Gulag Joe

This bubble is going to burst when this practice begins to receive press coverage and buyer beware warnings as more buyers begin to realize what "third party grade" means and know that it's directly tied to the Wata brand. It will tarnish the value of every game graded by Wata. Maybe if they spent less time conducting a service of appraisal- which is not listed in any part of the services they provide, they wouldn't be backlogged with so many orders.

It's designed to charge you more. Again, they refused to grade a game I submitted because I didn't declare the value was high enough, despite no evidence of a previous sales price to back up their claim. I challenged them on this and they said they wouldn't grade it if I didn't pay what THEY said the game was worth. I didn't have a choice to haggle. They would've shipped it back ungraded...and that is my issuw- because they WILL grade and ship resealed games!

Exactly correct. If I say my game is worth X- that's what you insure it for. There are no sales records of many sealed games. Pulling a hypothetical number out of the ether because some person who works at Wata who knows the population of that game says "I'd pay 20k for that" is not a realistic measure because the game in question is not being sold, it's being subjected to a third party grading process. It's not being "appraised". Appraisals are different, and this is where the conflict with Wata lies because it seems they are appraising games by taking property that does not belong to them, it belongs to you- the customer, and then asking their partners what they believe the cost of the item in question is worth when that is not what the customer asked for the customer submitted that item to be graded.

The whole racket of refusing to disclose populations of the items they grade and the value these items are selling for warrants real legal action and investigation into market manipulation and potential fraud. The fraud is even more pronounced in how they label resealed games as simply "third party seal". I've seen countless auctions now of people paying thousands for games they likely think are genuinely authentic but the authenticator- Wata, doesn't delineate that in a clear way on their own packaging. If you send a card to PSA that has been trimmed, has writing on it, or altered in any way, they refuse to grade it. If you send a left bros box with a john elways QB cartridge inside it and use an at home shrink wrap machine to seal it, you get a graded "third party seal" left bros in return! It's outrageous!

So this happened to me. I declared the value at $2,000 for a few games and they emailed after receiving them telling me how much THEY think my games were worth and then refused to grade them unless I paid up. I asked for pop reports as there were no prices for some of my games because they've never been sold before, nor seen on ebay/ha/any auction house ever. I knew that some of my sealed games were likely the only ones in existence because I've had search notifications on every auction site for over 20 years now (on ebay) looking to see if other sealed copies are indeed out there. Of course wata told me to fist myself when I asked for the pop reports and I had to go on their word if I wanted them graded.

It was recent- December 2020 The scuffs are likely to do with their supplier because all of their cases are prefabricated. But the styrofoam flakes are simply off-putting. Coincidentally, this is also an issue with card grading as well, they sometimes get encapsulated with tiny styrofoam flakes. STOP USING PACKING PEANUTS!

I thumb my nose to "collector's editions" when it comes to sealed game collecting. I'd much rather have the first retail release. All the games coming out now, especially the big releases like Cyberpunk, have collector's edition versions that are marked up like $200 more because you get some junk in a fancy box with the game. Maybe there are some cool add ons with a few games, but I don't see the value in spending a hundred bucks more for godfall collector's edition on ps5.

Uncharted because I heard the Nathan Drake character was originally supposed to be Tim Tebow.

I encountered some encapsulation issues as well. The inside of a few of the cases I received had scuff marks and they also encapsulated the game with what looks like flakes of styrofoam. I'm sure I could send it back to them to have it fixed but why should I have to do that? It should've been done correctly the first time. I've been calling them my "wata snowglobes".

Wata doesn't release any information in regard to population reports. With that said, may your journey continue to be curious!

Lol either that's a regrade or you have 2 copies...I mean 2 copies is not unusual, 2 high grade sealed copies certainly is though!

I avoid buying anything on ebay without a picture. It should be treated exactly like a dating site.

If this game were sent to Wata, would they refuse to grade it for being phony or would they slap a "*3rd party seal" note on the back?

The key word you said was "I". I'm sure YOU can tell Wata what your game is worth, but as I've said before, Wata ultimately tells you what your game is worth if they think it's over $2,000.

Hop on Heritage and tell me how much a factory sealed Resident Evil Long Box is.

What on EARTH are you talking about? Wata burning down? Receipts? $40? LOL I can't even with this one!

Wow, more ridiculous speculation! How exactly would I win this make believe lawsuit you just accused me of bringing? If I put the order in through Wata, their platform requires me to declare my item's worth. I wouldn't be able to sue for more than that amount in the event of them destroying my games... How about instead of accusing me of suing Wata for billions of dollars, we talk about why Wata doesn't provide market transparency and just tells me the value of my game is "X" and I just have to trust them on that?

Lol there is no law that says you HAVE to buy insurance in order to ship a video game to someone! Are you serious rn?!

If I put a turd in a box and insured it for $5,000 and the FedEx truck catches fire, insurance will pay me 5k because I paid for that insurance. It doesn't matter what's in the box. If a grading company wants to charge me a premium to grade a game, they need to provide basic transparency.

Everything you just typed is speculative. Price speculation has nothing to do with the services they provide as their service is ultimately an opinion, nothing more. I am the customer. If I say its worth this much, then that's what you ship it and insure it for.

Any games you have that they decide are over $2,000 they email you and tell you that you have to upgrade your service level and pay a percentage of what they believe the game is worth in order to have them grade it.

This happened to me too and it didn't sit well. The grading company is telling ME how much MY games are worth... with ZERO transparency. I would be more inclined to pay the "additional charges" if the company openly provided population reports. Markets cannot not determined by a "wink wink just trust me", especially not by a third party for profit grading company.

Yea but which ones are "rArE"?

Every time I send off games to get graded, I have this excitement for wanting to send them off, and then once they're gone, I have anxiety every day they're gone until they finally come back to me. I think I could rewrite every love movie but replace the love interest with some sealed video games. I don't care if it sounds pathetic...I MISS YOU GAMES, COME HOME!

Looking closely at the pics, it appears its actually the rare version with the wrong name on the top of the label- the "Mark Tyson's Punch Out" variant