Grading sealed games with damaged contents?

[kazuo | 6]

Does anyone know how WATA, VGA, etc. handle sealed games where damage may exist under the wrap? For example, a cracked jewel case, or a somewhat smashed box.Asking for what should be obvious reasons.

Sorry if this has been asked before!

[inasuma | 1,203]

They handle it by lowering the grade  

[Franmotard | 79]

Hi! Yes as Inasuma says, that lowers the grade as WATA has two different grade scale lets say, ypu got a seal grade and a box grade. You can have an A++ Seal and a 8 box with some damage as you say, or a 9.8 Box with a B seal which is open for example

Edited January 4, 2022 by iLikePssys

[GPX | 1,369]

@kazuo, your question is the primary purpose of grading. 

An imaginary perfect sample gets the highest grade ie. VGA100, WATA10. Any defect to the seal, box or visible contents inside, will get deductions depending on the extent of the defect(s).

[Gulag Joe | 582]

I've seen Wata grade cracked jewel cases an 8, but it's always been one small subtle crack no longer than an inch or so. Haven't seen any graded higher than that or what they grade jewel cases with multiple cracks. 

[kazuo | 6]

Thanks all! Oddly, I couldn't find anything about this subject on their site, and I thought, there is no way they're just gonna ignore any imperfections under the plastic, so I figured I'd ask to be sure. Appreciate the confirmation.

I will probably skip getting the specific game that prompted this question graded as the jewel case cracked in several places (more than an inch). I'll just keep it as-is. It is pretty uncommon to find sealed copies of this, so maybe it's still worth it? I have seen two throughout the course of my entire life, and the wrap on the other one is terrible in comparison (but the jewel case isn't cracked!).

[Code Monkey | 2,010]

Why would they ignore it? They have an entire ordinal grading system dedicated to grading what's under the plastic, that's literally the only thing the number represents.

[kazuo | 6]

Most of the discourse I've heard around grading sealed games tends to focus heavily on the condition of the seal itself. I naturally assumed that there is no way they're going to just ignore a water-damaged or sun-faded box, for example, so I wanted to clarify to ensure I wasn't getting the wrong idea one way or another.

When I first browsed around their site, it wasn't immediately obvious to me that there's a letter grade just for the seal on sealed games, and the number grade for what is under the seal. Looking at it now, seems pretty obvious what is going on, so I don't know if I just missed it, or if they made changes to the site's layout/presentation to make this more obvious.

Either way, thanks to everyone who helped answer my question!

[YOURTURN | 1,256]

In your defense, Wata is not that great at describing how things are graded. With that data, they should have made it be easily found on the front page. And even then talk about it than show visual samples.

With VGA, who started the whole video game grading trend, being worse. They will bring up the "Y" subgrade on their AFA page, but have chosen to omit it on their VGA page. But I am not shocked about it these days.

In both cases, all I can say is that Wata had that chart up from the start. And for me it is anything but helpful. While every grading site I have inspected are no better. Which is why I am hoping that CGA, Inc. will add more details on stuff like that on their new website.

Which I expect to be done days somebody bought a graded Super Mario Switch title for $25 million because the given grade makes it look rare.