Grading older games

[bikingjahuty]

Graded games are an enormous scam. Putting some plastic around it and slapping a number on it suddenly makes it worth 5x more...sure....

It's been a thing for a while in the world of comics and trading cards. I've never been one to do it, personally, but there's no denying the selling power graded items have in those markets. So I don't see why video games would be any different.

Wasn't rampant grading a big reason why the collecting craze around their items crashed? I know part of it had to do with creating way too many variants, "limited editions" and essentially over saturating the collectors market, but I thought I remembered hearing graded items were a huge contributing factor.

[burningdoom]

Graded games are an enormous scam. Putting some plastic around it and slapping a number on it suddenly makes it worth 5x more...sure....

It's been a thing for a while in the world of comics and trading cards. I've never been one to do it, personally, but there's no denying the selling power graded items have in those markets. So I don't see why video games would be any different.

Wasn't rampant grading a big reason why the collecting craze around their items crashed? I know part of it had to do with creating way too many variants, "limited editions" and essentially over saturating the collectors market, but I thought I remembered hearing graded items were a huge contributing factor.

Crashed? Trading cards and comics are selling at all-time highs just like everything else during the pandemic. Comics even longer than the pandemic due to Marvel movie mania

[Cartagia]

Graded games are an enormous scam. Putting some plastic around it and slapping a number on it suddenly makes it worth 5x more...sure....

It's been a thing for a while in the world of comics and trading cards. I've never been one to do it, personally, but there's no denying the selling power graded items have in those markets. So I don't see why video games would be any different.

Wasn't rampant grading a big reason why the collecting craze around their items crashed? I know part of it had to do with creating way too many variants, "limited editions" and essentially over saturating the collectors market, but I thought I remembered hearing graded items were a huge contributing factor.

Crashed? Trading cards and comics are selling at all-time highs just like everything else during the pandemic. Comics even longer than the pandemic due to Marvel movie mania

Now, sure.  But the late 90s, early 2000s collectible market is pretty much defined by the crash doom biking is describing.

[burningdoom]

Graded games are an enormous scam. Putting some plastic around it and slapping a number on it suddenly makes it worth 5x more...sure....

It's been a thing for a while in the world of comics and trading cards. I've never been one to do it, personally, but there's no denying the selling power graded items have in those markets. So I don't see why video games would be any different.

Wasn't rampant grading a big reason why the collecting craze around their items crashed? I know part of it had to do with creating way too many variants, "limited editions" and essentially over saturating the collectors market, but I thought I remembered hearing graded items were a huge contributing factor.

Crashed? Trading cards and comics are selling at all-time highs just like everything else during the pandemic. Comics even longer than the pandemic due to Marvel movie mania

Now, sure.  But the late 90s, early 2000s collectible market is pretty much defined by the crash doom is describing.

Yeah, then. But we're talking now.

As far as the 90s goes, I don't recall slabbing being a thing, then

[Cartagia]

Yeah, then. But we're talking now.

As far as the 90s goes, I don't recall slabbing being a thing, then

Mis-attributed the quote.  Biking was describing why the crash happened, and was accurate in their description.  You are talking about today afterwards, but their comment was about when things crashed, which I am reading as the late 90s, not today.

[burningdoom]

Yeah, then. But we're talking now.

As far as the 90s goes, I don't recall slabbing being a thing, then

Mis-attributed the quote.  Biking was describing why the crash happened, and was accurate in their description.  You are talking about today afterwards, but their comment was about when things crashed, which I am reading as the late 90s, not today.

Ok, gotcha.

But even then, no, slabbing comics wasn't a big thing then. What killed the aftermarket then was everything being advertised as collectible, gimmick covers like chromium and hologram covers every time a character sneezed, and non-readers buying up copies for investment only. The death of Superman being a big example.

That last part is certainly true, today, though. Way too many speculators getting in on the action but not into it as fans. However the market is so different, today. Comic movies and TV shows will make books suddenly spike to crazy values, then cool off again. And slabbing a book will double or triple it's value.

[sworddude]

No more than $10 for a graded card? I imagine you must not find many for that much. Doesn't it cost more than that to send it in to be graded?

when tcg's had way lower prices years ago even for magic the gathering grading costed around 7$ a card

Nowadays it's 50+ or way more for valuable items. Low end cards should still be relatively cheap although not 7$ cheap.

However depending on the popularity of said collectible them cheaper prices should definitely be still there. Logical considering otherwise nobody would use it.

