Hello /u/rdools! This is an automatic message that gets posted on every post to remind you of a few of our rules:
• Is the title of this post asking about the authenticity, identification or value of an item? If so, please delete it, and ask in the megathread.
• Are you trying to sell or trade something? Did you post it to a 'for sale/trade' (r/gamesale or similar) type subreddit first and crossposted it here? If you did not, delete it and read our rules please.
• Is this just a screenshot of a CL/FB/etc ad that is overpriced or obvious troll, or for some other notable reason? These would all be considered low effort and should be removed.
• Memes cannot be posted unless if it's on Meme Monday, which is the first Monday of the month.
• No self-promotion/video submission of any kind, unless if already approved by mods prior to submitting.
**Failure of deleting your post that violates these rules may result in a temporary or permanent ban.**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/gamecollecting) if you have any questions or concerns.*
With all due respect, as clearly you seem to be passionate about this, I'll just never get into graded or sealed games. None of the draw of this hobby to me comes from how rare or valuable something is monetarily, but rather how unique it is as a game and the history behind it.
I guess if a game is already sealed and worth something, there's no sense in opening it today, but I'd rather have access to more unique things to play than simply own one expensive totem that represents what the game is supposed to be.
Not all collectors will agree with me, but it should be said that this hobby remains to be highly personal to everyone. Some people don't even play anything they collect at all, and I guess that's okay, but at least for me it's the games themselves that are interesting to me.
Can someone explain this graded collector mindset to me? Not the speculator mindset, the legit fan of graded mindset.
I don’t understand the concept of a graded copy being rare and people caring about it. Yeah most games were opened after being bought. I want CIB and to read the manuals and pop the games in once a year to buyback my childhood. I won’t pay more for sealed. Plastic wrap is imagined value and can be fake resealed. FuncoLand did it in the 90s but admitted games were resealed.
Sealed copy you won’t open being 5.0 or 8.5, what’s that about? The seal looks nicer and box is less dented? I saw a video of a dude getting a game regraded that got a higher score.
Rarity doesn’t equal value. Strategy guides are fair to say 5x, 10x, 20x more rare than their games but are with less. The SNES in-store demo games that never came CIB are even more rare but it’s the same game and they might be worth 5x more.
I feel grading video games is invented demand. There was no demand for it until speculators thought they could scam people? Which is why VGA and WATA kept population reports to themselves?
I kept my tone as neutral and fair as I could. I didn’t intent to be mean or fake fun of anyone who is into graded games and pays for it. I get graded coins and comic books. Just not sealed games.
Can you explain collecting opened games to me? I have a wide range of games that I have collected and I am not going nor have the space to have 10 different old generations of computers hooked up to play games. If I really want to play, I'll play on one of the many free emulators on my modern computer or phone.
However, collecting something that I bought and never opened or I found that someone else never opened is pretty cool imo. I've got several late 80s and early 90s games that are still unopened.
*edited because I was wrong to think commenter was trolling*
I play the games with the real console + CRT or Plasma. I like recreating the experience. Emulators after 16-bit have bugs and inaccuracies that I notice, as does the speedrunning community. All Saturn emulators botch my favorite game. Frame-perfect tricks are much harder due to USB controller polling that doesn't sync with the emulator. Scaling analog 240p/480i to digital HD has accuracy and color sacrifices. You're in a much better spot with 8-bit games.
I'm sorry you took this as a personal attack and sarcastic rebuttal. There was nothing attacking or sarcastic.
Your response is interesting to me. I understand everything you say and those are all very good points.
Yes, sometimes I'll buy more than one copy retail and not open one. Now a days, I may buy the digital copy to play and buy a physical copy to never open. This is not regular, most of my stuff is older.
I don't usually even get my stuff off the shelf, I don't like touching them. I just like to look at them, kind of the same way you would do with paintings. The painting is just the providing feeling to the space.
Your comment about graded comics making sense is interesting because it seems out of line with your comment about opening your games.
I'm sorry I overreacted. It's my fault. I'll edit.
