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1.25 Years later, my thoughts & questions on my first WATA submission.


retro.magnus

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You know what makes me laugh?

Sorry, I know it's grading and all. But.... you paid them to grade it. Then, you debate if the grade is accurate. If you weren't going to take their word for it, why even pay for the grade? 

And I'm not attacking you specifically. It's more rhetorical to the grading as a whole. Like... their thing is they observe and assign a number signifying condition. 

If you are going to debate the grade, why pay them money and submit it in the first place? You could just put the game in an acrylic case yourself.

I just don't see the point of paying a company to tell you what the condition of a game is, and then debating or disagreeing with their result. That's why you paid them! 

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1 minute ago, AdamW said:

because there's a wider expectation that the company's grades should be consistent and in line with the ways they claim to grade on their site?

You are paying money to them to assign a grade. Why question it? Otherwise save your money and determine the condition yourself.

As far as the ways they claim to grade on their site, it's a very small section. I'd bet money people are basing their interpretation of the grade on what THEY perceive the grade should be, as opposed to whatever Wata decides. 

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I think you're being kind of obtuse there. You don't get a game graded just so you have someone's opinion of what condition it's in. You can get opinions for free all day long on Reddit. You grade a thing in the expectation it'll be graded according to a reliable and consistent process which allows others to have confidence in the condition your game is in without seeing it in person. The way it should work is that the person has seen a few 9.6 Game Boy games, they hear that your game is a 9.6 Game Boy game, they can have some confidence in what it looks like without seeing it in person.

That doesn't work if they start giving out 9.6s to games with noticeable corner bumps all of a sudden.

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1 hour ago, AdamW said:

I think you're being kind of obtuse there. You don't get a game graded just so you have someone's opinion of what condition it's in. You can get opinions for free all day long on Reddit. You grade a thing in the expectation it'll be graded according to a reliable and consistent process which allows others to have confidence in the condition your game is in without seeing it in person. The way it should work is that the person has seen a few 9.6 Game Boy games, they hear that your game is a 9.6 Game Boy game, they can have some confidence in what it looks like without seeing it in person.

That doesn't work if they start giving out 9.6s to games with noticeable corner bumps all of a sudden.

Exactly this. 
 

I understand you don’t collect sealed/graded games, Cody. I usually agree with everything you post here (I reacted to a bunch of your posts on the HA thread). But I’m not really sure what you’re trying to get at with your question/statement. 
 

This was my first order I sent them. I purposely sent games in various different conditions so I could have an idea myself, with my own games, what constitutes certain grades. The purpose of this was to test the waters before I spent more money with them. Especially because WATA is not transparent with their grading process and I haven’t found much information via the community on how different consoles are graded (please direct me to this if there is some documentation somewhere).

 

As far as me “testing the waters”, I’d imagine you do the same thing with most high dollar products/services, right? Before dumping a shit ton of money into something, try whatever it is out.. If you are not pleased with what you received, the decision to dump thousands of dollars into something is now more informed.

 

As someone who has a sealed collection, but hasn’t had much of it graded. I posted this trying to bring transparency into Graded Collecting and inform others. When I submitted over a year ago, I went out on a limb and just went for it with little to no information. 

 

 

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I paid for a “speed run” on June 10th they received it on June 15th it is oct 1st and all I’m seeing on the wata login is postgrading on the shipped, received, grading, time line scale that they have and when I click view grades no grades are shown it just says some basic pre grading details (ex. Y seam h seam tube seam English version stuff like that) does anyone know if before they ship, my grades will post on the website? And what time frame? The speed run option claimed that it would be done 45 business days and later they changed it to 60 business days. Unless I’m going crazy June 15-October 1st is over the 45/60 business days I paid for and after emailing them I got a very generic response as if they never read it and you can call and call no one picks up the phone. Has anyone dealt with this? How much longer do I gotta wait? Btw sent 4 games all GameCube sealed

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11 minutes ago, Blues2013 said:

I paid for a “speed run” on June 10th they received it on June 15th it is oct 1st and all I’m seeing on the wata login is postgrading on the shipped, received, grading, time line scale that they have and when I click view grades no grades are shown it just says some basic pre grading details (ex. Y seam h seam tube seam English version stuff like that) does anyone know if before they ship, my grades will post on the website? And what time frame? The speed run option claimed that it would be done 45 business days and later they changed it to 60 business days. Unless I’m going crazy June 15-October 1st is over the 45/60 business days I paid for and after emailing them I got a very generic response as if they never read it and you can call and call no one picks up the phone. Has anyone dealt with this? How much longer do I gotta wait? Btw sent 4 games all GameCube sealed

This is a somewhat new thing watas been doing this year, where grades won’t be posted for your order until they ship. As for an estimate, it’s anyone’s guess at this point. If they received in June then I’d estimate sometime near the end of the year?