[tripredacus]

No more than $10 for a graded card? I imagine you must not find many for that much. Doesn't it cost more than that to send it in to be graded?

Yes, $12 for Beckett and $18 for SGC. I have done three for Beckett and one for SGC.
I prefer to put cards into pages. I have only bought 1 graded card for $10, most I have got for $3. I have about a dozen of them.
There are also cards that were released only in graded form. The one I got for $10 was this type of release.

The thing is that prospecters and people looking for investments will send many cards in for grading, and when those players do not pan out or the cards are not actually valuable to begin with, it is common then to find graded cards being sold that are below the costs paid to get them graded in the first place.

[gummo]

In most cases the batteries in games anyway dry up so in most instances nothing would happen aside from save batteries etc being dead. if you have terrible luck than you can have simular scenario's as say xbox consoles in wich you get leaks.

I had a lithium button battery from a watch explode once . It was sitting on my wooden work bench waiting to be replaced , not shorting or anything . After that I don't totally trust them .

Did the explosion leave a mark on that work bench?

Nope , no burns or anything . I just noticed that the battery was missing , not on the bench anymore . Looked around the ground at the foot of the bench and found half of it and then found the other half across the room .

[leynos]

Don't do this shitty scam

[jipsy]

I almost always recommend not getting your items graded, too many stories of items getting "lost" or damaged while being shipped to/from the grading company.

[pzeke]

Grading is for schmucks! All of it is a complete and utter waste of time, money, space, energy and resources; there's no inherent benefit to any of it—it's all hokum. If you want to preserve and protect your sealed copy of Little Samson, then get an acrylic case for it. Or better yet, get some box protectors and you'll surely get the same results while spending less time and money.

Like the saying goes for almost everything out there: an item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. If people want to be this gullible and dumb for this type of market, then, in all honesty, fuck 'em; these will be the same people that will cry an ocean when the same capitalistic ways betray them, like when scalpers get stuck with hundreds of items they thought they could flip for triple their MSRP. It's how things work in the world we live in, whether we like them or not—hyperconsumerism has crippled many hobbies before, so it is what it is. While I'm at it, I can, quite frankly, see the point people make for grading other collectibles like comicbooks, trading cards, and even toys/figures, but overall I still consider grading those a waste equally given there are alternatives—cheaper, I might add—that will accomplish the same a cumbersome piece of plastic would. My two cents on the matter, of course.

But hell, there's really no "correct" way when it comes to collecting things, so I digress. To each their own, as they say. Yin and yang, my friends.

Below are a couple of articles and videos for further reference:
NintendoLife - Why getting your retro games graded could be a complete waste of money
Sports Collectors Digest - Special Care: Baseball HOF Says No to Slabbed Cards (Concerns sports cards, but it's still an interesting read about slabbing nonetheless.)
Karl Jobst - Exposing FRAUD And DECEPTION In The Retro Video Game Market
Karl Jobst - The Retro Video Game Scam Gets Worse...

[pzeke]

Here's a graded loose copy of Contra that's meme-worthy:



This individual spent $175 to have the game graded, with a wait time of 14 months no less. And here's the kicker: the game doesn't work.

All the ironic humor and satire aside, I think this more than exemplifies the superlative degree of nonsense and dishonesty that WATA deals with.

[leynos]

Scam. Open your games or give them to someone who wants to play them or it's just hoarding.

[sworddude]

I wouldn't say it's a scam. there is a market for it and it does increase the value with the correct things. that you could grade trash and lose money is all voluntary at the end of the day. it's like ordering a burger withouth the meat when you can alter the ingredients, ofcourse it's a bad deal at that point. they'll just process the order and charge you the same anyway

I don't like grading either, but even way back you had people paying for grading services on sealed games in which it was much cheaper aswell. aside from investors nowadays you do have some people that actually appreciate it hence why it exists. it's easy to ignore for us regular collectors anyway, especially with retro why buy a brand new factory sealed games anyway. way more pricy for pretty much an identical to excellent upwards condition used game.

I think however it's nice that it ain't like TCG. with videogames the core grading collectors stick with factory sealed games which is less than 1% of the entire thing let alone the people that would be interested in it. used grading will never take off I'd hope. it ain't for now anyway.

With TCG within pretty much the entire collecting scene grading is pretty much the standard and accepted with the exception of competitive but even within those high odds that they are into graded cards aswell, raw collecting is way less of a thing if where talking more serious collectors. videogames will most likely never be that way. because than the games would be unusable which ain't okay with most folks. games can be used cards not really. cards are more of a collectors thing to look at.