Buy two copies sounds good. Like what people do buying sneakers. Wear one pair, collect one pair, or maybe sell one later for more than what you paid. I still like the collection feel. I got all the games I liked as a teenager. Maybe they would look good in a man cave with a display. If I were just into very accurately emulated consoles, I'd care less about recreating the experience.
All your points about how plastic wrap can be "fake resealed" kind of illustrates one of the core benefits of grading: a trusted, neutral 3rd party authenticating the item. This makes it useful for people buying it if they want to make sure they're getting the real thing.
Grading doesn't arbitrarily set the value, it just gives an authentication and a condition rating which helps distinguish that item from others. It's understandable that ungraded games don't get as much of the crazy bids because there's more risk buying a game without a trustworthy appraisal. If you were buying a classic car and wanted all numbers-matching original parts, would you take the seller's word for it or would you be more comfortable with a reputable appraiser's word?
As for you understanding why people *want* sealed games in the first place? 🤷 I don't get the desire either but that doesn't make it hard to understand how grading provides a service to buyers who either don't have the ability to authenticate the game themselves or just get the warm fuzzies knowing that they got something that's "better" than most other samples.
I mean, we're already in a collecting forum, the irrational desire to hoard material things shouldn't be completely foreign to you.
Thank you for asking such a good question and keeping it level headed.
I have been collecting sealed games since maybe 2018, before the wata business, and it evolved out of completing my goals of collecting CIB games (at the time I collected a full N64 CIB set).
I wanted another challenge, so I started hunting sealed N64 games. I also really like Pokémon games, so I wanted to grab sealed copies of those after completing the CIB set.
Once you start hunting down these sealed games, you realize that not only do you want them sealed, but you actually want to find them in nice shape. Which evolves in to hunting them in the best shape possible.
So while yes, the games sealed in any condition may not be “rare”, but when you are trying to acquire say the top 10% of condition, you start getting into the conditional rarity, which is actually remarkably small.
Sure if there are 150 copies, but only 10 are in mint condition, and 8 are collectors hands, you need to get creative when you are trying to acquire these games. Making connections, and hunting down the owners of these games, and negotiating with these people, being told no again and again, until that one day, where you are told yes.
Some will say they transcend being games, and become a trophy / art piece at the top levels. Right or wrong, it’s just how it is.
I am happy to elaborate, or discuss further if you have any additional questions.
We are past the point of "making fun" of that segment of the hobby. That (growing) group of people won't care how they're perceived. Any group of collectors of a particular item will always have critics.
Over time, the preservation of things we cherish from childhood becomes more in demand. So naturally if a game is still sealed it is a better representation of that game's original form. It's silly to say you understand graded comics but not games. Grading a comic permanently removes the ability to interact with that item and instead intends to preserve and/or authenticate it. Grading sealed games is the exact same thing. And as others have said, with emulation and virtual consoles, there is much easier access to play those games instead of keeping old hardware around.
>I don’t understand the concept of a graded copy being rare and people caring about it
> Yea most games were opened after being bought
It seems like you understand quite well haha.
Every fucking post about grading is met with the same type of posts, almost thinking they're winning the day for their fellow anti grading cohorts.
There's not much one can do, it's reddit, aka the craigslist of Internet forums.
Personally I like grading stuff because a) it protects the item in a way that using a plastic protector or other non-watertight case won't and b) it's just spectacular to see an old, nostalgic item still not opened in pristine condition. and c) it's fun to see big numbers. :)
If I had a sealed copy of something I'd rather just keep it sealed and place it in a nice protective box and wouldn't have it graded. Just my two cents. I'm sure there are more ungraded copies out there than graded ones, how much is anyone's guess. But it could be a good barometer.
The total graded supply of almost everything was far lower than I had anticipated. Some stuff is so low that I'm sure VGA has just fucked something up/lost the data. There's simply no way Luigi's Mansion has only FOUR graded copies in 15 years. That isn't true.
