How much does a grading a CIB affect the value of a game?

[LutherDestroysTheGond | 690]

I recently acquired a CIB Magical Chase and trying to value for insurance purposes.  Mine is ungraded, with average wear to the box and HuCard.  Manual has one word written on it but otherwise in great shape.  No idea on a grade an honestly not interested in grading.  Turbografx tapes were meant to be played!  I know what I gave up to get it in trade and the rough $ amount there.  

So in looking for insurance, the (only) most recent sold auction for a complete Magical Chase was a graded copy with a 9.0 grade: link

I am not one to dabble in grades (and not trying to start a debate about it) and am not sure if the 9.0 grade adds significant value to a CIB copy.  I know in comics and cards and sealed games, a 0.1 difference can mean a material change in value.  I am not sure how or even if these recent sale would apply to valuing my copy or other ungraded CIB copies.  Normally I'd look at other sold listings but there aren't any others and pricecharting is not accurate in the sales it captured for pricing historically.  Any insight would be helpful on if the graded copy is a good benchmark in this instance or if I should look into other methods.  

[a3quit4s | 4,103]

Putting it up against a graded copy probably won’t help your case here because as you said no one can really know what it would grade for. Plus we all know prices are somewhat driven up by speculation for graded anything. You’ll probably want to document what you traded and what you value that at with a lot of documentation/data points on how you came up with that value. 
 

If you are covering that under homeowners there has been a lot of talk about even if you had all the data in the world, your insurance probably wouldn’t give you even close to what you paid for it or traded for it. I’m fairly certain if you are that concerned a 3rd party insurance that specifically covers collectibles is recommended. 
 

Collecting games that rarely ever sell are dangerous from an insurance perspective because there really is no way to ascertain the true cost of a collectible that never sells. Plus we know as a market game prices can change with the release of a YouTube video or social media post. 
 

As always, my two cents, do what you think is best for you

Edited July 5, 2023 by a3quit4s

[Code Monkey | 2,011]

Grading a game doesn't add any value, you're simply putting it inside a plastic case.

However, if you want to value yours at the same level as this 9.0, you would have to grade it at a 9.0. If it grades lower, then you would need to adjust the value accordingly and you can submit that to insurance.

[LutherDestroysTheGond | 690]

25 minutes ago, Code Monkey said:

Grading a game doesn't add any value, you're simply putting it inside a plastic case.

However, if you want to value yours at the same level as this 9.0, you would have to grade it at a 9.0. If it grades lower, then you would need to adjust the value accordingly and you can submit that to insurance.

Yeah I know what grading is but does the 9.0 materially increase the perceived value compared to an lightly worn / average worn ungraded CIB copy? 

You said I could adjust the value accordingly with a lower grade, I guess that's what I'm getting at.  Is a 9.0 some super high grade that is normally like 1.5x-2x a regular/average CIB value? Or is it only marginally more?  Can I just shave off x% from this sale as a fair value?  Or is it just not apples to apples in this instance and I just ignore this sale and wait for another ungraded CIB? 

I don't follow graded stuff at all so is like a 9.0 a mint copy or lightly worn? I have no clue

[a3quit4s | 4,103]

19 minutes ago, LutherDestroysTheGond said:

Yeah I know what grading is but does the 9.0 materially increase the perceived value compared to an lightly worn / average worn ungraded CIB copy? 

You said I could adjust the value accordingly with a lower grade, I guess that's what I'm getting at.  Is a 9.0 some super high grade that is normally like 1.5x-2x a regular/average CIB value? Or is it only marginally more?  Can I just shave off x% from this sale as a fair value?  Or is it just not apples to apples in this instance and I just ignore this sale and wait for another ungraded CIB? 

I don't follow graded stuff at all so is like a 9.0 a mint copy or lightly worn? I have no clue

I still think being caught up on what a graded one sold for or even any ungraded copy sold for is a fools errand. Insurance is only going to care about what you paid for it from what I’ve heard. 
 

edit: ok maybe the sale of an ungraded one would help your case with valuing it since you did trade items rather than give up cash

edit: I mean it’s pure speculation on my part. Plus I’m in NY and probably have a different insurance carrier than you. My mother in law worked for an insurance company forever and her advice was to call your agent and get their advice on how they value video games because they aren’t really considered collectibles from an insurance standpoint. Probably the best advice lol

Edited July 5, 2023 by a3quit4s

[JVOSS | 1,762]

my two cents.

you comparing a Shelby mustang to a factory mustang not even in the same market.

