Wata has been behind some of the biggest gaming stories this year – even if you don't recognise the name. Since its founding in 2018, Wata has graded games and gaming collectables to set their value for auctions, leading to the recent influx in classic games selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
However, the validity of Wata's services – and therefore these shocking auctions – are now being called into question. A report has accused the company's co-founder, Mark Haspel, of selling games appraised by his own company on his personal eBay account. If these reports are accurate, this is a serious breach of Wata's own policies.
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The accusations come from Proof Games' Seth Abramson, who claims that the co-founder himself has sold him three games in the past. In the report, Abramson shares pictures of the games in question, which has Haspel's name and (censored) address in the sender information.
Further still, Proof Games found what appears to be Haspel's personal eBay account with the username "m*s*h" – Haspel's full name initials. Not only did this account apparently sell to Abramson, but it lists many more titles all rated by Wata. This user is still holding auctions for 74 Wata listed games, coming to a combined value of just under $50,000. On top of the striking similarities with Haspel's name and this eBay username, Abramson also shares a picture of a sticky note that reportedly came with one of the orders. The note has Haspel's name and email address, stating that he should be contacted directly for "more games".
If this is indeed Haspel's own account as the initials and postage information suggests, then it would be a severe conflict of interest, considering it is his own company setting the asking price for these items. Wata has a policy against this very behaviour, having previously stated that employees are not permitted to even own games that are graded by the company, let alone sell them.
Haspel and Wata have not yet responded to the allegations.
Source: Eurogamer
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