Super Mario 64 Sealed Questions (Link to pics at Bottom)

[Doc.Stalk | 82]

Hey Guys and Girls, 

What’s happening, I have a Beautiful copy of SM64 Sealed(link to pics below, to big to post here), I collected sealed games a while back and I’m looking at getting this one graded, I’ve used VGA in the past, however from the looks of it WATA has seemingly become the grader of choice these days, as they have the partnership with Heritage. I’m located in Canada which means shipping it, this aspect scares me as I have lost games In the mail cross border before (forever my heart hurts for you mint sealed Pokémon Emerald)

1) So who’s from Canada and shipped high value items cross border before, which courier did you use. Even if from the states, have you shipped from states to Canada, maybe the same courier/shipper can be used. You can’t hand deliver the item can you? 

2) How does one insure the item during transport. 

3) WATA makes you pick a $ amount for the game, what would one put for this particular one, as you can see in the link below the game is mint. They also only let you go to 100k.

4) WATA charge you a % based on the game value, if they determine the value after the fact, why do you have to pick a value at all? Would you pick any other options with the service? 

5) If planning to sell would it be worth contacting Heritage first, I’ve heard they can help you get it graded? Is this true? 

6) What’s some things to be aware of, what would you have wished you known prior to sending in to Wata to get graded? 
 

Link to Photos: https://imgur.com/a/kGGMp9Q

Thanks for the info in advance! 

[LaC | 104]

The answer to #5 is yes.  They deal with everything as far as I know.   Not 100% sure on the Canada factor. They even have their own insurance service for shipping high value items.  Just email them from their website.  

There is no point in sending anything to WATA if you are selling it on Heritage.  

 

[AdamW | 713]

I think HA might charge a bit more if you get the grading done through them, but it's probably not worth worrying about on an SM64.

Honestly, you have a likely high grade sealed first print US SM64 there. That's a big ticket item. If you want to sell it, yeah, I think contacting HA is a good idea. For something that big ticket they may be willing to help you work out border issues.

Oh, another note - are you close to the US border? One way to not have to worry about customs opening it is just to travel down to the States and do your mailing from there.

[inasuma | 1,203]

#3 & #4 – If you submit through Heritage, you won't need to worry about this. Wata will contact you when they've assessed the game. Though you'll probably pay a decent up-charge if they determine it's a high grade (e.g. 9.8 A++); 2% of the market value.

#5 – You'll want to reach out to Heritage directly. They'll work with you on grading and all that. Though keep in mind you'll likely pay a larger base grading fee ($200+) if you want it to get into an auction sooner (next signature auction is in October).

#6 – Turnaround times. At this point they're so inaccurate, just assume it will be 3x what they say. The only exception is Warp Zone, which is only slightly inaccurate. It will take a few days to grade, so technically it will grade on par with their estimate once your game is in their possession; though door to door it'll be about 2-3 weeks. Last order of mine took three weeks total.

Edited August 16, 2021 by inasuma

[tidaldreams | 654]

Strongly suggest you drive over the border and ship to wata from the US for something like this.

[Dumars2001 | 164]

11 hours ago, tidaldreams said:

Strongly suggest you drive over the border and ship to wata from the US for something like this.

I will 100% agree with this. A few years ago, I bought a sealed Nes Snake's Revenge from a seller in Canada and he shipped it the States via Fedex. I was horrified when I opened it. The seal was broken and US Customs left me a nice little note inside the box that said, inspected by US Customs. 

I know that it is rare for this to happen, but I am living proof that it can and does happen. I would strongly recommend not shipping the game over the border and figure out another way to get your very valuable game into America. 

Edited August 17, 2021 by Dumars2001

[Doc.Stalk | 82]

12 hours ago, LaC said:

The answer to #5 is yes.  They deal with everything as far as I know.   Not 100% sure on the Canada factor. They even have their own insurance service for shipping high value items.  Just email them from their website.  

There is no point in sending anything to WATA if you are selling it on Heritage.  

 

I assume that if you go this route there's no going back lol, you wouldn't be able to get cold feet, you'd have to sell it once it gets graded and HA helped you get it graded. 

[Doc.Stalk | 82]

11 hours ago, AdamW said:

I think HA might charge a bit more if you get the grading done through them, but it's probably not worth worrying about on an SM64.

Honestly, you have a likely high grade sealed first print US SM64 there. That's a big ticket item. If you want to sell it, yeah, I think contacting HA is a good idea. For something that big ticket they may be willing to help you work out border issues.

