Gulag Joe

Wait a second… you guys don’t lowball the value of your submissions so you can save money on shipping? I’ve been doing that forever!

6 hours ago, 3rdStrongestMole said:

Maybe that's what this person did. Just said, "Please Wata, gimme big numbers..."

Dearest Lord Wata,

Enclosed you will find a James Bond game that will be used to worship your amazingness. Please bless it with a high grade and in return it will send you good luck. Thank you for existing, we couldn’t collect without you.

Love Always,

Joe

Taco Bell gets my order correct every single time just like wata does. All you gotta do is say please and thank you. It’s not hard!

Case looks suspect to me

Can we go back to the $840 graded printer paper? WTAF!

Ok we’re good. False alarm!

Who else is excited to watch a low grade copy of Double Dribble sell more than a much higher graded copy just because it came from some bullshit collection that was given a cool nickname and printed onto the grading label?

I can’t believe how many of you know how to do this! It’s troubling! Graded games are not meant to be broken out of their protective shells! It’s probably against the law too!

I too am a 100% complete cib collector and was disappointed when I found Wata didn’t grade all components for CIB. No grading company does. Heck, one of them just gives you an embossed coupon that lists the components. However, with Wata, they do list all the components on their online database and do grade Game specific inserts, such as the Zelda map you mentioned. Is the TMNT 3 poster specific to that game or is it a general poster?

Also, it’s safe to go ahead and call yourself the leading expert for CIB knowledge on this forum too, just like the grading companies call themselves whatever TF they want because words don’t matter anymore.

3 minutes ago, inasuma said:

glad i got in my qualified order in 2022 when i had the chance. lol i'm sure it'll come back. it looks like they're speeding up and updating the website incrementally which is promising.

I’m speaking loosely here as I have not used VGA for CIB (or qualified). But does VGA list the components on the label for cib or do they offer an online database that shows what’s in the box? Also, to my knowledge their qualified says “everything that the game originally came with we would grade as qualified”, or something similar to that. Does that mean they wouldn’t grade, for example, a NES TMNT 2 Arcade Game as qualified if it was missing the warranty card?

43 minutes ago, GPX said:

I can see it would take a lot more work for WATA to note all the inside contents for all the CIBs that receive. I guess if you prefer your CIBs to be fully complete with all the other original contents, then just don’t use WATA for your CIBs?

Also if you prefer mint CIBs with all original contents then I can suggest you try VGA Qualified games. Essentially, these are games with everything new and all original contents, just that the seals are broken or the box has been opened.

It’s unclear whether or not VGA still offers qualified- there is no pricing that I could easily find on their site and the notes I did find regarding “qualified” said submissions were closed. I view that incoherentness as a reflection of their services. Also, if I wanted the same service Wata offered before, I would have to pay $100 total instead of the old price which was $175. The $100 price is the same as CGC. I think I’m going to use CGC for this round.

Where’s @OptOut cuz he needs to know I’m finally criticizing Wata!

From Wata’s blog post:

”With our new CIB service, we grade only the Box, Cart/Disc, and Manual. This streamlined process services the majority of submitted items and allows collectors a more affordable option for those games that may not be jam-packed with inserts. Any inserts (including but not limited to maps, posters, warranty cards, baggies, and dust sleeves) will be encapsulated with the game but not listed on the label or dashboard – we will not send these items back separately. This also means that GSIs are neither listed on the label nor graded separately. If you have a more “complete” game with inserts and/or GSIs, we recommend submitting with the CIB Plus add-on.”

EBAY: Wata 9.8 100% Complete CIB NES Al Unser Jr Turbo Racing READ DESCRIPTION

*it doesn’t list all of the inserts and baggie because I didn’t pay the extra $50 ($40 in the blog post) but trust me, everything is in there!*

I may have gotten excited a little too quickly. What TF is this… so we’re gonna see graded CIB games floating around without knowing what components and variants are inside because some people didn’t pay the extra $50??? This is a slap in the face to 100% complete collectors.

CGC gonna have to drop them prices. $50 CIB at Wata!

Does CGC add the “first video game graded“ for every title they grade? I recall seeing a Mario with the same thing. If so, I’m sold. I’m cracking open my super duper rare factory sealed NES Al Unser Jr Turbo Racing from its wata shell so I can send it to CGC to get that prestigious title and then I’m selling it for $100,000.

4 hours ago, tidaldreams said:

but the vga peeps will say a 9.6 A is an 80+

The VGA peeps said we were going to see pop reports from them. That was more than 2 years ago.

I think the Star Wars KOTOR final sale price is fair. 53 graded first print variants to date of the greatest game ever made and this one sits on the higher end. In contrast, people are spending a thousand dollars on Brock Purdy rookie cards right now and there’s way more of them out there than sealed copies of KOTOR.

The pallets of Nintendo Power magazines are in the same room as the pallets of VHS Nukie and 9.8 A++ Super Mario 64

6 hours ago, GPX said:

I’m curious to know if you’re making an assumption that there must be low numbers for a crazy high price to exist? Are you ever sceptical about the end prices of some of the auctions? 
 

While I’ll admit I don’t know a thing about VHS prices, but nearly 5-figures for a bid just seems a crazy price that doesn’t seem organic whatsoever. 

 

The pallets of this VHS are in the same room as the pallets of 9.8 A++ Super Mario 64.

5 hours ago, darkchylde28 said:

Let me preface this by saying that it is not my intent to stir the pot.

I ran across this earlier today and had quite the chuckle, then was immediately reminded of everything discussed in the heyday of this thread.

 

$80,400 and counting. VHS sales record has been broken and the auction still has 2 days left. Don’t worry, there are still pallets of this VHS that still exist that people are sitting on.

7 hours ago, kiljo said:

This is a really good way of putting my question, because this is exactly what I was trying to ask!

I used to play Magic the Gathering and it has the same disparity... I feel like the true worth for grading with collectable cards is getting them authenticated, which I guess is a concern with games as well (but faking boards seems a lot harder than cards...)

Very true. However, that won’t stop new companies from forming and grading fake stuff. The card industry has/had a bunch of grading companies pop up that “authenticate” fake cards and trim cards to be mint and grade them gem mint. This is what buyers need to watch out for- company integrity is key. I’m certain some new grading companies will eventually pop up down the road doing the same thing, but grading reproduction video game boxes with fake components and slabbing them to sell as genuine.

23 years ago Beckett valued a Joe Montana rookie card at $200. Then, they added a new section - the PSA graded section. A PSA 9 mint Joe Montana “booked” for $800. Ungraded mint vs graded mint. That same exact thing is happening to video games all these years later. 

I grade cib that has a near perfect box and of course all of the supporting elements that might be 8 or higher. For sealed, the seal has to be perfect- no scuffs or breaks. A++ seals are hard to come by. Rarer than 9.8 grades but that’s just my opinion

41 minutes ago, OptOut said:

Yep!

Literally opened a brand new old-stock game from a game store here, and there was corrosion on the cart pins! Real common to find warped, bent manuals and rusted staples in sealed games too.

Who KNOWS what horrors lurk inside the sealed innards of the 1.56 million dollar Super Mario 64!!! 

Thats why we gotta open them all!

For real with the manuals though, I think that some games not stored properly, games that see big temp changes over seasons, or even games living in a cold weather area and moving to a warm weather area, something happens to the manuals where they curl up over time inside.