Exposing FRAUD And DECEPTION - A Must Watch! 18 18

[Buzzetta]

On 8/27/2021 at 12:00 AM, Domo Arigato said:

That's been common knowledge to those not just sticking their nose into this after watching a YouTube video.  I've known about it since the deal went down.  It wasn't a secret, just like most of this other nonsense that people keep trying to make an "AHA!" moment out of.  And I see no reason why he would think he needs to put a footnote at the bottom of each of his posts.

And why does it matter?  He's a collector/seller and has been for many years.  That's also not a secret.  And he's already stated his involvement with WATA consisted of the following:

"Just gave some pre launch advice.    Its probably not appropriate for me to give details but mainly around the basics.   What should an 8 grade look like versus a 9, etc.    Nothing scintillating, I can tell you that.  The board never formally met and to my knowledge post launch but prior to the acquisition by the group Turner is involved with, I don't believe there was a board.   May well be one now, post-aquisition, but I couldn't speak to that."

Do you know how many comic dealers CGC consulted with for advice before opening their doors?  Do they need to stop buying and selling books for profit as well?

 

 

 

Look I have no skin in this game when it comes to video games... I passed on a PS5 the other day at retail and the most gaming I do these days are Simpsons Tapped out and Marvel Puzzle Quest. 

I am not buying nor selling games. 

Why does it matter? (sigh)

I didn't know about it.  It reframes the positions around here. If Dan was the seller and given the article that he spent a large sum of money to acquire these games in the first place, he has a vested interest in them maintaining their current value in the marketplace regardless of how the marketplace arrived at that number. 

As I stated before, this is the big boy version of the scam that a board member presented to me about 7-8 years ago.  He wanted me to shill bid his listings in various places to create the idea of a demand for these books.  I declined.   You are right.  Heritage has done this before.  Halperin is a crook at heart.  Jim Halperin has a well documented history of being what can be considered a crook, a thief, a scam artist and no better than a common bottom feeding criminal.  When you admit publicly in interviews about committing SIX FIGURE mail fraud as a 13 year old child and Forbes is writing about it, I don't think he has changed much over the years.   What he did as a kid he continued doing as an adult, which was scamming others.   Hey remember when a certain board member was exposed at having a history of scamming others for across three decades?   

Why bring that up?  It is not alarming that some are dismissing it. I get that.  If someone was talking about someone inflating the prices of Franklin Mint plates I would shrug and go about my day.  It doesn't impact me in the slightest.   However, despite my not having anything to do with video games, I have bought art, comics, historical memorabilia, animation art, and currency from Heritage.   What they are doing with video games they MIGHT be doing with those other areas and that gives me pause and concern. 

So I want to know something.  How would the boards react to this?  I have 12 copies of Ultimate Fallout 4 sitting in front of me.  I will have six board members who I trust implicitly "buy them" publicly on the boards over the course of the next week at record prices.  Then I will hold on to them and as the rest of you scramble to buy other copies on eBay and everywhere else.  The value will increase dramatically and then I will really sell them next year.  There really is no difference.  I am doing it the way I can with the tools I have.  Halperin and cronies are using Heritage auctions to buy video games to create an artificial price so they can profit off of inflated bids. 

So yeah, guys like Dan have an interest in preserving the market as it is because he stands a lot to gain.  Who wouldn't?  I want to make it perfectly clear though that I do not think that Dan is scamming anyone in any shape or form.  Heritage pulling the scam of the century.  Wata is pulling the scam of the century.  Venues like Rally Road can use these circumstances to further run the scam / scheme that they are operating.

As someone who just texted me wrote, "How many times have you and I watched the art dealers whack up a ha auction and then trade amongst themselves and raise the price over time..."  So yes, we do see this frequently. 

Everyone profits off of what these guys did except the collector.  Grading services assigning values make more money if the items are worth more because they are processed under a higher tier.   Auction houses make more money in fees.  Sellers make more money on their bogus value.