Oh, another note - are you close to the US border? One way to not have to worry about customs opening it is just to travel down to the States and do your mailing from there.

I think that's the route to go as well, directly through HA. I'd have no issue driving down through the border and sending it, I can get to a Cad/US Border in about 1 hour, the only thing is we're still not officially allowed to cross the border into the US yet due to Covid Restrictions. 

[Doc.Stalk | 82]

12 hours ago, inasuma said:

#3 & #4 – If you submit through Heritage, you won't need to worry about this. Wata will contact you when they've assessed the game. Though you'll probably pay a decent up-charge if they determine it's a high grade (e.g. 9.8 A++); 2% of the market value.

#5 – You'll want to reach out to Heritage directly. They'll work with you on grading and all that. Though keep in mind you'll likely pay a larger base grading fee ($200+) if you want it to get into an auction sooner (next signature auction is in October).

#6 – Turnaround times. At this point they're so inaccurate, just assume it will be 3x what they say. The only exception is Warp Zone, which is only slightly inaccurate. It will take a few days to grade, so technically it will grade on par with their estimate once your game is in their possession; though door to door it'll be about 2-3 weeks. Last order of mine took three weeks total.

If it was a 9.8 A ++ I wouldn't mind paying the 2% of market value lol, that would be incredible. Maybe I can get the first 10 . 

Regarding your number 5 answer, do they determine which auction it goes in, is the Signature auction reserved for higher grade items, I'm not fully familiar with HA Format. 

Three weeks isn't that bad and if I wanted to put this in the October Auction, that seems about the only way to do so. What did you warp zone, out of curiosity?   

 

[Doc.Stalk | 82]

6 hours ago, Dumars2001 said:

I will 100% agree with this. A few years ago, I bought a sealed Nes Snake's Revenge from a seller in Canada and he shipped it the States via Fedex. I was horrified when I opened it. The seal was broken and US Customs left me a nice little note inside the box that said, inspected by US Customs. 

I know that it is rare for this to happen, but I am loving proof that it can and does happen. I would strongly recommend not shipping the game over the broader and figure out another way to get your very valuable game into America. 

That's terrible man, I would be livid. I will definitely do my best to drive it in to the US if the borders finally open! 

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

Have you played it? Open it up and check it out!

[OptOut | 8,890]

54 minutes ago, CodysGameRoom said:

Have you played it? Open it up and check it out!

Apparently it hasn't aged well! 

[inasuma | 1,203]

4 hours ago, Doc.Stalk said:

If it was a 9.8 A ++ I wouldn't mind paying the 2% of market value lol, that would be incredible. Maybe I can get the first 10 . 

Regarding your number 5 answer, do they determine which auction it goes in, is the Signature auction reserved for higher grade items, I'm not fully familiar with HA Format. 

Three weeks isn't that bad and if I wanted to put this in the October Auction, that seems about the only way to do so. What did you warp zone, out of curiosity?   

 

Well I wish you luck. Maybe you'll get the 9.8. Who knows.

I believe they determine which auction the game goes in by the tier you tell them to grade with. So Warp Zone = 2-3 weeks, which would make it to October if you wanted. I think they've been pushing folks off into the February signature otherwise.

I warp zoned my pokemon snap and mega man zero.

[Tyree_Cooper | 760]

new house in new york with drugs and biatches included in 3, 2...

[AnimalHouse | 117]

On a game such as this, the 2% insurance charge by Wata could be as high as $31K (based off the last SM64 sold $). Do you have that kind of amount lying around? Most folks don't. If your a high roller, then nvm my post. Another option besides the HA route, would be to sell it as-is ungraded on ebay. To determine the value, you can list it as auction and let the bidders decide. OR you can sell it fixed price for 2/3rds what the 9.8 grade sold for. Giving the buyer some wiggle room to have it graded themselves at there expense. Thats what I would've done had it been my game.

After reviewing your photos, I see a number of potential imperfections.

Box:
-3rd photo - left edge of barcode - is this glare or dent?
-16th photo - right edge of barcode - same glare or dent.

Cellophane:
-4th photo - left side bottom - light scratch marks.
-17th/18th photo - Mario's body - light scratch marks.
-27th photo - lower left - light scratch marks under letter "M".

[Doc.Stalk | 82]

2 hours ago, AnimalHouse said:

On a game such as this, the 2% insurance charge by Wata could be as high as $31K (based off the last SM64 sold $). Do you have that kind of amount lying around? Most folks don't. If your a high roller, then nvm my post. Another option besides the HA route, would be to sell it as-is ungraded on ebay. To determine the value, you can list it as auction and let the bidders decide. OR you can sell it fixed price for 2/3rds what the 9.8 grade sold for. Giving the buyer some wiggle room to have it graded themselves at there expense. Thats what I would've done had it been my game.

