Weekly Poll 4/10/08 - Video Game Authority Grading

[Tan]

From Gamesniped:

If you’re unfamiliar with the VGA (Video Game Authority) or grading in general, here’s what you need to know. When you get something graded, you pay a fee (Roughly $25.00 from what I understand for the VGA) to a company which uses their own set of standards to grade a collectible and then seal it in a plastic “slab” that is tamper evident. If the outer “slab” is ever opened or tampered with, the grade becomes invalid.

Original article:
http://www.gamesniped.com...ga-graded-games-hit-ebay/

A lot of hate around the forums for this new service and understandably so. Let's hope this dies out or is restricted to mostly sealed games only. Once Mario/Duck Hunt starts popping up for $30 loose with a grade, that will signal the end of collecting as we know it on eBay.

[phoenix1967]

This is probably one of the toughest poll questions we've ever had.

Pro grading was the death nail in the coffin of Baseball Cards, a hobby I enjoyed up until the time pro grading started (late 1980's). Imo every hobby that has ever gone to "professional" grading has been tainted in some way. I've seen it in baseball cards, comic books, Collectible Card Games, etc. They became a shell of what they once were.

The real pisser to the whole thing for our hobby is for sealed games. Why do they have to be graded at all? THEY'RE FUCKING SEALED! So the only value a professional grading service has it so say "Yup. They're sealed. $25 please.". FUCK 'EM! Yes, you will have those that try to scam with sealing equipment, but it's always been a "buyer beware" market in that regard and professional grading won't change that.

This is bad for collectors.

Gamers, on the other hand, probably won't care so much. We want to play. But it could enventually unfortunately beg the question of "Do I really want to open *this* game?". 

[NES_Rules]

I doubt the people at garage sales and the flea market will start having stuff graded, so it won't really affect me directly. But I still think it's a stupid idea. From what I understand, the games are "slabbed" meaning they're sealed away in plastic forever. WTF is the point of that, games are to be played. Some of the more valuable games out there now aren't rare, but demand a high price, because they are such fun games.

[Tynstar]

I wanted to vote on a few different ones but I just went with damn this is bad. Not that eBay was all that good of a source for cheap games anymore unless you bought bulk lots.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

DAMN GOD IT

[OatBob]

Just another thing for people to clean out the garage sale bins and resell them because it is an undeniable fact that every single NES game ever made is OMG RARE!!!

Kids these days must think Rare must have made a lot of games because they're listed on every e(vil)Bay auction these days.

Now is probably the last good time to buy stuff, because once digital distribution becomes all the rage, all the old time collectors will go nuts over the old stuff.  Then again, I'm surprised Sega stuff didn't take off after they quit the hardware market, and the N64, despite being the last cart-based system, doesn't get much credit from collectors.

[TraderJake]

As I posted on Kotaku:

The big question for the VGA is going to have to be "are game collectors willing to buy in to the rating system". One can buy a video game from many more places than eBay, and there is absolutely no guarantee that the "hardcore" collectors will bite on this prospect. A quick survey of some collecting websites shows that many game collectors are cursing this development.

Personally, I see this as some person or group trying to make a quick buck in what is currently an honor system of buying. I don't see collectors buying into this system, and if this does actually become the predominant system of grading on eBay there will still be thrift stores, garage sales, and other auction sites where game collectors can buy their loot. Sure, VGA may get the naive collector or the average gamer, but I find it hard to believe that the collecting community as a whole will buy into this development.

[Sauza12]

The funny thing about this is a year or so ago I was talking about doing this with a friend of mine.  He is a baseball card/comic book seller and was talking about sending out some of his more valuble games out to get graded.  We went back and forth for a while about doing the same thing for video games since as far as we knew that service wasn't available for video games.

The thing that got me off of that idea is that 95% of video games simply aren't worth that much.  The only exception is for sealed games, but that market is already insane enough.

[Tan]

Here's a couple potential side effects if this takes off:

1. Who's to say they'll stop at sealed games? Loose carts, paraphernalia, posters, strategy guides, sealed hardware, where does the line draw? There's only 1 seller right now who just happens to have sealed games, so the sky's the limit for everyone else.

2. Many game stores and flea market vendors use ebay prices as a loose guide in determining the value of their games. If the prices of sealed games or CIB ones rise as a result of the $25 fee + the grading itself, it raises the mean average these sellers calculate.

3. Reseals have always been a problem for collectors. If these folks at VGA don't have plenty of experience or expertise in picking out the reseals from the genuine sealed originals, there will be a flood of graded games with common or sports carts stuck in them. Since the "tamper proof" packaging is a part of the grading process, one seller buying a graded game from another may sell it to a gamer who intends to open it. If it is a reseal, there's a whole chain of people who got screwed over and a ton of doubt rises as to the authenticity of all the other sealed graded games from VGA. It'll only take one brave soul to open one and one reseal found to tarnish the reputation of any graded game. Unlike cards you can't actually see what's inside, and how many of us are experts at picking out reseals even with an online guide at hand?

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Cards and comics are a whole other world as opposed to games, where what's inside the box is as important as what's on the outside of the box. It'll also be a real shame if investments in games fall because of the whole graded versus non-graded market like sports card have. I think it was DP where I had seen 2 links to two exact baseball cards, the graded one was worth $400 and the non graded less than $50.

[Sirgin]

This is rediculous! "Oh look, I have a sealed Dreamcast!" "I don't know whether there's a brick inside or the actual thing, but BOY, it's sealed!"

I'm still pretty new to the actual "collecting" of games so my opinion might change in the future, but I don't really care about the box of a game (unless of course it's a CD/DVD game), cartridge is good enough for me.