The whole thing stinks and maybe guys like Halperin will stop being afforded the opportunity to settle out of court with mere repayments and meaningless restitution as he has with his other infractions.  Maybe this will be exposed a bit wider and actual justice will be administered.

I want you to take a look at Halperin's collection... 

http://www.jhalpe.com/

Take a good look at the Frazetta artwork, EC Pages, GA art, Schomburg Human Torch covers... everything. 

How much of that was obtained with the money earned by screwing over others?

 

Edited August 27, 2021 by Buzzetta

[Domo Arigato]

On 8/26/2021 at 11:43 PM, Sweet Lou 14 said:

You're not attempting to teach anyone anything.  In fact, just the opposite -- you're telling everyone to go do their own research instead of responding to the research done by the guy who made the original video and the other guy who posted the article I referenced above.  I'm sure I speak for a lot of people here when I say, I'm not really looking to become an expert on a market I don't participate in, but I'm curious enough to learn -- and if there are those who can answer honest questions with sound information and an alternative viewpoint, I'm listening.

If you don't believe me, go back and look at my exchange with Bronty earlier in the thread.  I was inquisitive but respectful of his response.  Of course I didn't realize his background at the time.

Your posts this evening have been borderline unhinged -- I'm not really interested in turning this into a personal thing so if you continue down that road I'll just disengage.

Now you seem really upset.

The "doing some of your own research" part........that would be the "fishing" I mentioned in my previous post.

The lesson myself and some others have been trying to convey.....is that you shouldn't just rely on the research done by the guy who made the original video....or the other guy who posted the article you referenced.  Do you know them?  Do you know their motivations?  Then why would you trust their information without doing some digging of your own?

Nobody is going to teach you the ins and outs of this hobby that you really don't seem to have a huge interest in during a single thread in Comics General.  If you want to call that attitude "unhinged", then feel free to disengage.  If you have legitimate questions, and care to post them without being accusatory, I'd be willing to answer them.  However, very few people in here seem to be capable of that.

 

[Domo Arigato]

On 8/26/2021 at 11:47 PM, kav said:

keep in mind there were several people who said they didnt watch the video but still made up their minds about it tho.

People with actual in-depth knowledge of the hobby can easily spot mistakes.  If there are mistakes early on, it's puts the rest of it into question.  He should have done better research and he should have interviewed people that.....you know.....he's actually making accusations about.  Relying on Pat the NES Punk, as well a guy, and the second hand knowledge from his father, who were both embroiled in shady behavior pointed out on these very forums years ago isn't going to cut it.

 

[kav]

On 8/26/2021 at 10:06 PM, Domo Arigato said:

People with actual in-depth knowledge of the hobby can easily spot mistakes.  If there are mistakes early on, it's puts the rest of it into question.  He should have done better research and he should have interviewed people that.....you know.....he's actually making accusations about.  Relying on Pat the NES Punk, as well a guy, and the second hand knowledge from his father, who were both embroiled in shady behavior pointed out on these very forums years ago isn't going to cut it.

 

The second hand knowledge was bogus for sure but what if there were also many legitimate parts of the video.  You cannot dismiss an entire argument because you listened to 15 seconds of it and found flaws.

[lou_fine]

On 8/26/2021 at 11:36 AM, Transplant said:

On 8/26/2021 at 11:29 AM, alexgross.com said:

is halperin also part owner of cgc? i seriously have no idea, but certainly would not even be surprised. 

Yes.  My post was somewhat tongue in cheek.  It's well known that Heritage owns/owned a piece of NGC/CGC.

Not sure why you are mentioning only 2 of the subsidary companies here, as I believe you are actually referring to CCG (i.e. Certified Collectibles Group) which I believe is made up of about 7 subsidary certification companies including NGC. CGC, CCS, etc.  Interesting to note that CCG claims to have certified over 60 million items since they started up in 1987 which means that the CGC portion of their overall total business is really not that significant when it's all said and done.  

Something that was pretty much confirmed by West here when he said that the primary ownership or founders pretty much treated CGC like an afterthought when he was working there.   