After reviewing your photos, I see a number of potential imperfections.

Box:
-3rd photo - left edge of barcode - is this glare or dent?
-16th photo - right edge of barcode - same glare or dent.

Cellophane:
-4th photo - left side bottom - light scratch marks.
-17th/18th photo - Mario's body - light scratch marks.
-27th photo - lower left - light scratch marks under letter "M".

Yes in a perfect world of this getting a 9.8 and then Wata saying the value is 1.5 mil I could pay the grading fee.

I’ll have to pull the box out again and check the barcode area for the glare/dent area. There may be some minor surface items but I figured some minor of that may be allowed. I was looking at the 9.8 A++ that sold and it looked like it has some minor items. There’s some surface surface scratches and in the corner at the “M” it actually looks like a small hole along the seal. (See attached pics of the 9.8). 
 

Now yes I doubt this one is a 9.8 lol, but I’d be cautiously optimistic to say it may be a 9.6.

[AnimalHouse | 117]

28 minutes ago, Doc.Stalk said:

but I figured some minor of that may be allowed.

Yes, if it were mini vent/factory holes on the cellophane, those are allowed.

You could fetch a 9.8, as long as the imperfections are related to the seal grade and not the box grade. I would suggest reviewing The Wata Scale. Scroll down, click on each letter grade and read the notes. I use this a lot for my collection.

[mlbfan10 | 340]

Beautiful copy

[Caliboy24 | 47]

Yep a beautiful looking SM 64 you got there. Best of luck with everything!  Would be interesting to see how it does on Heritage.

[kell | 102]

High grade examples will be next auctions.

[Jim Jimmer | 234]

On 8/16/2021 at 6:27 PM, Doc.Stalk said:

Hey Guys and Girls, 

What’s happening, I have a Beautiful copy of SM64 Sealed(link to pics below, to big to post here), I collected sealed games a while back and I’m looking at getting this one graded, I’ve used VGA in the past, however from the looks of it WATA has seemingly become the grader of choice these days, as they have the partnership with Heritage. I’m located in Canada which means shipping it, this aspect scares me as I have lost games In the mail cross border before (forever my heart hurts for you mint sealed Pokémon Emerald)

1) So who’s from Canada and shipped high value items cross border before, which courier did you use. Even if from the states, have you shipped from states to Canada, maybe the same courier/shipper can be used. You can’t hand deliver the item can you? 

2) How does one insure the item during transport. 

3) WATA makes you pick a $ amount for the game, what would one put for this particular one, as you can see in the link below the game is mint. They also only let you go to 100k.

4) WATA charge you a % based on the game value, if they determine the value after the fact, why do you have to pick a value at all? Would you pick any other options with the service? 

5) If planning to sell would it be worth contacting Heritage first, I’ve heard they can help you get it graded? Is this true? 

6) What’s some things to be aware of, what would you have wished you known prior to sending in to Wata to get graded? 
 

Link to Photos: https://imgur.com/a/kGGMp9Q

Thanks for the info in advance! 

Hello,

 

im from canada and have shipped numerous high $ packages to the us. That includes wata vga ha and private collectors.
 

1- i use canada post xpresspost. Never had an issue.  Sometimes people will request another carrier which is fine, but its at their own risk.

 

2- you cant insure it. It will raise a LOT of suspicions at customs if you insure for 100k for example.

 

i know in the us there are 3rd party insurers that insure for damage done during transit. You can thus have a low declared value for customs and get it correctly insured by the third party. Perhaps you could have a friend kn the US help you out with that.

 

3-hard to say but id guess you’d be close to the high end lf the 100k range. Its a nice copy even if not perfect!

 

4-i would only war’zone this with 100k value.

 

5- talk to HA and secure a deal of AT LEAST 0% seller fee if you consign. Try to get somE bp back too given the game in question.

 

they will grade it for you and you will pay for it using the proceeds of the sale. This is nice as its no out of pocket costs for you!

 

6-not sure i understand the question? I mean, id wish to know if you 100% intend to sell it. Perhaps you could trade it if youre after another grail etc. If you want to keep then id prefer in a vga case as they look better for n64 than wata. 

 

feel free to pm me if you have more questions/wanna discuss further. Congrats on this nice game!

Edited August 29, 2021 by Jim Jimmer