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WATA Turnaround Times?


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WATA service right now is horrific to be honest. Got a speedrun order from september sitting on post grading for 3 months right now( gameboy games, so the ps2 cases excuse is not valid), another speedrun service from october also on postgrading for 2 months, and Im retard so submitted 2 more games last month and has been on scanned (it took them 2 weeks to scan them) since then. They dont even grade them fast as they used to do. 

They seem to be completely overloaded and dont know what to think, they should do like PSA did and cancel any new submissions that are not top tier payment but they clearly wont do that.

How is VGA returning time now? I got a few more games id like to grade but not making the same mistake again

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19 hours ago, iLikePssys said:

WATA service right now is horrific to be honest. Got a speedrun order from september sitting on post grading for 3 months right now( gameboy games, so the ps2 cases excuse is not valid), another speedrun service from october also on postgrading for 2 months, and Im retard so submitted 2 more games last month and has been on scanned (it took them 2 weeks to scan them) since then. They dont even grade them fast as they used to do. 

They seem to be completely overloaded and dont know what to think, they should do like PSA did and cancel any new submissions that are not top tier payment but they clearly wont do that.

How is VGA returning time now? I got a few more games id like to grade but not making the same mistake again

VGA turnaround time is absolutely terrible too and when I asked about it all they said was

"oUr WeBsItE sAyS 6 pLuS mOnThS"

even though it says 5. And that plus sign after the 5 means infinity, so they are just as bad as Wata but for some reason avoiding all the heat for it. I'll be celebrating my 1 year anniversary on my order with them in 2 more weeks.

Edited by Gulag Joe
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Can somebody explain the process of grading a game? How long does it take a grader to grade a single game?  how many games is a grader grading per day?  How many graders are there? I realize it depends on the company. 
 

I know these companies are getting slammed, but I’m having a hard time conceptualizing how a game can take 6 months to a year to be graded.  Do these companies have to rent a warehouse to store all the backlog of games to be graded? I have so many questions about this whole process.

 

 

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12 hours ago, iLikePssys said:

WATA service right now is horrific to be honest. Got a speedrun order from september sitting on post grading for 3 months right now( gameboy games, so the ps2 cases excuse is not valid), another speedrun service from october also on postgrading for 2 months, and Im retard so submitted 2 more games last month and has been on scanned (it took them 2 weeks to scan them) since then. They dont even grade them fast as they used to do. 

They seem to be completely overloaded and dont know what to think, they should do like PSA did and cancel any new submissions that are not top tier payment but they clearly wont do that.

How is VGA returning time now? I got a few more games id like to grade but not making the same mistake again

Not sure what others are on about but premium orders are taking about 4 months. My last order was almost exactly that amount. Just sent in a bunch more games so we’ll see if they also take that long. Shipped mid august, got back last week.

VGAs turnaround is fair considering the climate of orders.

Edited by inasuma
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1 hour ago, final fight cd said:

Can somebody explain the process of grading a game? How long does it take a grader to grade a single game?  how many games is a grader grading per day?  How many graders are there? I realize it depends on the company. 
 

I know these companies are getting slammed, but I’m having a hard time conceptualizing how a game can take 6 months to a year to be graded.  Do these companies have to rent a warehouse to store all the backlog of games to be graded? I have so many questions about this whole process.

 

 

You’re in the right ball park. Essentially, the games arrive and orders are scanned in (wata scans, vga just confirms receipt). 

the orders enter a queue and some number of graders go through them in order. Wata has at least three graders (according to LinkedIn). No idea about vga.

The main issue varies by company. Watas issue is post-grading. Their pipeline of QA and encapsulation is inefficient and made worse by supply shortages (they order prefabricated parts). So a game could be graded within the advertised turnaround, but it won’t be shipped back for months.

VGA however has an enormous backlog at the front of the process as opposed to post-grading. Luckily they build their own cases in-house so post-grading delays are minimal. VGA has opted to stop all tiers except the highest two (premium and archival), and dedicate 50% of their time to the backlog. So the time for a grader to even see the game is 2-3x longer compared to wata.

so all this is to say, no matter which path is taken, the games sit around for a long time. lol

Edited by inasuma
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Btw someone told me yesterday that after 11 months he just received his PS2 games from Wata.  Wata customer service replied me last week that they "still dont get the DVD parts" and they don´t have a an estimated time. I believe they already have the DVD parts but they don´t have enough parts to fulfill all the orders... 

Edited by Mijael
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6 minutes ago, Mijael said:

Btw someone told me yesterday that after 11 months he just received his PS2 games from Wata.  Wata customer service replied me last week that they "still dont get the DVD parts" and they don´t have a an estimated time. I believe they already have the DVD parts but they don´t have enough parts to fulfill all the orders... 

