WATA Turnaround Times?

[YOURTURN | 1,256]

16 hours ago, A_Feisty_Pickle said:

Looks like turnaround estimates have grown again. Also they seem to be no longer taking Warp speed? 

At this point I might as well use this video as a substitute to how I should be responding. Because let's face it -- It's no longer surprising.

 

[AdamW | 713]

I'm just really curious to see what happens to the market when the flood of SUPER RARE GRADED COPIES really starts to hit in the next few weeks...

(Ditto for trading cards. Vice had an article on that yesterday -https://www.vice.com/en/article/7kv9a9/pokemon-cards-psa-cgc-bgs-turnaround-times - which while interesting, didn't seem to examine the inherent contradiction in the grading service for things that are valuable because they're "rare" being flooded with over half a million submissions every week...)

[RH | 4,897]

Man, I'd love to see a photo of their backlog warehouse. I bet it's MASSIVE and would shock most of us.

Love WATA or hate them, they did an amazing job building a market on grading games.

[Gulag Joe | 582]

I will be surprised to discover there are hundreds of sealed PS1 Resident Evil Long Box games getting graded. I've been searching for one of those for two decades and have never found a single sealed copy. Found quite a few nice CIB but never any sealed. If anyone on VGS has actually seen one of these White Buffalos, please let me know.

[tbone3969 | 304]

35 minutes ago, Gulag Joe said:

I will be surprised to discover there are hundreds of sealed PS1 Resident Evil Long Box games getting graded. I've been searching for one of those for two decades and have never found a single sealed copy. Found quite a few nice CIB but never any sealed. If anyone on VGS has actually seen one of these White Buffalos, please let me know.

Yeah I bet that one is likely to not have any sealed copies in existence.  I mean didn't they go to jewel cases shortly after release?  Who would have bought that game at launch and kept it sealed?

[avoin | 24]

24 minutes ago, Gulag Joe said:

I will be surprised to discover there are hundreds of sealed PS1 Resident Evil Long Box games getting graded. I've been searching for one of those for two decades and have never found a single sealed copy. Found quite a few nice CIB but never any sealed. If anyone on VGS has actually seen one of these White Buffalos, please let me know.

That is an intense one huh. Even price charting only has 2 sold in 2017 and it sold for 2500 even then lol. Didn't realize how rare it actually was.

Been considering seeking out a starcraft 64 sealed, of course that one seems relatively uncommon as well. maybe a couple pop up a year?

 

Going to be interesting to see the population reports when they inevitably drop one of these years. Annoys me that they haven't released them yet, the reasoning i've heard is grading is generally front loaded and it will make certain rarer games seem more common when compared to actually more common games just because the numbers are smaller.

 

Which sure, i guess. But when people are throwing 30-40 grand at pristine ocarina of time copies i just think it's ridiculous they can't know if 10 of those currently exist or 200 because cases upon cases are sitting around. Even if a pop report is too early i think it's necessary with the money involved. I suppose that's people just blowing wads of cash without knowledge though which is, something.

[tbone3969 | 304]

27 minutes ago, avoin said:

That is an intense one huh. Even price charting only has 2 sold in 2017 and it sold for 2500 even then lol. Didn't realize how rare it actually was.

Been considering seeking out a starcraft 64 sealed, of course that one seems relatively uncommon as well. maybe a couple pop up a year?

 

Going to be interesting to see the population reports when they inevitably drop one of these years. Annoys me that they haven't released them yet, the reasoning i've heard is grading is generally front loaded and it will make certain rarer games seem more common when compared to actually more common games just because the numbers are smaller.

 

Which sure, i guess. But when people are throwing 30-40 grand at pristine ocarina of time copies i just think it's ridiculous they can't know if 10 of those currently exist or 200 because cases upon cases are sitting around. Even if a pop report is too early i think it's necessary with the money involved. I suppose that's people just blowing wads of cash without knowledge though which is, something.

So it does exist.  Just really rare.  I wonder if there is any game that truly does not have a single sealed copy in existence.  Is that even possible?

[DefaultGen | 5,400]

7 minutes ago, tbone3969 said:

So it does exist.  Just really rare.  I wonder if there is any game that truly does not have a single sealed copy in existence.  Is that even possible?