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3 minutes ago, RH said:

Anyone ever contacted them and ask them to just ship their game back?

I'm thinking about doing that.

I seriously contemplated doing it twice with this very order I posted about.

I didn’t end up doing it and I’m glad. Part of it was none of us knew it would take almost a year & half to get them.. but when I almost did, I kept telling myself what a royal waste of my time & money for them to just ship them back raw. My two cents 🤷🏼‍♂️

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3 minutes ago, RH said:

Anyone ever contacted them and ask them to just ship their game back?

I'm thinking about doing that.

Im still blown away that people send them games. I mean, I know Wata-graded games sell for ridiculous amounts, but I just couldn't imagine supporting a company with such horrible customer service and grossly false advertising. It's really sad that they've grown a near monopoly on grading without actually providing quality service.

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1 hour ago, DoctorEncore said:

Im still blown away that people send them games. I mean, I know Wata-graded games sell for ridiculous amounts, but I just couldn't imagine supporting a company with such horrible customer service and grossly false advertising. It's really sad that they've grown a near monopoly on grading without actually providing quality service.

Yeah, but if you DIDN'T send your games to WATA, then who would tear up all your fucking cellophane and encrust your games with dog hairs and fruit flies? 🐶🪰 😂

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4 hours ago, DoctorEncore said:

Im still blown away that people send them games. I mean, I know Wata-graded games sell for ridiculous amounts, but I just couldn't imagine supporting a company with such horrible customer service and grossly false advertising. It's really sad that they've grown a near monopoly on grading without actually providing quality service.

Because when I submitted my game last year, Wata's image wasn't as bad as it is now. I don't mind the delays, but their quality and standards have slipped tremendously in the last year. I shipped my game out late November. A lot had happened since then.

I submitted my one game (a pristine Riven for PS1) because I'm a fan of the series, this copy was shelf candy anyway, and I've never had a game graded before. So, that's my story. If I had it to do over again, I would have just sent it to VGA. But, back then, the price was reasonable and the process was dead easy. At the time it felt like a no brainer.

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18 hours ago, AdamW said:

You grade a thing in the expectation it'll be graded according to a reliable and consistent process which allows others to have confidence in the condition your game is in without seeing it in person.

So.... the reason to get a game graded... is so that someone knows what condition it is in... without seeing it.

So you a company tons of money... so that someone who can't see a game... knows the condition?

Take a step back and ask yourself how ridiculous that sounds. Why does someone who can't see a game care about what condition it is in? This thought process literally makes no sense.

18 hours ago, AdamW said:

That doesn't work if they start giving out 9.6s to games with noticeable corner bumps all of a sudden.

I see people pick apart these grades constantly. It's almost like these companies aren't actually experts at what they do because there is no possible way to actually stick to a correct scale.... 🤔 Almost like they shouldn't be being paid money to do this because it's not really possible to do what they are claiming to do... 🤔

 

16 hours ago, epiczail said:

As someone who has a sealed collection, but hasn’t had much of it graded. I posted this trying to bring transparency into Graded Collecting and inform others. When I submitted over a year ago, I went out on a limb and just went for it with little to no information. 

This was no attack on you. I don't fault you for trying it out. It was more about me using your example to make my point. Maybe I was being intentionally obtuse in doing so but I think it's pretty clear now. 

I just don't think trusting a company to do this is worth the cash it costs. 

I mean unless you're an investor. 😅

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35 minutes ago, CodysGameRoom said:

So.... the reason to get a game graded... is so that someone knows what condition it is in... without seeing it.

So you a company tons of money... so that someone who can't see a game... knows the condition?

