Andre81 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 http://atariage.com/forums/topic/211002-is-the-venezuala-source-bigger-than-the-osheas-source/page-3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Since this was posted here in the Intellivision forum, I think it's important to clarify: the Intellivision (and Atari) merchandise that has been sold from Venezuela is evidently not counterfeit. Looking at the court order linked in the other thread, it seems that certain counterfeit Nintendo titles were seized, and that the Atari and Intellivision stuff was seized along with it and then subsequently re-sold by the Venezuelan sellers. It would be easy to misread this and to jump to the conclusion that every game from Venezuela was counterfeit, but as someone who has purchased several of the Atari and Intellivision games, and who has compared them in detail to the vintage product in my own collection, I'm certain that those games are genuine. 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre81 Posted January 21, 2014 Author Share Posted January 21, 2014 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Amazing. As I said in the other thread, thanks for doing the necessary legwork and figuring out how all this merchandise ended up in Venezuela. I'm just glad that, however it happened, the genuine Atari and Intellivision games were rescued from court-ordered destruction and ultimately ended up in the hands of collectors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre81 Posted January 21, 2014 Author Share Posted January 21, 2014 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre81 Posted January 21, 2014 Author Share Posted January 21, 2014 Sources: "After severe losses throughout the video game industry in 1983, Mattel Inc. closed Mattel Electronics in January 1984 and sold the rights to the Intellivision system and games to a product-liquidation company. That company founded Intellivision Inc. with former Mattel Electronics Director of Marketing Terry Valeski as its president. While the company primarily sold off existing Mattel inventory, it did introduce a couple of Intellivision games that had been finished at Mattel but not released. After most of the Mattel inventory was sold, Valeski bought out the liquidation company, formed INTV Corporation, and hired former Mattel Electronics programmers to produce new Intellivision games." https://intellivisiongames.com/bluesky/people/askhal/askhal.html "The new company, Intellivision Inc., was mainly concerned with liquidating the existing inventory of Mattel game cartridges, keeping the larger toy stores supplied and selling through mail order. They also bought up remaining Intellivision-cartridge inventory from Imagic, Activision, Parker Bros., Atari and Interphase." http://www.intellivisionlives.com/bluesky/games/credits/intv.shtml Coleco liquidation: http://www.nytimes.com/1985/04/19/business/5-chains-sell-coleco-s-adam-coleco-industries-said-yesterday-that-it-had.html http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/03/business/coleco-gives-up-on-the-adam.html http://www.sacnews.net/adamcomputer/08.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre81 Posted January 21, 2014 Author Share Posted January 21, 2014 It would be great if someone with a blog would pick the story up and make a nice write up. A few questions remain: - Did Intellivision Inc. purchase the inventory from Imagic and Activision or their parent company Odd Lots? - What happened with the inventory of Intellivision Inc. when INTV Corp. was founded? - Was it a one time big sale from Odd Lots / Big Lots to Atari Mundial or did they frequently dumped their excessive inventory there? - If it was a one time sale, then it must have happened 1991 or later Maybe someone can call Big Lots or track down Israel Rapaport Kaufman? If you've found him, you know where the warehouse is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 A few questions remain: - Did Intellivision Inc. purchase the inventory from Imagic and Activision or their parent company Odd Lots? - What happened with the inventory of Intellivision Inc. when INTV Corp. was founded? The following from Intellivision Productions might answer these two questions (quoted from here): When Mattel Electronics started posting massive losses in the first half of 1983, the parent company, Mattel Inc., responded by replacing the management team. Terrence E. Valeski was part of the new team, brought in as the Senior Vice President of Marketing. The momentum of losses was such, though, that Mattel closed the electronics division before the new team really had a chance to make an impact. (The product line had already been locked in for Christmas 1983; Mattel Electronics closed January 1984.) But Valeski had seen enough of the market to believe that the Intellivision was still a viable product. After all, even though 1983 was a disastrous year for the industry, with Mattel alone losing $394.1 million, sales of video games was up 10% over 1982. It was the glut of product that caused the losses. Believing that a small, low-overhead company that could continue to supply the 3 million plus Intellivision owners with new product would be successful, Valeski found investors to purchase the Intellivision name, game rights and inventory from Mattel for $20 million. Of key importance, he also got the mailing list of registered Intellivision owners. The new company, Intellivision Inc., was mainly concerned with liquidating the existing inventory of Mattel game cartridges, keeping the larger toy stores supplied and selling through mail order. They also bought up remaining Intellivision-cartridge inventory from Imagic, Activision, Parker Bros., Atari and Interphase. But in 1985, Valeski tested his theory that there was still a market for new games, releasing World Championship Baseball, Thunder Castle, World Cup Soccer, and Championship Tennis. The first two of these had been completed but not released by Mattel Electronics. The last two had been completed at Nice Dreams, the former Mattel Electronics office in France. These were already in release in Europe from Dextell Ltd. The response to the new games was enthusiastic enough that Valeski bought out the other investors, changed the name of the company to INTV Corp., and started scheduling new Intellivision releases. So it seems that "Intellivision Inc." did indeed buy up the excess inventory from Imagic and Activision, and that "INTV Corp." was essentially the same company, with only the name and the principals changing. The inventory probably didn't need to change hands at all during the transition. (EDIT: Never mind; this question was answered below.