Video Game Grading do you think it's a scam?

[Diablodin]

If you just want the physical protection, there's any number of aftermarket plastic cases, boxes, lockable display cases or elaborate safes you can stick good condition games in. I don't think the cases provided by the graders do anything out of the ordinary on the protection standpoint.

I doubt VGA or WATA has over average quality cases but again, like I said, grading items might be the easiest and therefore the most favorable option to protect games.
Then again, I really advice against casual collectors moving into prototype collecting and start grading them because the necessary knowledge of the legwork related to that collecting category.

Btw, if you'd bother, I'd really appreciate if you can name/link to some aftermarket protective material sources.
I'm very much in the market for something custom.

 

[DBloke]

Cant remember where I heard/read it, but they questioned one of the guys that runs VGA about it and he said "So you can get more money for it"

Collecting sealed games is a bit sad, just for those that want to fill there walls with things they will never have a use for.
In most cases how does anyone know what's inside the sealed case? It could be a reseal

 

[Leynos]

It's complete garbage.

 

[takeshi385]

I have always thought it was a stupid concept. I believe it was Ape who made comment years ago on the Assemblergames forum, that put it into perspective. A user at the time was selling a nes proto that had been slabbed by VGA. "Ape asked what if I bought and cut it out of the acrylic, only to find a brick inside and no pcb?" (paraphrasing as this was 8 years ago) The user said no refund. Everyone just kind of laughed at the absurdity of grading a one of a kind prototype.

I got into retro gaming around 2002. I never saw myself as a collector, as I only ever bought games that I saw myself playing. Even now my library has grown so much and my time has become so limited that I don't think I will ever get to play all my games. It's kind of neat when I find a game I bought have for 20 dollars years ago has appreciated to 4 or more times that value, but it also means other games cost far more now than I am willing to pay. I remember when a 64dd randnet starter kit complete cost $300.

I have gone a bit off the rails with storytime, but my point is that attaching a grading system will always be laughable to people in our hobby because many got into the hobby out of interest and not investment. It's not lost on me that because of the rise in popularity we now have many replacement parts and mods to keep our consoles going for a very long time.

 

[Tachikoma]

Grading has it's place for the uber completionist, but for most people I can't see the need for it.

I confess I do a bit of "speculating" and have some sealed games with the sole intention of flipping them in a few years, but I am thinking "double my money" not "I can retire on this" as I ain't having crates of sealed games clogging up my house for decades.

Protos are too easy to fake, I still have a load of blank PS1 CDR's, it wouldn't be hard to dig out an age appropriate computer and burn some cobbled together beta files, write on the label with a sharpie then spray it with isopropanol to fade/smudge the ink to make it look old and flog for £500... hmmm...

 

[Slayer2k8]

I understand that many other collectables & items have grading many of which are by reputable companies some of which have partnered or started grading games. However, given the 40+ years and multiple regions, releases & formats its simply impossible for someone to be an expert and have an encyclopedic knowledge about all aspects of every system.

Whether you believe in grading games or not it definitely seems that theirs are power struggle of sorts between VGA and Heritage auctions to control the market. With what information has come to light about Heritage auctions and the way they bought Nintendo Age and expunged all sales information with the owners grading some of these games and then them suddenly being worth more than the entire collection (being sold between the owners) was bad enough.

The fact the then had driven up the price to outrageous levels then offering shares in said games is a new way to attract investors but the whole thing is a house of cards. Simply put who are these people who are involved? Some appear to be new collectors who paid a small fortune for some of these games which when you find out they are involved in the respective companies they could be rightfully accused of fixing the prices.
Of course, the more people who use the service as only their graded games can be sold on their platform seemingly legitimise the whole thing. While the high fees payable when games worth nothing like what their being sold in some cases thousands generates massive profits for those involved.

Personally, I think this will only get worse with many others getting involved probably offering a cheaper pricing structure. Simply put most people here have a decent idea of what their collections, games or items are worth. No doubt some key items they want to protect and their are plenty of options to do so without being graded.

 

[Arcadia]

A copy of ‘Super Mario Bros. 3’ sold for $156,000

It's the most expensive game ever sold at auction.

www.engadget.com

 

[Diablodin]

A copy of ‘Super Mario Bros. 3’ sold for $156,000

It's the most expensive game ever sold at auction.

www.engadget.com

Ridiculous lol...
Well, this and Pokemon will come back and bite the "investors" in the poop shoot in 10 years or so. Just let nature run its course.

 

[Arcadia]

Well there are worse games to spend your money on, although it probably won't get played very much.

 

[DBloke]

Speaking of

 

[Tyree_Cooper]

i'm looking for a very large hand in order to do a very large facepalm

 

[Slayer2k8]

This is what i was on about sorry for the link 3,000 shares in a game at 50 bucks a pop do they think they'll ever recoup their initial investment? I'm sure that both Heritage & Rally have some convergence to me the whole thing reeks.

Investment platform pays record $140,000 for sealed Super Mario Bros.

New owner hopes to sell pieces of the collectible for even more next week.

arstechnica.com

 

[Damien]

Bummpy bump, Karl Jobst has found more dirt.

 

[TreblaYevrah]

What I can't comprehend is how these overpriced "graded" games seem like such obvious crap to me, but this stuff is so rampant on ebay that people must be buying it... right?

Anyone that spends upwards of $3000 on a sealed, "graded" Wii game is nuts, and frankly hurting the market for everyone. I'm just using Wii as an example because very few titles from a generation that recent could possibly be worth that amount of money.

 

[Diablodin]

I'm so glad Karl Jobst made that video, perfectly sewn together for ease of understanding for the regular Joe.
So glad I stopped buying sealed games years ago, save for a few instances. When WATA hit the scene something smelled fishy, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt. But I never did the detective work Jobst did...
They'll probably be fined a couple of million for unethical operation and continue their business.

 

[IPman1]

I don't see usefulness in grading a sealed disk. I see a coin or baseball card being gradable, but the game isnt 100% about the cover and not 100% about the disk. Its hard to judge how this is useful to anyone.

 

[Slayer2k8]

I don't see usefulness in grading a sealed disk. I see a coin or baseball card being gradable, but the game isnt 100% about the cover and not 100% about the disk. Its hard to judge how this is useful to anyone.

Money laundering for the closed group at the top artificially controlling the market between the small number at the top involved.
The thing I personally think is sad is common or last-gen Nintendo titles with price tags of 5,000 0r 10,000 on social media groups. These are regular people who've bought into graded games that seriously think their graded games are now worth that. Amazingly they sell to some degree but it's a small group buying and selling between each other.

 

[deadlegion]

I still buy the odd sealed game but never anything graded.
Mostly sealed stuff I get more recent releases like for last gen (PS4/XB1)... I think the last couple of games I got sealed older than those were Silent Hill 4 The Room (PAL) Xbox and Ridge Racer 6 (PAL) Xbox 360.

 

[speedyink]

I think this thread has served its purpose 1000 times over by now. The whole WATA thing has since been blown wide open for anyone to see and I hope everyone knows the extent of extreme scamming that happened by now. I haven't been paying attention but if anyone is still buying a ludicrously priced WATA graded game in this day and age, you deserve to have your money parted with. The information you need literally comes up in the first google hits to "is wata a scam".

 

[Moondog]

I like to collect sealed copies of games but always thought grading was a scam and just made the game look ugly.