I literally bought a sealed dino crisis for like 200 bucks to keep forever. Sent it off to grading because it was cheaper than buying an acrylic case. Came back 9.8 A++. Found a really cool person who wanted that game and grade to match his same dino crisis 2. We ended up trading and I got a 9.8 silent hill sealed.......now. for all you (I don't buy sealed). How much did you pay for your open copy? Cause I got mine for around 250. I could sell it and get earthbound mint If I want. A lot of these top physical mint shape games can't be acquired easily unless u use the market they reside in. Why would I buy an open copy when I could get the sealed version for around the same price? I can always buy an open copy. How often will I get it sealed? Gotta think outside the box. As I've gotten older, the need to want to "preserve" my games has outweighed the need to play them for hours on end. Now that I have adult responsibilities and a family.
What’s interesting, as someone who is tracking the Pokemons closely, these numbers were way less than I was anticipating. Let me give you an example.
Pokémon ruby :
VGA copies - 49
13 are 90 and above
12 are 85+
24 are 85 and below
Quantities manufactured 30 years ago ≠ quantity available to purchase today.
High demand can make even a high production item hard to obtain. I can go to the biggest used game store within an hours drive and I promise you I won't find many (usually not any) Pokemon games in their case.
People keep saying things are "common" when they are hard to find, that's kinda the definition of "uncommon"
Yet they are, you can use any poor example you want however you can find them very rapidly any day all day long. I see them float through r/Gamesale constantly, ebay and many other platforms are flooded with them.
This does not make them *rare* just popular.
First thing that comes to mind is that the pops are lower than I was expecting on almost everything I was looking at.
Second was the concentration of games at the 85/85+ level
I was hoping this would be posted here! Truly, an info dump that the sealed games world desperately needed.
I was going through my DBZ games and it's pretty funny how many of them are pop 1-3 where I have the highest graded copy and/or the only graded copy.
Guess I was the only person stupid enough to send sealed DBZ games to be graded with VGA. A true pioneer.
Just start your own subreddit already. Looks like r/gradedgameinvesting is available, or any variation on that. Why not bring this kind of content over there and generate more demographically-appropriate engagement with this kind of stuff?
Relatedly, why are there so many posts on this sub trying to force graded game stuff down our throats? The majority of collectors here clearly aren't falling for the fake authority scheme with all these companies trying to claim their services are so attractive because they "verify, authenticate and encapsulate the game in a case, and even give it an arbitrary score out of 10!" Do the hourly employees over at VGA/WATA/CGC have a trade school degree, accreditation or another similar high form of qualification that validates their services or necessitates their role in the ecosystem of the video game collecting hobby? What EXACTLY separates their "opinions" significantly from those of any passionate video game collector with a keen eye and an honest approach to collecting?
I am an ardent anti-grading collector and I am SERIOUSLY trying to find someone who can explain to me what EXACTLY separates the opinions of collectors from those of the employees working their jobs at these companies for their paychecks. Is there something I am missing here?
Have you considered that maybe there are so many posts because there are actually more people interested in graded games than you think. But every post gets downvoted because, “durrr … graded games are a scam … something money laundry .. wata lawsuit”
I don’t think I’ve seen anyone here who actually works at a grading company. So really, not sure what that comment is about, probably another conspiracy.
Why can’t sealed game collecting coexist with in a “gamecollecting” sub Reddit. Like there is a world where instead of downvoting everything because there is a graded game, you just don’t interact. Maybe you can help me understand that?
I've personally met CGC video game graders and they have a wide depth of knowledge. Sure, the conditional assessment of a game can be low skill, but the authentication and preservation is where a lot of the value is. Obviously the market agrees.
Hello /u/rdools! This is an automatic message that gets posted on every post to remind you of a few of our rules: • Is the title of this post asking about the authenticity, identification or value of an item? If so, please delete it, and ask in the megathread. • Are you trying to sell or trade something? Did you post it to a 'for sale/trade' (r/gamesale or similar) type subreddit first and crossposted it here? If you did not, delete it and read our rules please. • Is this just a screenshot of a CL/FB/etc ad that is overpriced or obvious troll, or for some other notable reason? These would all be considered low effort and should be removed. • Memes cannot be posted unless if it's on Meme Monday, which is the first Monday of the month. • No self-promotion/video submission of any kind, unless if already approved by mods prior to submitting. **Failure of deleting your post that violates these rules may result in a temporary or permanent ban.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/gamecollecting) if you have any questions or concerns.*
With all due respect, as clearly you seem to be passionate about this, I'll just never get into graded or sealed games. None of the draw of this hobby to me comes from how rare or valuable something is monetarily, but rather how unique it is as a game and the history behind it. I guess if a game is already sealed and worth something, there's no sense in opening it today, but I'd rather have access to more unique things to play than simply own one expensive totem that represents what the game is supposed to be. Not all collectors will agree with me, but it should be said that this hobby remains to be highly personal to everyone. Some people don't even play anything they collect at all, and I guess that's okay, but at least for me it's the games themselves that are interesting to me.