The one you are "comparing" to is a SEALED Magical Chase.  the key word is "SEALED". 

A "SEALED" anything "GRADED" is a value adder.  I'm assuming yours is not "SEALED" and therefore valued at half if not less then half of what is shown. 

If that is not the case and your's is "SEALED" then i'd take a 20% off if not more. 

The values added comes from your reputation in the "Graded" games sellers market.

we deal with this type of valuation in the Gameboy market.  Form graded to cart only.  The more your known the better price you get... 

 

 

[a3quit4s | 4,103]

9 minutes ago, JVOSS said:

my two cents.

you comparing a Shelby mustang to a factory mustang not even in the same market.

The one you are "comparing" to is a SEALED Magical Chase.  the key word is "SEALED". 

A "SEALED" anything "GRADED" is a value adder.  I'm assuming yours is not "SEALED" and therefore valued at half if not less then half of what is shown. 

If that is not the case and your's is "SEALED" then i'd take a 20% off if not more. 

The values added comes from your reputation in the "Graded" games sellers market.

we deal with this type of valuation in the Gameboy market.  Form graded to cart only.  The more your known the better price you get... 

 

 

That was a Wata CIB, I still can’t believe they grade CIB but here we are

[Code Monkey | 2,011]

1 hour ago, LutherDestroysTheGond said:

Yeah I know what grading is but does the 9.0 materially increase the perceived value compared to an lightly worn / average worn ungraded CIB copy? 

You said I could adjust the value accordingly with a lower grade, I guess that's what I'm getting at.  Is a 9.0 some super high grade that is normally like 1.5x-2x a regular/average CIB value? Or is it only marginally more?  Can I just shave off x% from this sale as a fair value?  Or is it just not apples to apples in this instance and I just ignore this sale and wait for another ungraded CIB? 

I don't follow graded stuff at all so is like a 9.0 a mint copy or lightly worn? I have no clue

Good luck getting 9.0, I submitted a very nice Super Mario Bros. 3 and it came back 7.5 so I don't know how people are getting those grades. If yours is average wear, it's probably a 7 or 7.5 which would be magnitudes lower in value. There's no harm in sending it to be graded, they provide exactly the service you're looking for in this situation.......to assign a value to your game. Why not send it?

[DefaultGen | 5,413]

I think you have two opposing forces here: The rarest games typically warrant the lowest graded premiums and this is a near mint game that probably did warrant a big premium. I would personally try to find more comparable, older sales data than to try to extrapolate this sale downwards. It just takes one crazy underbidder to make the market for something super niche like this if they decided they'd die without one of the nicest MC's in the world.

[LutherDestroysTheGond | 690]

2 hours ago, JVOSS said:

my two cents.

you comparing a Shelby mustang to a factory mustang not even in the same market.

The one you are "comparing" to is a SEALED Magical Chase.  the key word is "SEALED". 

A "SEALED" anything "GRADED" is a value adder.  I'm assuming yours is not "SEALED" and therefore valued at half if not less then half of what is shown. 

If that is not the case and your's is "SEALED" then i'd take a 20% off if not more. 

The values added comes from your reputation in the "Graded" games sellers market.

we deal with this type of valuation in the Gameboy market.  Form graded to cart only.  The more your known the better price you get... 

 

 

The one I linked to is a graded CIB.  I know a sealed game like this would likely sell for orders of magnitude more than a CIB copy.  I just don't k iw what kind of weight people give graded CIBs since the whole graded thing is silly to me.  

Maybe I named the thread poorly as I don't think grading adds value, just trying to compare to regular ass stuff that I usually buy, i.e. CIB games.  

My takeaway is that insuring this game / my collection will be a pain regardless and that a dumb graded CIB copy isn't apples to apples with a regular CIB copy.  Hard to gauge value with past sales data as a lot of loose and HuCard w/ manual onky copies are captured by pricecharting for this title.  

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

Some decent graded CIBs on heritage sell for less what you can get them for on ebay, ungraded. Mainly for disc based systems however. 
 

 

[Kguillemette | 1,545]

I don't see the point in graded CIB unless it's to authenticate a particularly rare game or another similarly expensive game commonly sold as a reproduction or the like.

[jonebone | 1,307]

I'd estimate yours around $15k based on what you describe.  But putting down a value is just a swag, it would be a whole extra argument if you had to "prove" it and try to get an insurance payout.  That's the part that is impossible to "prove".