Most likely.  And don't forget, if you didn't pay for the highest tier of service, there's every likelihood that people who paid more but submitted stuff much, much, much later can and will receive their stuff long before you do.  Yay transparency!

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7 hours ago, darkchylde28 said:

Most likely.  And don't forget, if you didn't pay for the highest tier of service, there's every likelihood that people who paid more but submitted stuff much, much, much later can and will receive their stuff long before you do.  Yay transparency!

Agree and probably the people who pay more get better grades from time to time

Edited by Mijael
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13 hours ago, Gulag Joe said:

100% fake news. As I said in my previous comment, I'm two weeks away from one year waiting on a premium order that advertised a stated turnaround time of 21 days.

There will always be edge cases and horror stories. Sorry you've had such bad luck. 😕

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I feel as if the wait time just gets worse and worse. I’ve been wanting to send in a pair of first print zeldas for nes but I can’t bring myself to do it. Also by my calculations and their site it would be $170 for speed run and then add $125 for warp zone, so $295 per game? Seems pretty ludicrous to grade something where you don’t have to wait 4-6 months to get it back if the addition even works.

I’ve never graded anything and this would be my first submissions but I just can’t see them being on some random shelf floating around in their warehouse for six months.

Makes me wonder how games don’t get mixed up, also hesitant on if there’s a possibility of something intentionally being swapped out, say having a super mint cart and them subbing in a slightly lesser one and you really not being able to tell. Just some reasons I have held off on grading since they’re cib and not sealed so more chance for these things to happen in my opinion.

Does the warp zone add on even help with turnaround times or do you still just get it in 4-6 months for the speed run anyways?

Edited by Goodvibes
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52 minutes ago, Goodvibes said:

I feel as if the wait time just gets worse and worse. I’ve been wanting to send in a pair of first print zeldas for nes but I can’t bring myself to do it. Also by my calculations and their site it would be $170 for speed run and then add $125 for warp zone, so $295 per game? Seems pretty ludicrous to grade something where you don’t have to wait 4-6 months to get it back if the addition even works.

I’ve never graded anything and this would be my first submissions but I just can’t see them being on some random shelf floating around in their warehouse for six months.

Makes me wonder how games don’t get mixed up, also hesitant on if there’s a possibility of something intentionally being swapped out, say having a super mint cart and them subbing in a slightly lesser one and you really not being able to tell. Just some reasons I have held off on grading since they’re cib and not sealed so more chance for these things to happen in my opinion.

Does the warp zone add on even help with turnaround times or do you still just get it in 4-6 months for the speed run anyways?

If you have 2 first print Zeldas for NES you won't be paying $295 per game, you could be paying $2,000 or more per game depending on the condition of the games. High grade CIB might be costly.

Edited by Gulag Joe
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Ughh what? Really? I mean I’m no grader by any means, they’re not gems but I would guesstimate 7.5 or 8’s overall. They’re solid copies but I doubt I would have any sharks knocking down my door for them.

If that’s correct I won’t be getting them graded. It’s more to build a best and second best copy, quite honestly. I don’t do any sort of grading, I just had plans to sell/trade off the lesser copy for some hangtabs or higher end nes cibs or carts I needed.

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1 hour ago, Goodvibes said:

Ughh what? Really? I mean I’m no grader by any means, they’re not gems but I would guesstimate 7.5 or 8’s overall. They’re solid copies but I doubt I would have any sharks knocking down my door for them.

If that’s correct I won’t be getting them graded. It’s more to build a best and second best copy, quite honestly. I don’t do any sort of grading, I just had plans to sell/trade off the lesser copy for some hangtabs or higher end nes cibs or carts I needed.

If they're in the 8 range then you should be ok on the regular grading prices

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9 hours ago, Goodvibes said:

I feel as if the wait time just gets worse and worse. I’ve been wanting to send in a pair of first print zeldas for nes but I can’t bring myself to do it. Also by my calculations and their site it would be $170 for speed run and then add $125 for warp zone, so $295 per game? Seems pretty ludicrous to grade something where you don’t have to wait 4-6 months to get it back if the addition even works.

I’ve never graded anything and this would be my first submissions but I just can’t see them being on some random shelf floating around in their warehouse for six months.

Makes me wonder how games don’t get mixed up, also hesitant on if there’s a possibility of something intentionally being swapped out, say having a super mint cart and them subbing in a slightly lesser one and you really not being able to tell. Just some reasons I have held off on grading since they’re cib and not sealed so more chance for these things to happen in my opinion.

Does the warp zone add on even help with turnaround times or do you still just get it in 4-6 months for the speed run anyways?

Warp zone is the only return even remotely close to its estimate 

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