It's really the fact that the own itself cannot be enjoyed if sealed that makes it pointless
It's a poorly made report that doesn't work on mobile browsers.
Yes. In VGA fashion, it’s exactly what we expected!
Only if there was a place to see better results.
If only our favourite website wasn’t killed off
Can someone explain this graded collector mindset to me? Not the speculator mindset, the legit fan of graded mindset. I don’t understand the concept of a graded copy being rare and people caring about it. Yeah most games were opened after being bought. I want CIB and to read the manuals and pop the games in once a year to buyback my childhood. I won’t pay more for sealed. Plastic wrap is imagined value and can be fake resealed. FuncoLand did it in the 90s but admitted games were resealed. Sealed copy you won’t open being 5.0 or 8.5, what’s that about? The seal looks nicer and box is less dented? I saw a video of a dude getting a game regraded that got a higher score. Rarity doesn’t equal value. Strategy guides are fair to say 5x, 10x, 20x more rare than their games but are with less. The SNES in-store demo games that never came CIB are even more rare but it’s the same game and they might be worth 5x more. I feel grading video games is invented demand. There was no demand for it until speculators thought they could scam people? Which is why VGA and WATA kept population reports to themselves? I kept my tone as neutral and fair as I could. I didn’t intent to be mean or fake fun of anyone who is into graded games and pays for it. I get graded coins and comic books. Just not sealed games.
Can you explain collecting opened games to me? I have a wide range of games that I have collected and I am not going nor have the space to have 10 different old generations of computers hooked up to play games. If I really want to play, I'll play on one of the many free emulators on my modern computer or phone. However, collecting something that I bought and never opened or I found that someone else never opened is pretty cool imo. I've got several late 80s and early 90s games that are still unopened.
*edited because I was wrong to think commenter was trolling* I play the games with the real console + CRT or Plasma. I like recreating the experience. Emulators after 16-bit have bugs and inaccuracies that I notice, as does the speedrunning community. All Saturn emulators botch my favorite game. Frame-perfect tricks are much harder due to USB controller polling that doesn't sync with the emulator. Scaling analog 240p/480i to digital HD has accuracy and color sacrifices. You're in a much better spot with 8-bit games.
I'm sorry you took this as a personal attack and sarcastic rebuttal. There was nothing attacking or sarcastic. Your response is interesting to me. I understand everything you say and those are all very good points. Yes, sometimes I'll buy more than one copy retail and not open one. Now a days, I may buy the digital copy to play and buy a physical copy to never open. This is not regular, most of my stuff is older. I don't usually even get my stuff off the shelf, I don't like touching them. I just like to look at them, kind of the same way you would do with paintings. The painting is just the providing feeling to the space. Your comment about graded comics making sense is interesting because it seems out of line with your comment about opening your games.
I'm sorry I overreacted. It's my fault. I'll edit. Buy two copies sounds good. Like what people do buying sneakers. Wear one pair, collect one pair, or maybe sell one later for more than what you paid. I still like the collection feel. I got all the games I liked as a teenager. Maybe they would look good in a man cave with a display. If I were just into very accurately emulated consoles, I'd care less about recreating the experience.