Take a step back and ask yourself how ridiculous that sounds. Why does someone who can't see a game care about what condition it is in? This thought process literally makes no sense.

I see people pick apart these grades constantly. It's almost like these companies aren't actually experts at what they do because there is no possible way to actually stick to a correct scale.... 🤔 Almost like they shouldn't be being paid money to do this because it's not really possible to do what they are claiming to do... 🤔

They care so they can buy them off an internet auction without having seen them in person. We all know that photos never tell you the whole story. You don't have to like the system or trade things that way, but it's not as if it's a new or controversial idea, it's been around, oh, several hundred years at least (for bulk trading in things like foodstuffs or cloth).

Of course there's always going to be a degree of discussion about how good any grading company's grades are. I mean, that's their stock-in-trade. Especially when there's more than one, people discussing how accurately and consistently they grade is...the system working exactly as it should. The end result should be that the company or companies which are generally believed to grade the most consistently win most people's business.

In the current case, an interesting question to ask is whether there is the same level of questioning of VGA's grades, for instance.

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6 hours ago, CodysGameRoom said:

So.... the reason to get a game graded... is so that someone knows what condition it is in... without seeing it.

So you a company tons of money... so that someone who can't see a game... knows the condition?

Take a step back and ask yourself how ridiculous that sounds. Why does someone who can't see a game care about what condition it is in? This thought process literally makes no sense.

I see people pick apart these grades constantly. It's almost like these companies aren't actually experts at what they do because there is no possible way to actually stick to a correct scale.... 🤔 Almost like they shouldn't be being paid money to do this because it's not really possible to do what they are claiming to do... 🤔

 

This was no attack on you. I don't fault you for trying it out. It was more about me using your example to make my point. Maybe I was being intentionally obtuse in doing so but I think it's pretty clear now. 

I just don't think trusting a company to do this is worth the cash it costs. 

I mean unless you're an investor. 😅

Cody, I have a hunch that, I dunno, maybe you’re not into graded games? 🤔

Seems like whatever sensible replies you receive, you have an auto-rejection process in your mind that no answer is good enough.

At the end of the day, people collect how they want to collect, it’s really that simple. And whoever collects what, they do it because it meets their personal interest and challenge, some degree of profit perhaps, or all the above.

Also, I want to speak on behalf of the graded collectors that not all of us collect with the intention to sell everything. There are a lot of what I have graded is staying with me as my display pieces for my future mancave. I’ve shown a few pics on this forum and those games aren’t for sale in mind.

 

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If anyone knows please just holler at me. 
when grading a card at Beckett or PSA you can go to the website and see the population report just by typing in that players name and or card year and series and you get a list of how many cards have been graded in that condition and/or higher or lower. The lower the pop and the less graded higher,the more rare and valuable and vise versa for the lower condition, so does anyone know for WATA or VGA is there a population report out for the graded games? I’m looking on the website and found nothing if these companies are grading these games they should have that information on record or can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks.

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1 minute ago, Blues2013 said:

If anyone knows please just holler at me. 
when grading a card at Beckett or PSA you can go to the website and see the population report just by typing in that players name and or card year and series and you get a list of how many cards have been graded in that condition and/or higher or lower. The lower the pop and the less graded higher,the more rare and valuable and vise versa for the lower condition, so does anyone know for WATA or VGA is there a population report out for the graded games? I’m looking on the website and found nothing if these companies are grading these games they should have that information on record or can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks.

there are entire threads about this. the short answer is that neither WATA nor VGA officially release population reports at present. Both have talked about doing so in future, neither have put a date or details on it. VGA have been making more noise recently about getting it done soon.

It's worth bearing in mind that when we do have 'full' population data from one or the other, or if you get a hold of some of the incomplete, outdated and unofficial information on some games that is floating around, you will still need to take it with a grain of salt. Grading games is not, as you can tell from this thread, a universally accepted practice. Some people are opposed to it more or less on principle. Even if you aren't, grading games is expensive and time-consuming. Until earlier this year, very few games were 'worth the cost' of grading.

So the graded population of a given game could be low because it's a very rare game...but it could equally well be that the game is quite common, but the graded population is low just because not many people who have copies got them graded, for whatever reason.

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