[Domo Arigato]

On 8/27/2021 at 12:09 AM, kav said:

The second hand knowledge was bogus for sure but what if there were also many legitimate parts of the video.  You cannot dismiss an entire argument because you listened to 15 seconds of it and found flaws.

Sure you can.  If he spots mistakes at the very beginning, then why should he feel obligated to watch the rest?  I think the video guy said somewhere (might not have been in the video) that he started researching the video game market 2 whole months ago.  Do you think he knows more about the video game hobby and market than Bronty? (I can tell you that he doesn't).  And do you think Bronty realized that from the very beginning of the video?

I watched the whole video.  Some of the parts that weren't absolute bulls##t were a bit of a concern to me.  But nothing mind blowing.  It's nothing that hasn't been going on in graded comics, graded cards, and probably every other graded collectible hobby for decades now.  Anybody that thinks otherwise is fooling themselves.  And if they aren't.....and actually want to take a stand against it......I'd sing them praises, and even dance a jig for them.  Get out of graded comics, cards, etc.  Sell all of your tainted slabbed holdings and refuse to give another cent to these crooked grading companies and auction houses.  If not, then what the hell is the point of it all?  Do you seriously not see the blatant hypocrisy in that?  Really?

 

 

[Icculus308win]

On 8/26/2021 at 10:46 PM, Domo Arigato said:

There have been plenty....across various grading companies through several auction houses as well as private sales.

Just looking at Sports Cards sales for 2021 that exceeded 4 million dollars.....there was:

1933 Goudy Babe Ruth graded by PSA and sold through Memory Lane for $4,212,000

2018 National Treasures Luka Doncic autograph rookie (ungraded) sold in a private sales for $4,600,000

2003 LeBron James rookie patch autograph graded by BGS sold in a private sale brokered by PWCC for $5,200,000.

1952 Topps Mickey Mantle graded by PSA sold in a private sale brokered by PWCC also for $5,200,000

1909 T206 Honus Wagner graded by SGC sold through Robert Edwards Auctions for $6,606,296

 

 

Steph Curry 1/1  for $5.9

(by Investment Platform=>Investment fund, owns 51%)

[kav]

On 8/26/2021 at 10:28 PM, Domo Arigato said:

Sure you can.  If he spots mistakes at the very beginning, then why should he feel obligated to watch the rest?  I think the video guy said somewhere (might not have been in the video) that he started researching the video game market 2 whole months ago.  Do you think he knows more about the video game hobby and market than Bronty? (I can tell you that he doesn't).  And do you think Bronty realized that from the very beginning of the video?

I watched the whole video.  Some of the parts that weren't absolute bulls##t were a bit of a concern to me.  But nothing mind blowing.  It's nothing that hasn't been going on in graded comics, graded cards, and probably every other graded collectible hobby for decades now.  Anybody that thinks otherwise is fooling themselves.  And if they aren't.....and actually want to take a stand against it......I'd sing them praises, and even dance a jig for them.  Get out of graded comics, cards, etc.  Sell all of your tainted slabbed holdings and refuse to give another cent to these crooked grading companies and auction houses.  If not, then what the hell is the point of it all?  Do you seriously not see the blatant hypocrisy in that?  Really?

 

 

This is just a rehash of "Its not wrong because everyone else is doing it and grow up" tho.

[Domo Arigato]

On 8/27/2021 at 12:31 AM, kav said:

This is just a rehash of "Its not wrong because everyone else is doing it and grow up" tho.

No it isn't.  Read my post again.

 

[Domo Arigato]

On 8/27/2021 at 12:30 AM, Icculus308win said:

Steph Curry 1/1  for $5.9

(by Investment Platform=>Investment fund, owns 51%)

Thanks for that.

I pulled my information from this video:

 

[Flanders82]

Has anyone confirmed that Jeff Meyer, CEO & Founder of GoCollect, is also involved and bought several video game databases for the sole purpose of shutting them down to hide population data?  Also, is there any possibility that the CGC Promise Collection Pedigree's authenticity will be investigated? If the information contained in the video about Heritage is true, it seems as if it would be warranted since they exclusively sold that collection and CGC appears to be a major business partner of Halperin's.

