Lawsuit against videogame grading service Wata alleges manipulation of retro game prices
As reported by VGC, collectible grading service Wata is facing a class-action lawsuit over allegedly conspiring with Heritage Auctions to pump up the value of rare videogames. Wata and Heritage both deny any wrongdoing.
Grading services like Wata assess the condition of mint videogames and assign them a rank based on that physical condition. The games are then sealed in a clear plastic housing for preservation with the rating clearly displayed.
While communicating with rival rating service VGA to research our round-up of the rarest collectible PC games, a company representative claimed that «our company does not provide any type of appraisal service and the market value is determined by the video game community.»
In the past few years, the prices of collectible games have skyrocketed. In 2017, a sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. sold for $30,000 at auction, the most anyone had paid for a copy of a videogame to that point. This sale also took place before Wata had gotten up and running.
Between 2019 and the end of 2021, Wata-graded games sold through Heritage auctions broke the record for most expensive videogame ever sold six times in a row:
That last record has since been broken by the $2 million sale of a Wata-graded copy of Super Mario Bros. on the website Rally.
The class action lawsuit alleges that Heritage and Wata coordinated media appearances and press releases to drive up the prices of collectible games, with Heritage taking a cut of successful sales and Wata's fee for its services being proportional to a game's estimated price.
Relatedly, in September of 2021, journalist Seth Abramson alleged that Wata co-founder Mark Haspel was selling a significant volume of Wata-graded games through eBay. Abramson's original
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