DefaultGen | 5,401 Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 40% price hike and 4x turnaround time ETA for the lowest tier. Kinda yikes. Original tiers for reference: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captmorgandrinker | 1,649 Administrator · Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 Not sure how that compares to VGA pricing for sealed, but it does make business sense. If you have people beating down your door, it's time to adjust price to level that out. Hiring more people with the desired expertise level probably isn't an option for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonebone | 1,307 Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 Yeah, prices are now more in line with VGA pricing. To be honest, this is long overdue. You shouldn't just grade any game, you should be selective in which games you submit. Higher prices will force you to be more selective for sure. I also have never submitted a game to any grading company under the cheapest tier. That tier should be long and cheap by definition of economy. 180 seems a bit high but it should be at least 90. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RH | 4,898 Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 I got a box of about 10 games I want to send off. Sucks for me, but I get it. They've had such long lead times, even at their top-tiers, it makes sense that they'd increase price. Supply and demand--they can only spend so much time and effort grading their backlog, and if they have thousands of submissions that may take months to grade, they have to track all of that inventory (hopefully) in a climate controlled storage location. By increasing prices, demand should go down a little (which means the market will also not be flooded with sub-par games, which is good) and WATA might get additional revenue and can higher and train more graders. In the long run I think it's a win for everyone, but it just sucks because until I sell a few more high-dollar items, looks like I won't be getting anything graded for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloves | 11,771 Administrator · Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 Tbh I don't like the whole tiers thing where you can pay more to get it done faster. If everyone jumps on the top tier the poor schmucks at the bottom get fucked. Once again tossing more money at it beats out those who can't necessarily afford to drop an extra hundred on it. But I suppose this is all par for the course in the grading game, and it's a business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Jimmer | 234 Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 (edited) Turbo tier doubling time and 50% increase is yikes. That was a nice balanced tier with Turnaround time and pricing. They should at least include gentle cleaning in the new prices edit: disregard the 50% comment its only 10% Edited October 30, 2019 by Jim Jimmer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Code Monkey | 2,006 Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 They don't define the base price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GetTheGreg | 105 Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 Fucking terrible for the Canada crew. I only use economy tier for VGA and the couple of cibs I've graded and now it's over 70CAD to grade a single CIB!? The wait time doesn't even bother me, but if you're going to hold it essentially indefinitely, I don't see why the price has to be so high... And keep in mind I try to send like 30 things at once to minimize the shipping costs back and forth. Sending a single item now is asinine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neodolphino | 267 Homebrew Team · Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 Huh... my next sealed shipment was going to head their way (have always used VGA) -because- their prices and turnaround were better than VGA (they had increased their prices a while back). Guess that incentive is completely gone now... The only thing that would keep me with WATA now, would be the possibility of homebrew grading for a couple of my rarer things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VGD | 72 Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 Glad I got most of the ones I wanted done graded already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doner24 | 1,195 Moderator · Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 Step 1. Find game Step 2. Send game to Wata Step 3. Profit....in 180 days. 1 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neodolphino | 267 Homebrew Team · Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 2 minutes ago, VGD said: Glad I got most of the ones I wanted done graded already. I bet. I kept procrastinating... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWunderful | 2,927 Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 Damn I still need to sub some stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snk2d4ever | 96 Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 (edited) Is it business days or calendar days for the select tier? Edited October 30, 2019 by snk2d4ever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kell | 102 Posted October 30, 2019 Share Posted October 30, 2019 That's too bad, I have been putting off getting my first games graded until the turnaround times got better... not sure it's worth the increased prices now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VGD | 72 Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 5 hours ago, snk2d4ever said: Is it business days or calendar days for the select tier? Business days I believe, at least in my experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sign Collector Guy | 334 Posted November 2, 2019 Share Posted November 2, 2019 Saw this. My first sub had alot of random crap and some good stuff. This new tier pricing and turn around time will for sure have me being more picky. I will probably wait till Q1 of 2020 to sub anything further. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a3quit4s | 4,096 Posted November 3, 2019 Share Posted November 3, 2019 180 days! God damn!