  

Edited August 27, 2021 by Flanders82

[kav]

On 8/26/2021 at 10:32 PM, Domo Arigato said:

No it isn't.  Read my post again.

 

Ok I read it again-still see a rehash.

[Gotham Kid]

On 8/27/2021 at 5:32 AM, MatterEaterLad said:

WATA got caught, but this mega-shilling also exists in the comic world.

let's not forget this.

[MasterChief]

On 8/26/2021 at 12:26 PM, Aman619 said:

If I understand the Hughes case, Hughes got underwater, owed both parties money, heritage took steps to make themselves whole for Hughes personal heritage debts before his poster partners could, they sued heritage, won some of their money but were rebuffed when they tried to sue for more after they already inspected what heritage was holding.  Right?    So heritage got caught being savvy and in a better position than the poster guys to get paid. To which I think they’d say guilty as charged.

If I understand you correctly, you sound like you were a member of the Heritage legal team.

Short of the takeaway that an audit revealed that Heritage engaged in a “systematic pattern of overcharging and other wrongful conduct”, the other red flag to me was that Heritage’s contractual statute of limitations defense failed because of the doctrine of fraudulent concealment.

Now I'm now lawyer nor do I play one on TV, but fraudulent concealment, from what I gather, is willfully withholding material information to hide wrongdoing from the victim. If the defendant (Heritage) intentionally concealed material information from the victim (Hughes) so that the victim did not know they had a viable claim, then the limitations period does not begin to run until after the plaintiff discovers, or with due diligence should have discovered, his claim against the defendant.

My

[COI]

On 8/26/2021 at 8:50 PM, comicwiz said:

Too much fact pattern and common sense here, predictably the "video was made by a journo hack" exonerates them all from wrongdoing.

Who is making this claim?

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

On 8/27/2021 at 12:47 AM, kav said:

Yes.  Didnt you get the memo?  When someone blows their top they start insulting people.

Ther seem to be 2 camps here
What is happening is wrong
What is happeing isnt wrong because everyone does it and grow up and anyway stuff is common knowledge and you should have been held back a grade.
 

3rd  camp. 

Those of us who are just watching everyone put it on the table. (Edited version)

 

[COI]

On 8/27/2021 at 12:08 AM, Sweet Lou 14 said:

Good for you, but the rest of us would have benefitted from this information.

The most vocal and passionate attacker of that video's credibility in this thread has a deeply vested interest in undermining that credibility.  Good to know.

 

On 8/27/2021 at 12:11 AM, Sweet Lou 14 said:

Say what you want about the guy, and there is plenty of criticism to go around, what's most relevant is the information he's providing.  If there's a legitimate argument to be made against his claims, then by all means make it.  But ad hominem attacks are just a distraction.

Fascinating. 

[toro]

https://fb.watch/7Ee9sNQTfX/

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

[COI]

On 8/27/2021 at 12:55 AM, Buzzetta said:

Look I have no skin in this game when it comes to video games... I passed on a PS5 the other day at retail and the most gaming I do these days are Simpsons Tapped out and Marvel Puzzle Quest. 

I am not buying nor selling games. 

Why does it matter? (sigh)

I didn't know about it.  It reframes the positions around here. If Dan was the seller and given the article that he spent a large sum of money to acquire these games in the first place, he has a vested interest in them maintaining their current value in the marketplace regardless of how the marketplace arrived at that number. 

 

So yeah, guys like Dan have an interest in preserving the market as it is because he stands a lot to gain.  Who wouldn't?  I want to make it perfectly clear though that I do not think that Dan is scamming anyone in any shape or form.  Heritage pulling the scam of the century.  Wata is pulling the scam of the century.  Venues like Rally Road can use these circumstances to further run the scam / scheme that they are operating.

 

 

 

Why does this discussion all of a sudden hinge on Dan's involvement in the hobby? Is Dan the only critic of this video? Does Dan's involvement in the hobby have anything to do with either the argument being made in this video, or the claims being made against Heritage?