I mean there are games that barely exist to begin with like Mr. Boston Clean Sweep and Air Raid, so there must be a bunch of really obscure stuff. In a world of Stadium Events case packs, I assume most everything is out there somewhere and people just aren't constantly flipping them or flaunting them on social media.

[avoin | 24]

52 minutes ago, tbone3969 said:

So it does exist.  Just really rare.  I wonder if there is any game that truly does not have a single sealed copy in existence.  Is that even possible?

I would assume many games/sealed games/items that are impossible to find are funny enough just sitting in some older guys basement in a box or an attic or a storage locker they never look through.

 

Just like the 600k mario, some guy just kinda bought it and left it unopened and here we are. We've all done it, buy a game put it up and oh i never opened it and its been x years.

[kell | 102]

Anyone get grades/games lately? Wondering what the current turn time is.

[avoin | 24]

2 hours ago, kell said:

Anyone get grades/games lately? Wondering what the current turn time is.

I'd ballpark and say somewhere around 2-3 months until its in hand if you use speedrun. They got a game from me on 4/20 *ha* and it's still in grading and i dont expect a grade until late this month/early june. My last speedrun they got from me on march 5th didnt actually get in hand to me until around 40 business days and that was before they changed their estimates by over double.

 

Turbo is in the shadow realm for about 6-9 months probably. That may start changing with them getting rid of warp pipe for now but i doubt it'd change much.

[Gulag Joe | 582]

Sent a turbo in January when it was "45 business days". Still waiting.

[jonebone | 1,307]

I had a turbo that I submitted on 9/29 go into post grading this week. Have speed runs from 3/2 and 3/11 stuck in post grading too. But 3/26 speedrun not yet graded. 

Supposedly the encapsulation issue is started to be fixed a lot of stuff will start return shipping soon.

[kell | 102]

I got a turbo from early Nov that hasn't moved and submitted some speed runs last month. 
 

I assumed it’d be 2 months on the speed runs, but those speed run turns are disappointing.

[Shredpirate | 5]

I’m still waiting for a Turbo order submitted on 7/29/2020 and scanned in on early August....

I don’t know what to think anymore...

[Gulag Joe | 582]

3 hours ago, Shredpirate said:

I’m still waiting for a Turbo order submitted on 7/29/2020 and scanned in on early August....

I don’t know what to think anymore...

Yikes. Contact them, that's terrible

[Gloves | 11,762]

Ah yes, "turbo". A word we all associate with "waiting for a year".

[broncofantd793 | 138]

On 5/13/2021 at 1:35 PM, kell said:

Anyone get grades/games lately? Wondering what the current turn time is.

1 to 2 decades seems appropriate.

[broncofantd793 | 138]

My 2 game speed run order (15 business day promise at the time) has been in grading for 29 business days.  In retrospect, I chose a horrible time to do my first sealed games order, particularly for my 2 best games.  I regret it.

[retro.magnus | 136]

I got a reply from them on my orders from June 2020 (lol). I have been trying to get some estimate, even if they say it won't be until next year or something crazy. They replied with the following

"Actually, we've got a bunch more graders, and they're coming up to speed, so we don't have good estimates right now, but we're just starting to make some real progress. If you can check back in a few weeks, I might have a good answer for you."

Probably taking it with a grain of salt, but who knows. 

[Gloves | 11,762]

Lol a few weeks.

[retro.magnus | 136]

7 minutes ago, Gloves said:

Lol a few weeks.

This is the 3rd time they've told me that things are improving & to check back in later. I'm sensing a pattern 

[Gloves | 11,762]

30 minutes ago, epiczail said:

This is the 3rd time they've told me that things are improving & to check back in later. I'm sensing a pattern 

Look forward to the email saying you owe them more money for insurance. 

[final fight cd | 186]

1 hour ago, epiczail said:

I got a reply from them on my orders from June 2020 (lol). 

It’s a shame WATA has such a strong hold on this market that they are still succeeding with stories like this. 

Edited May 18, 2021 by final fight cd

[zoiks66 | 72]

I’m not trying to troll here, but have any of you waiting for nearly a year thought about filing for a credit card chargeback when you finally receive your graded games from Wata?  I’ve never tried a credit card chargeback for anything, so I don’t know if Wata not coming anywhere near their turnaround time would qualify, but I’d be really tempted if I had to wait that long.