Woobie

Real on the left, fake on the right. You can see the wing is going through the wrong spot on the title. Usually first thing I check is if the colors look "off" or even just when they dont show a board I dig a bit deeper (especially on more expensive titles...) Usually its "small" details they miss like that.

I am just going to start messaging other sellers on ebay and ask them to raise their prices so I can sell my stuff at market faster. Its win win

That was alot of my initial thought too, alot of this stuff was tossed around and discussed a while ago. I guess partly because of the large sales now its "ohh look what we founnnd!" Knew 90% of the information already, I mean its great its getting more "public attention" but good lord all I see now on every page I am on is just back and forth drama. If you are like "Well he left some info out and its a bit one-sided" you get shit on If you say, "Oh wow thats crazy, cant believe that all these people are connected", you get shit on Its caused such a rift in the community and its like if you point out issues with the video your a WATA shill and "must be too invested in the market". I pointed out issues with the other "report" with the "Population report", like where is he pulling data from? How does he distinguish the same game being sold multiple times? Does he count it twice or is it still just the same one being re-sold. Its tiring, just buy what you want, spend what you want and be happy. I get people being upset because "its affected CIB and loose", I partially disagree with this tho. Covid has driven up anything collectable or "entertainment", some loose has already started to come back down, CIB market felt ripe to start going up though as collectors moved on from loose -> CIB or down from "well im priced out of sealed, might as well get mint CIB instead" Just tired of alot of the divisiveness, People can agree with you or disagree, pointing out flaws on one side or the other doesnt make you a "hater" or a "Shill". Alot of the intelligent debate is watered down by stupidity of "You just must be invested!". Anyways, my 2c and end of my rant

Just going back through looks like we are adding 5-screw Alpha mission? I have one of those as well (Everything in storage for now while working on basement, can send photo later)

Hmmm so just going to point out something The issue I have with using "scientific measure" for grading is like I said previously I feel its "a bit of art, a bit of science", so for example you have everything split up (front - writing, rips, crease, tear, etc). And each is given a specific "maximum" that can be dinged off it. For example, rips- front, the maximum I can "lose" on that is -4 pts, what if half the front of the box was ripped off but the rest was gem mint / no damages anywhere? I dont think anyone in their right mind is going to say "Well yep, thats a 95!" What if the whole top of the box is ripped off ? is that just -4 ? It seems more like each section should have unlimited deductions and perhaps just weighted? But I guess in that case how do you determine what should "weigh" more than other, just food for thought

@Hybrid

So from reading through the whole thing I am pretty sure alot of the points have been touched on already but I might as well re-iterate. I have seen alot of people trying to start up their own company to "compete" with WATA / VGA, always just seems like a cash grab while "grading is hot" and never seem to be able to make solid arguments for the reason to do it, so: What makes you different? What do you bring to the table that VGA / WATA does not? I noticed you say that your intent was to "meet turn around times, which VGA and WATA currently do not". Thats a bold promise to make as how can you account for things outside of your control? With the current pandemic affecting things like the supply chain for plastics, how can you definitively say that you will always meet your times? What if an Item was submitted and turn around was stated at 30 days, but unexpected situation arose and now its 50 days? Do you honor the 30 or is it now the 50? Whats your background? I know WATA started with deep ties to the community already and felt like a "trusted" source as they already had deep ties to the community / involvement going back many years. They were "trusted" because people knew them, met them, shared stories and collected with them. They had knowledge of "whats a first print? second? third?". The argument can be made that VGA didnt have "deep ties" to the community, but in fairness they were also the first so kind of get a pass (when your the only option on the market, things like that matter less as you're not competing with anyone) How do you intend to "get the market on board"? Alot of folks will not want to go with a 3rd option unless they have good reason to. Someone who has an item graded with the intention of selling it will want others on board to believe that the grading is "established" or "legit". Some might view the graded game from some 3rd company they have never heard of as being worth only as much as a raw copy or potentially less. So where does the "value added" come in? (This is not my personal perspective as I dont grade my stuff to sell, but I am being objective in that currently selling graded games IS a large market) From what I read your intent is to be more consistent with grades, which is a nice thought but I find that somewhat difficult to do. Grading is subjective to an extent. I look at an item and I see 5 flaws, someone else looks at it and sees one I missed, another looks at it and doesnt see as many as I did. How can you confirm every flaw was seen? I can understanding "weighting" each flaw, but missing some is still always going to be a reality or alternatively how "bad" a flaw is can be subjective (crushed box, how much is it crushed? etc etc). I find grading to be a bit more of an art than a science How do you intend to quell market fears that its not just a cash grab? I swear every 2 weeks I see a new "company" popping up wanting to start doing grading but it always feels the same, why didnt you start grading 5-6 years ago if that was something you were passionate about doing ? Is it just a "find a need fill a need" business? What do you feel the current competition is "lacking" aside from turn around times?

Will dig out my copy and snap a photo for you, did you want name on paper / date with that?