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaC | 104 Posted November 3, 2019 Share Posted November 3, 2019 Hidden camera footage from a recent WATA business meeting. 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yelir | 11 Posted November 11, 2019 Share Posted November 11, 2019 On 10/30/2019 at 3:17 PM, doner24 said: Step 1. Find game Step 2. Send game to Wata Step 3. Profit....in 180 days. Here I was feeling bad for pawn brokers having to wait 30 days until you could sell/profit from an item . Ouch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RasAlGhul007 | 5 Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 Looks like I missed out on the $25 a pop deal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Jimmer | 234 Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 Does anyone know how long theye’re backlogged still? My speed run order has been there for a month (meaning so far twice as long as advertised), with pre grading photos uploaded for 8days with no grades. This is frustrating as i thought they would be quicker post the reopening of lower tier. If i’m getting turbo service for a speedrun order, i’d expect to pay turbo prices, not speed run. Perhaps Wata could have 2 processes with 2 different backlogs, one for sealed and one for CIB? That would help them turnaround sealed quicker as cib grading must take wayyy longer... /end rant 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloves | 11,771 Administrator · Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 They simply should never have opened the can of worms that is grading CIB games, imo. This has surely increased volume by a significant margin, especially with people wanting to get in on the craze. And it's easier than ever since basically anyone can send in an order with Cibs being much more common than sealed games. Heck, I was planning on sending in my sealed game(s) when I got some eventually, but being placed in line with a bunch of people sending in Cibs as investments has turned me off of it pretty hard. Still might consider VGA grading though. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Startyde | 175 Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, Jim Jimmer said: Does anyone know how long theye’re backlogged still? My speed run order has been there for a month (meaning so far twice as long as advertised), with pre grading photos uploaded for 8days with no grades. This is frustrating as i thought they would be quicker post the reopening of lower tier. If i’m getting turbo service for a speedrun order, i’d expect to pay turbo prices, not speed run. Perhaps Wata could have 2 processes with 2 different backlogs, one for sealed and one for CIB? That would help them turnaround sealed quicker as cib grading must take wayyy longer... /end rant I was debating posting anything here but I feel like certain things need to be said. I submitted a Speed Run order for a friend in Nov when it was still five business days turnaround. The order was received and scanned on the 7th of Dec. In two days it will now be a month, or 400 percent longer than their advertised time. It doesn't end there. Two weeks ago I emailed support (who replied promptly which was excellent) if they could update me. They said they would work on it that day, and obvs two weeks later it didn't Last week on the advice of another friend, I DMed one of the employees directly. They were also prompt and indicated to check on the order for grading last week. It also wasn't. I DMed said per again this weekend, and received a somewhat stressed reply that they are extremely backlogged and working weekends and even Christmas and New Year's to catch up. There has been no point in my replying at this point. Take aways: 1. Noone should be working holidays. People are human and need to rest with family. I'm also against working weekends unless aptly compensated. 2. There is no indication on the Wata site there is a backlog and to expect delays. 3. As of November they were taking payments for turnaround times they seemingly had zero intention of honoring, which Im fairly sure is illegal to knowingly advertise goods and services you cannot provide. 4. Communication as a whole has been much better recently, though everything I have been told in regard to timing has been a fabrication, to the point where I'd prefer a general "within X weeks" timeline and some compensation for completely missing my tier time by several magnitudes. Edited January 6, 2020 by Startyde 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonebone | 1,307 Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 8 hours ago, Jim Jimmer said: Perhaps Wata could have 2 processes with 2 different backlogs, one for sealed and one for CIB? That would help them turnaround sealed quicker as cib grading must take wayyy longer... 8 hours ago, Gloves said: They simply should never have opened the can of worms that is grading CIB games, imo. This has surely increased volume by a significant margin, especially with people wanting to get in on the craze. And it's easier than ever since basically anyone can send in an order with Cibs being much more common than sealed games. Heck, I was planning on sending in my sealed game(s) when I got some eventually, but being placed in line with a bunch of people sending in Cibs as investments has turned me off of it pretty hard. To be honest I think the effect of CIB grading is a bit overblown. No doubt it was very significant over the summer and most of last year when CIB grading was so cheap and CIBs were doing crazy numbers on HA, but a lot of that has cooled off. And CIB grading does cost more than Sealed grading, and prices did go up by 25-50% across the board. But yes, I think you should at least double the turnaround time, consider it all business days and then hope you get the grade around then. Then probably wait another several weeks until it return ships. I also am fairly disappointed that they reworked their tiers and posted updated turnaround times like they had ironed out some kinks and these turnarounds were realistic. Clearly they aren't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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