The case of the justified Qualified

[GPX | 1,415]

Your honor, I bring to your attention a concerning issue of VGA Qualified grading being the laughing stock of the sealed collecting community. I hereby would like to present a case using Exhibit A to showcase an ethical dilemma which needs urgent (not really) attention. The game in question is Mortal Kombat, Pal version for the Sega Megadrive, in factory sealed blister form. When purchased by the recent owner, it was damaged during transit due to poor packaging.

Exhibit A:

Not a bad looker from first glance, but we delve further and what do we see?

Detailed examination yields:

- damage to both lower corners of the blister seal.

- at the back, the left edge has a damaged area with a piece of the edge torn off.

- the said piece of edge has displaced itself into a mid-portion at the back, between the actual game and the blister seal.

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So now I bring your attention to Exhibit B, a potential outcome if the seal was broken and it then gets graded as "Qualified" under the VGA grading system.

Exhibit B:

Your honor, I await your final verdict. (see poll)

[Startyde | 180]

Was the game factory sealed under the blister? If not the conversation is irrelevant, it was never a sealed game. 

[GPX | 1,415]

2 hours ago, Startyde said:

Was the game factory sealed under the blister? If not the conversation is irrelevant, it was never a sealed game. 

The game case itself was not sealed with cellophane. It was however sealed with the blister which has the official Acclaim logo at the top of the blister pack. 

Not sure why the conversation is irrelevant if there is a factory seal (blister pack) and the outcome is a “Qualified”? 

Edited February 9, 2020 by GPX

[Startyde | 180]

4 hours ago, GPX said:

The game case itself was not sealed with cellophane. It was however sealed with the blister which has the official Acclaim logo at the top of the blister pack. 

Not sure why the conversation is irrelevant if there is a factory seal (blister pack) and the outcome is a “Qualified”? 

I suppose it's subjective but I don't consider a blister to be the conventional definition of sealed, unless that game in that region was never sealed besides a blister. That in an of itself makes a huge difference. A sealed game opened from a blister would be labelled U, not Q.

[GPX | 1,415]

On 2/10/2020 at 11:07 AM, Startyde said:

I suppose it's subjective but I don't consider a blister to be the conventional definition of sealed, unless that game in that region was never sealed besides a blister. That in an of itself makes a huge difference. A sealed game opened from a blister would be labelled U, not Q.

This version of blister seal was specific to certain Pal countries, I believe mainly in France. For the MK game, I think it only came with the blister seal and no extra seals around the game case.

I would have thought so too with the U grade, but it ended up as a Q. I didn’t specifically ask why that was. Maybe the game should have come with a cellophane /sticker seal? Or my main guess is that the damage from the blister made the game exposed from the outside elements (eg. dust, moisture) and can no longer be regarded as “U”?