Grading rare PS1 games

[rester | 3]

Hey guys, 

How do you feel about grading sealed version of very rare PS1 games? Examples are Adventures of Lomax, City of Lost Children and Fox Hunt. I have not seen any of these games in graded form ever so I have no idea what they would be worth vs. their regular CIB prices. 

Also, the graded stuff that seems to command thousand of dollars is common games based on super well known IP vs. more obscure items that are very valuable for the traditional collector crowd... Would grading these make sense, or would one end up with making the same money if they were sealed non graded? 

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,104]

If it's sealed you would probably get more if it's graded. It basically depends if the grading fee is worth it based on the price of the sealed game.

[rester | 3]

My observation is that for the popular IP the difference between a 'regular' CIB copy and a graded one can be 100X - but for more 'niche' titles where the regular CIB can be pretty expensive (in the hundreds), grading might add only 30-50% more (and at that point the cost of grading becomes a real question).

Am I off base here?

One hypothesis is that most of the graded buyers are non-gamers/ non game collectors and they like to have a Mario or a Zelda item as a memorabilia and they are willing to top dollars. But nobody knows who Lomax is...