes more than a little.
Certification does away with all that nonsense. |
| Video game next to image of a variant of the same game | When you submit your video game to Wata, we get it right. We identify it as exactly what it is, whether it is a regular copy of a game or some variant you may not have known about.
For CIBs, we identity the cart variant and manual variant. A lot of knowledge, experience and time goes into these aspects of video game certification. We haven’t even touched upon grading yet!!
Creating an understandable, consistent, fair scale to rate the condition of video games is key. Wata has done it. Now you can buy vintage video games sight unseen and you will have an unparalleled level of confidence in your purchase. |
| 2 cars, one perfect, the other the same car, but in terrible condition | Let’s imagine you want to buy a car. The car is pricey, and let’s assume you don’t know anything about cars. Is the price worth it for the make, model, year, mileage and condition?
You could learn about cars for 8 hours a day for the next 5 years…. Or, you could ask your friend who has spent the better part of his life learning about cars. He looks at the car and gives you an honest, impartial appraisal of its condition, giving you all the information you need to make your decision.
That’s precisely what certification is. Every Wata grader has devoted much of their time and energy to acquiring tremendous knowledge about video games for over a decade.
Wata certified games will help you make a sound decision about your video game purchase. |
| How could we represent global buyers?
Or photo of certified and uncertified same game side by side? Or photo of live bidding at a collectibles auction?
Or screenshot of Heritage Auctions online event/bids? We will have Sloan do probably a montage of visuals. |
For sellers, having your video game certified means buyers all over the world will understand the identity and condition of your game. This will result in a willingness to bid higher on the game if it is what the collector is seeking.
If a collector is bidding on an uncertified game, there is doubt about the game’s true condition. The game could even be counterfeit! The bidder holds back, hedging his odds of being disappointed with the game he might win.
With certification, bidders can go all out to acquire an item they want in their collection. Additionally, Wata certified games sell faster than comparable raw video games. Would you rather sell a $1,000 game within a year, or get it certified and sell it for $1,000 in a week? |
| Same photo as in first paragraph of this How To, only with a Wata certified game in the center of the other certified collectibles | Certification is essential for the market for any collectible to grow and mature.
No collector wants to buy something that might be what the seller claims. They want to rest assured that their investment decision is sound. That they got exactly what they paid for.
This is the confidence Wata certification provides. |