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre81 Posted January 21, 2014 Author Share Posted January 21, 2014 The following from Intellivision Productions might answer these two questions (quoted from here): So it seems that "Intellivision Inc." did indeed buy up the excess inventory from Imagic and Activision, and that the change to "INTV Corp." was essentially a change in the name and in the ownership of the company; the inventory probably didn't move at all. (EDIT: I just noticed that you quoted this piece in your earlier post. Was Odd Lots involved with Intellivision Inc. at all, except possibly as a distributor? I could be wrong, but I don't recall reading that Odd Lots was ever the parent company of Intellivision Inc.; from the above description, it sounds more like it was started as an independent venture by Valeski and his investors.) After severe losses throughout the video game industry in 1983, Mattel Inc. closed Mattel Electronics in January 1984 and sold the rights to the Intellivision system and games to a product-liquidation company. That company founded Intellivision Inc. with former Mattel Electronics Director of Marketing Terry Valeski as its president. Yes, Odd Lots founded Intellivision Inc. And it seems that they kept some/all of the inventory when Valeski bought them out and founded INTV Corp. That's likely how the Imagic/Activision/Intellivision stock remained at Odd Lots and was later sold to Venezuela. That's also likely the reason why there are no INTV Corp. titles in Venezuela. INTV Corp. had nothing to do with them, only the former parent company. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Ah, I see what you're referring to now. We were looking at slightly different accounts of the same events, and mine didn't include that detail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre81 Posted January 21, 2014 Author Share Posted January 21, 2014 Ah, I see. We were looking at slightly different accounts of the same events, and mine didn't include that detail. Did you see the new chart I've posted above? Odd Lots bought the rights/inventory from Mattel and then founded Intellivision Inc. There are also Activision Atari 2600 games in Venezuela, so it is likely that Odd Lots/Intellivision Inc. not only purchased the Intellivision inventory but also the Atari inventory from Activision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre81 Posted January 21, 2014 Author Share Posted January 21, 2014 (edited) REMOVED Edited January 21, 2014 by Andre81 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Did you see the new chart I've posted above? Odd Lots bought the rights/inventory from Mattel and then founded Intellivision Inc. Yes, it's very good. Makes the big picture even clearer. I was just looking over the Venezuelan games and hardware in my collection, and I think I enjoy them even more knowing that there's so much intrigue behind them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Very interesting! I post on my site if someone writes it up. Maybe ill try, but I'm pressed for time and I'm not a professional writer! Do you have more research to do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre81 Posted January 21, 2014 Author Share Posted January 21, 2014 (edited) REMOVED Edited January 21, 2014 by Andre81 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre81 Posted January 21, 2014 Author Share Posted January 21, 2014 Very interesting! I post on my site if someone writes it up. Maybe ill try, but I'm pressed for time and I'm not a professional writer! Do you have more research to do? Yes. I've found the owner/president of Atari Mundial and Nintendo CA. I'll put a list of questions together and then send them to him. If someone else wants to take over from here (you) just let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JasonlikesINTV Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 (edited) You guys rock. I'm trying to imagine what happens when either all Venezuelan stock is sold or destroyed. Will sealed Intellivision Inc games skyrocket in price? Edited January 22, 2014 by JasonlikesINTV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjarnold7 Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 In my eyes, "sealing' is easy to counterfeit.......maybe I am wrong... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spadafermo51 Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Hello,perhaps this photo ...... you can 'help ........He comes from a Venezuelan mine Intellivision .There are diamonds of Mattel Electronics and the Intellivision inc.We hope to come up to us Please do not faint ..... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lathe26 Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Already saved that image to my hard drive... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bikeguychicago Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Suddenly the theme to Raiders of the Lost Ark is playing in my head... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JasonlikesINTV Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 And only half of those are filled with cocaine 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcasa Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 (edited) I recently spoke with one of the Venezuelan sellers, he told me he got his stock some years ago from an auction held by the bank "Banco de Venezuela", which in turn had taken possession of these goods from the failed bank "Banco Metropolitano" (after the Venezuelan banking crisis of 1994, I suppose?). It's a good thing he managed to get all that stuff which (according to him) was being sold as scrap cardboard for recycling. Edited January 25, 2014 by dcasa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcasa Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 In my eyes, "sealing' is easy to counterfeit.......maybe I am wrong... I agree, while browsing on eBay I have encountered questionable "new/sealed" games such as this, however, those 6-pack 'Mattel/Intellivision Inc.' boxes offered by some sellers look quite legit, I just ordered one title from them to see for myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IntellivisionDude Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 (edited) On 1/21/2014 at 2:50 PM, Andre81 said: I wish I had downloaded this chart long ago. Looks like it was deleted. People ask all the time how the games made it to Venezuela and it would be so easy if I could show them the chart. You can see a small unreadable version here through the wayback machine. It says a few people downloaded it. Anybody still have it? It was in post #5 https://web.archive.org/web/20150201021948/http://atariage.com/forums/topic/221087-venezuelan-games-counterfeits-seized-by-the-court/ Edited February 18, 2020 by IntellivisionDude 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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