GPX

You have a right to be cautious and paranoid, particularly when we’re dealing with a ton of cash! Though I believe there is still a general misconception about the grading of games. Nowadays, like you are pointing out, there are an increasing numbers of fakes. The grading of games actually helps to deter these fake sellers, and useful for the casual collector not keen on opening up their carts and doing a thorough inspection. By having grading companies like VGA and WATA, it takes away most of the guessing regarding authenticity of the game in question. Are they ethical? Personally I’m saying yes, as there is a genuine consistency in their work. However, grading companies have their own flaws/mistakes/limitations and people need to understand to not expect perfection in their services. Is it right for you? Well my advice is try and see for yourself, ideally buy a few of the cheaper graded games or submit a few of your sealed games to find out.

Still seems a ridiculously out of balance trade if supposedly the card is worth $160,000. Considering an NWC cart has never sold more than 100K previously. Even if an 8.0 is a relative high grade, why would it suddenly jump higher than the 100K value of the sealed Mario? What’s the real rationale of the trade as opposed to selling the card for around $150K and offering a decent cash for the NWC with some spare cash of around $50-75K?

Congrats to the 2 new staff members! The site can only look better with extra art bits. Regarding the mascot change, I like the new look - modern and charming! Though I did notice a neat subliminal message in the old mascot, which I forgot to mention until now:

How does that score compare to the current high score for the NWC carts?

All good. Just thought I’d expand on it a bit.

As per title, what game have you spent the most money on AND actually playing it all the way through to completion? In recent years, I’ve owned and playtested a lot of the rare and expensive games, but would never play them anymore than 5 minutes for the mint/expensive titles. My game for this topic would have to be Street Fighter 2 bought when it was first released in 92, at the outlandish price of $130 AUD. Extremely expensive for its time but probably money well spent!

This argument is moot with CIB graded games. Plenty of CIBs to go around for everyone. And if you have the urge to play original games, then one has to wonder why you would bother buying a graded game in the first place?

No doubt the promotional aspect of the company is a raging success. It just seems the promotion is way out of proportion to their level of meeting with the demands. Hopefully things will improve in 2020.

I doubt that the Maddens on N64 are more common than the Mario 64. Just that Mario 64 is a classic and buyers are likely to keep it as memento than the Maddens. From my experience with Pal Australian versions, Star Wars Episode I Racer is probably the most common, followed by Mario 64.

From a casual observer, it seems in the past 12 months, WATA has been more interested in price hikes, price pumps, Pawn Stars, than what they are advertising their services ie. to grade the games! Another thing, due to all the hype and hysteria, I can only imagine them being backlogged with hundreds of CIB Mario Bros 1/2/3, and a mother load of CIB black boxes!

The topic question is actually two (ambiguous) questions merged into one: 1. Do you consider unlicensed NES “Nintendo games”? - yes, because they play on Nintendo NES - no, because they weren’t approved by Nintendo. (Both answers are correct) 2. Do you consider unlicensed NES games to be part of the Nintendo games set to collect for? - no, they weren’t official releases by Nintendo - yes, they’re part of the “games set” on Nintendo (Both answers are correct)

My, what a sexy stack of tubs! And I like the handle colors with different storage coding.

Get on Pawn Stars and try to sell something rare that I own for 1 billion dollars. Wish me luck guys!

To me, the best collection is the one that is unique and has a defined criteria. It’s all about the genuine passion of the collector by the end of the day, not so much the numbers or the percentage of fullness in their sets.

What you highlighted were 2 examples that possibly went wrong. You need to weigh them all up with what also went right. This should be the main focus on any grading services - the relative pros versus the relative cons. Bearing in mind also that VGA probably has made other errors in their standard (non-Qualified) grading and WATA isn’t error-less in what they do in the past couple of years too. From my end, I am a witness of some positives with the Qualified scale. 2 examples being that I sent off 2 games on separate occasions, thinking they were legit new (but opened), having bought them as old retail stock. They were both rejected because: - one had a slightly used cart with very minor wear to the label - one had missing consumer pamphlets Whilst it initially annoyed me that the games were rejected, it made me feel more reassured that the Qualified ratings does help to rule out the majority of the mint CIBs masquerading as brand new.

I think Qualified games will have different meaning (or value) depending on which part of the world you’re from. By that, I mean in some countries (eg. Australia), a lot of the games here did not come with factory seals eg. SNES/N64. So it’s much more common to see “Qualified” grading over here in Oz, compared with the standard VGA rating. Accordingly, they are priced under the normal VGA rating but typically are sold at a higher price than a mint CIB. The examples that I’ve noticed: - “Qualified” Zelda Ocarina Oz* vs MIB Zelda Ocarina Oz = 4:1 - “Qualified” Conkers BFD Oz* vs MIB Conkers BFD Oz = 5:1 *(referencing Q85+) ———— @jonebone, have you noticed a significant price increase of Q games (particularly gold grades) relative to the MIB? Curious to know what the ratio is like for the US counterparts.

The thing is, that mentality of high end video game collecting has always been there since I started around 8-9 years ago (sealed, first prints, variants, mint). It’s just that now it’s been hyped up like there’s no tomorrow.

1. SF2 - have not spent more coins on an arcade before it or after it. Also the game that costed me the most dollar when buying it upon first release - $130 AUD back in 1992! 2. Double Dragon, Golden Axe, Turtles arcade, Final Fight, Streets of Rage. 3. Wii Play - most fun I’ve had in a party, easy to get into for friends who don’t have gaming experience. 4. N/A

Or... it could be a legit factory sealed with factory error. One of a kind factory fault with wires poking through the seal!

Qualified = BNIB (Brand New in Box, opened) I see Qualified as the love child of a CIB and a sealed game. It’s an in-between.

Yes. A dead spider with a couple of spider webs inside a game cart. Luckily I got a refund.

With the increasing popularity of WATA and CIB grading, I’m curious to know if this will set off a chain reaction of other niche markets of collecting. More specifically, will this trigger more interest in those games which qualify under the label of “Qualified” under VGA grading subgroup? For those not in the know, a “Qualified” game means a game that is brand new (with unused contents) but either: - has its original factory seal broken, or - box is opened but contents remain unused. The key distinction between a CIB game vs Qualified game, is that contents are used vs unused, respectively. Also, a CIB game may have some missing contents eg. pamphlets/maps/posters, whereas a “Qualified” game technically comes with ALL original contents that came with factory productions. TLDR - anyone with newfound love for the “Qualified”?

I think this issue won’t be much of an issue in the long run. I think people in time will just hold onto their CIBs before grading until a mint cart/manual comes along first. To grade and then regrade just adds to the costs and the time wastage, and seems like an inefficient (and costly) manner if the overall aim is to get the highest grade possible.

I think it depends on the situation. If it’s to do with a respected seller and one I’ve dealt with several times, I would tell them about the fault, because a good seller would try and work out a resolution that’s fair for both parties. Also, it would make me feel more confident of maintaining a relationship with said seller. If it’s minor flaws or likely unintended flaws, then I might just let it pass. This is partly expected of our hobby, and unreasonable to expect perfect transactions in all cases.

This thread is dedicated to gaming of the multiplayer variety. Games where more than 1 controller ports are being utilized. Games where you got embarrassed bad by some other fella in front of a crowd. Games where you throw cuss words at the computer screen, having been decked by some anonymous online gamer on another part of the planet. You get the idea.. Let’s break it down to a few simple themes: 1. Best “1 vs 1” game(s)? 2. Best “co-op” game(s)? 3. Best party game(s)? 4. Best online multiplayer game(s)?