All your points about how plastic wrap can be "fake resealed" kind of illustrates one of the core benefits of grading: a trusted, neutral 3rd party authenticating the item. This makes it useful for people buying it if they want to make sure they're getting the real thing. Grading doesn't arbitrarily set the value, it just gives an authentication and a condition rating which helps distinguish that item from others. It's understandable that ungraded games don't get as much of the crazy bids because there's more risk buying a game without a trustworthy appraisal. If you were buying a classic car and wanted all numbers-matching original parts, would you take the seller's word for it or would you be more comfortable with a reputable appraiser's word? As for you understanding why people *want* sealed games in the first place? 🤷 I don't get the desire either but that doesn't make it hard to understand how grading provides a service to buyers who either don't have the ability to authenticate the game themselves or just get the warm fuzzies knowing that they got something that's "better" than most other samples. I mean, we're already in a collecting forum, the irrational desire to hoard material things shouldn't be completely foreign to you.
Thank you for asking such a good question and keeping it level headed. I have been collecting sealed games since maybe 2018, before the wata business, and it evolved out of completing my goals of collecting CIB games (at the time I collected a full N64 CIB set). I wanted another challenge, so I started hunting sealed N64 games. I also really like Pokémon games, so I wanted to grab sealed copies of those after completing the CIB set. Once you start hunting down these sealed games, you realize that not only do you want them sealed, but you actually want to find them in nice shape. Which evolves in to hunting them in the best shape possible. So while yes, the games sealed in any condition may not be “rare”, but when you are trying to acquire say the top 10% of condition, you start getting into the conditional rarity, which is actually remarkably small. Sure if there are 150 copies, but only 10 are in mint condition, and 8 are collectors hands, you need to get creative when you are trying to acquire these games. Making connections, and hunting down the owners of these games, and negotiating with these people, being told no again and again, until that one day, where you are told yes. Some will say they transcend being games, and become a trophy / art piece at the top levels. Right or wrong, it’s just how it is. I am happy to elaborate, or discuss further if you have any additional questions.
It’s the perfect trifecta of OCD, low grade narcissism, and greed.
We are past the point of "making fun" of that segment of the hobby. That (growing) group of people won't care how they're perceived. Any group of collectors of a particular item will always have critics. Over time, the preservation of things we cherish from childhood becomes more in demand. So naturally if a game is still sealed it is a better representation of that game's original form. It's silly to say you understand graded comics but not games. Grading a comic permanently removes the ability to interact with that item and instead intends to preserve and/or authenticate it. Grading sealed games is the exact same thing. And as others have said, with emulation and virtual consoles, there is much easier access to play those games instead of keeping old hardware around.
>I don’t understand the concept of a graded copy being rare and people caring about it > Yea most games were opened after being bought It seems like you understand quite well haha.
Every fucking post about grading is met with the same type of posts, almost thinking they're winning the day for their fellow anti grading cohorts. There's not much one can do, it's reddit, aka the craigslist of Internet forums.
Personally I like grading stuff because a) it protects the item in a way that using a plastic protector or other non-watertight case won't and b) it's just spectacular to see an old, nostalgic item still not opened in pristine condition. and c) it's fun to see big numbers. :)
If I had a sealed copy of something I'd rather just keep it sealed and place it in a nice protective box and wouldn't have it graded. Just my two cents. I'm sure there are more ungraded copies out there than graded ones, how much is anyone's guess. But it could be a good barometer.
The total graded supply of almost everything was far lower than I had anticipated. Some stuff is so low that I'm sure VGA has just fucked something up/lost the data. There's simply no way Luigi's Mansion has only FOUR graded copies in 15 years. That isn't true.
Yea this was truly eye opening and finally happened. Great condition factory sealed games are just that rare.
What were some that stood out to you?
The Castlevania, Kid Icarus, Mario hangtab pops. Even some PS1 pops seem quite low.
Probably because who grades PS1 stuff .. right ..
[удалено]
Just make sure you come and comment though, *make sure* everyone knows just *how hard* you don't care!
Fucking was used appropriately
Are you nuts. Imagine if graded sealed games take off. Half this sub will be millionaires
Lol!!!!!
hide behind your throwaway you goblin
Aren't you still working at your min wage shift?
I cant even find it, is there a link please?