I think the difference is in WHO is doing the sexualization. A woman choosing to use her sexuality to make money or whatever else is viewed as empowering because "Its my body its my choice, if I chose to flaunt it and have men cater thats ok" Vs "I want to be viewed as a whole person and it bothers me that people just view me for my sexuality"

Ya, honestly im indifferent to this kind of thing. If there is a market for it and people are willing to pay for it . Its like being a stripper but reaching a wider audience. I can understand the frustration with youtube allowing videos like that as its pretty clearly skirting the line. They seem to have this habit of cracking down on content because "kids might come across it" but is the video even age restricted ? But in terms of someone like this flaunting their body to make money, meh. Some people are just born with natural "Talents" (not necessarily just physical). What if someone was born as a science prodigy? They didnt have to "work as hard" as someone else to get to the same spot (or further) but would I be jealous of them? No, I know I am where I am at because of the work I put in, someone being ahead for other reasons doesnt affect where I am or what I have done. I mean, take actors for example. Sure some definitely have worked to get where they are, but say..megan fox. What do you think made her the big bucks on movies like transformers? Pretty sure its not her acting talent I guess part of it is people would be upset because its "in their hobby"? IE if you considered others competing for the same "resources" as you (Video games) and they essentially have a "higher social standing" because people are willing to just throw money and games a them, yea that can be frustrating, but also understanding those people in 10-15 years when its not as "popular" will just move on to something else anyways

I took the cost they charged to mean the cost to insure the item by the shipping company. And isnt that argument the same as saying that the post office / shipping companies shouldnt charge you "a premium for insurance because they are not licensed to sell insurance" ? I just think call them out for things they should actually be held accountable for, stuff (like this) thats more grey area ? Eh.

I would completely agree with this statement. Postal service does not question you when you state a declared value for insurance. If you say its $100? Its 100, if you say its 10k? Its 10k. They only insure it up to the value you specified

True enough, I suppose the argument can be made one way or the other. - They go based on what you declare the value to be and if a claim is made against them then it is only up to the value you claimed it as (like fedex isnt going to question what you consider something to be valued at, they just say "ok we will insure it up to that value). - Alternatively its a "Cover your ass" situation, someone sends something and says "oh its worth $500" but the reality is its sold for 10k+ recently, to avoid having someone come back with "well I was wrong, it was worth way more I just didnt see those others so now I want the 10k+ for it". Though thats a bit of a stretch argument Realistically I would prefer it that they didnt go one way or the other, give the user the option to insure it or not. If they dont insure it and its damaged...well guess they should of got insurance. And they would only insure it up to the amount specified by the user. If someone doesnt want to put insurance that should be there choice I guess moreso the point I was getting to is that it seems more like they are not "pocketing" the extra they charge for the insurance, its just they force it upon people as opposed to giving them the option to opt out of it or not.

That being said, I do disagree with some things WATA has done I disagree with things like the "pedigree collections" I just find it silly buzz words to draw attention / make some stuff "more valuable" I find the lack of population reports to be kinda frustrating. I can understand in a sense the "well if we release a population report with a small subset of data then the data is skewed" but by now you figure they would of had enough data and they can just update it monthly. That being said I know VGA doesnt release pop reports either, which is also frustrating. I suppose there might be confusion with people crossing stuff over (though honestly it seems more like people cross from VGA -> Wata, I dont know of any situations where someone went the other way) They are pretty bad with the "time estimates" now, I get it, they are busy but yikes...when you say "it will take 30 business days to grade your item" and it takes 2x that....well thats a bit much....5-10 extra days? Sure, stuff comes up. But wow...Shoot high (if you figure "at most" it will take you 60 business days, say 60. If I get my item back in 45? Im pretty stoked) I disagree with slabbing CIB games, just a personal take on it but ugh. Sealed I understand (you're taking an item that would never be opened, preserving that seal), but CIB? You're taking something that has already been taken out, used, is meant to continue to be used then putting it in a slab with a number attached. That pushes the "Games as an investment" angle too much for me. I dont think anyone is buying a graded CIB game and breaking it open to play it. But back on topic in response to OP, yea, you're basically going to have to "Guess" based on other solds (even though its few and far between). A 9.0 A sold on HA for 38,000 and had offers since of 72,000. Obviously without knowing what yours will grade I would just say 50K on it. It sucks having to pay that big premium but guess it is what it is.

Actually? I honestly cant say I have seen this (not saying that its not true, simply that I havent seen it) In regards to the liability I had assumed that was due to insuring the package being shipped. "FedEx, UPS, and Purolator offer similar coverage. Each domestic parcel is automatically covered for a value of up to $100 against loss or damage. As for packages with a value above $100, additional coverage is available for $2 to $5 per $100 of coverage." So its automatically covered for up to $100, and then 2% - 5% beyond that. The way I read WATAs wording then is that: 0-1000: Cost is included as a part of the grading 1000-2499: Sliding scale up to a maximum of 2% 2500+: 2% of value So the way I read it, basically once it starts to get to 2500+, since they are fully declaring value / insuring it fully, they are charged 2% (at a minimum) and are just passing that cost on to the consumer