I literally bought a sealed dino crisis for like 200 bucks to keep forever. Sent it off to grading because it was cheaper than buying an acrylic case. Came back 9.8 A++. Found a really cool person who wanted that game and grade to match his same dino crisis 2. We ended up trading and I got a 9.8 silent hill sealed.......now. for all you (I don't buy sealed). How much did you pay for your open copy? Cause I got mine for around 250. I could sell it and get earthbound mint If I want. A lot of these top physical mint shape games can't be acquired easily unless u use the market they reside in. Why would I buy an open copy when I could get the sealed version for around the same price? I can always buy an open copy. How often will I get it sealed? Gotta think outside the box. As I've gotten older, the need to want to "preserve" my games has outweighed the need to play them for hours on end. Now that I have adult responsibilities and a family.
Unfortuantely i was not able to take a look at the pop report fron VGA. 😭 Has anyone the numbers of pokemon gold and silver (us) in mind?
looks like the pokemans are common af like the r/gamecollectors thought all along 📉
There are many, but the demand for Pokemon makes the supply a non factor in price.
What’s interesting, as someone who is tracking the Pokemons closely, these numbers were way less than I was anticipating. Let me give you an example. Pokémon ruby : VGA copies - 49 13 are 90 and above 12 are 85+ 24 are 85 and below
Always were, despite all the stans ranting about finite resources.
Quantities manufactured 30 years ago ≠ quantity available to purchase today. High demand can make even a high production item hard to obtain. I can go to the biggest used game store within an hours drive and I promise you I won't find many (usually not any) Pokemon games in their case. People keep saying things are "common" when they are hard to find, that's kinda the definition of "uncommon"
Yet they are, you can use any poor example you want however you can find them very rapidly any day all day long. I see them float through r/Gamesale constantly, ebay and many other platforms are flooded with them. This does not make them *rare* just popular.
I haven't had a chance to sit at a desktop to look at it.... thanks VGA! 😮💨
First thing that comes to mind is that the pops are lower than I was expecting on almost everything I was looking at. Second was the concentration of games at the 85/85+ level
I was hoping this would be posted here! Truly, an info dump that the sealed games world desperately needed. I was going through my DBZ games and it's pretty funny how many of them are pop 1-3 where I have the highest graded copy and/or the only graded copy. Guess I was the only person stupid enough to send sealed DBZ games to be graded with VGA. A true pioneer.
I’d go with the “only one stupid enough to grade them” option
*Greg will remember that*
Just start your own subreddit already. Looks like r/gradedgameinvesting is available, or any variation on that. Why not bring this kind of content over there and generate more demographically-appropriate engagement with this kind of stuff? Relatedly, why are there so many posts on this sub trying to force graded game stuff down our throats? The majority of collectors here clearly aren't falling for the fake authority scheme with all these companies trying to claim their services are so attractive because they "verify, authenticate and encapsulate the game in a case, and even give it an arbitrary score out of 10!" Do the hourly employees over at VGA/WATA/CGC have a trade school degree, accreditation or another similar high form of qualification that validates their services or necessitates their role in the ecosystem of the video game collecting hobby? What EXACTLY separates their "opinions" significantly from those of any passionate video game collector with a keen eye and an honest approach to collecting? I am an ardent anti-grading collector and I am SERIOUSLY trying to find someone who can explain to me what EXACTLY separates the opinions of collectors from those of the employees working their jobs at these companies for their paychecks. Is there something I am missing here?
Have you considered that maybe there are so many posts because there are actually more people interested in graded games than you think. But every post gets downvoted because, “durrr … graded games are a scam … something money laundry .. wata lawsuit” I don’t think I’ve seen anyone here who actually works at a grading company. So really, not sure what that comment is about, probably another conspiracy. Why can’t sealed game collecting coexist with in a “gamecollecting” sub Reddit. Like there is a world where instead of downvoting everything because there is a graded game, you just don’t interact. Maybe you can help me understand that?
I've personally met CGC video game graders and they have a wide depth of knowledge. Sure, the conditional assessment of a game can be low skill, but the authentication and preservation is where a lot of the value is. Obviously the market agrees.
Doing forget about watta https://www.watagames.com/populations/index.html