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Pricing sealed games


rester

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Hey all,

 

I'm new to the forum so apologies if the question sounds naive.

When you get a hold of a sealed game, does it always make sense to grade it and sell it as such, or selling it on eBay as simply sealed will get you roughly the same outcome?

I found it really hard to get a feel for what a fair price for a sealed game should be and what the gap between a sealed game and the same exact game with a plastic case and a Wata label you can get for $50 should be... 

One one end, I see people asking ludicrous amounts for graded games, on the other end, looking at how much people actually pay for graded games on eBay makes me feel like multi-thousand dollars deals on Wata games are mostly wishful thinking, especially when you get past original Nintendo stuff (there are of course a few that are legit).

Pricecharting is completely useless in this regard and eBay is the only source of actual transactions but it's super spotty and it's unlikely you find the same exact game you own since sealed games are so rare... 

I have a few PS1 sealed games and one one end I don't want to be the idiot selling something for $500 when I could have made $10,000, on the other end I don't want to be that guy that feels like they have the most precious game on earth and ask for 10,000 when his stuff is worth less than $100. 

What do you guys think?

 

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Game by game basis. Grading rarer sealed games would boost your profit more. Also, just because they are sealed doesn’t mean they will grade high, people are looking for those sealed and 9.6+. Grading common games you’d probably loose money on. Lots of people on here with way more experience in this arena though who will weigh in I’m sure. Just hypothesizing from what I have seen. 

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Research and Experience...... oh and a little bit of luck 🙂 best to try and follow a few people on Instagram who are heavy into posting their WATA grades stuff, what some YouTube videos on the topic and pull up all the wata related articles. It’s all still relatively new so there’s no hard rules to anything besides get it graded by WaTA 

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20 hours ago, rester said:

I have a few PS1 sealed games and one one end I don't want to be the idiot selling something for $500 when I could have made $10,000, on the other end I don't want to be that guy that feels like they have the most precious game on earth and ask for 10,000 when his stuff is worth less than $100. 

There's quite a bit to unpack here, so you'll need to narrow this down.

I'll give you few basic points about the sealed/graded market, and once you've had some time to give it some thought, and provide more information, I might be able to help answer your question. first thing's first, know your market, and your target consumer. Selling graded NES games is NOT the same as selling graded PS1 games, similarly, selling RPGs is NOT the same as selling shooters, or platformers, or action/adventure games or obscure rare titles. 

Second, you have to decide whether to sell RAW or graded. the fundamental rule of grading anything is to provide assurance/confirmation to the buyer. the biggest factor in making this decision is CONDITION. Only grade items that you think will grade high, this means they have no or very few flaws. What determines a high grade varies from system to system. For PS1 games, the main things it look for is cracks, cello tears, scuffing, tightness of shrink wrap, corner wear, security seal warping, hole punches, stickers, dings, yellowing, and hangtab damage, almost in that order, there are more flaws but those are the main ones when it comes to PS1 jewel cases. The absolute worst flaws to have are cracks. If you see ANY crack in the case, don't even think about sending it for grading, it's an automatic 75 7.5 regardless of condition, which is a useless grade. You're better off selling it raw at that point, and saving yourself the cost of grading. If you grade it, you only validate that it's a poor copy to the consumer, and you will have a very hard time selling it. Having loose discs generally does not affect the grade, and sometimes the graders are able to pop the disc back in without opening the seal.

Third, if you decide to grade you need to determine whether to go with WATA or VGA, they are two completely different markets, and you need to be able to navigate through either to make an informed decision. More on that later.

Lastly, pricing; this depends on so many things... I'll give you an example, say you 5 different copies of FFVII black label for sale for the PS1, all in sealed condition but with slight variances;

1. Black Label Masterpiece Misprint - RAW sealed ungraded with Y-Fold seal, no cracks, no cello tears, nice condition

2. Black Label - Realistic Violence print, with overlap Seal - Graded 80+

3. Black Label - Masterpiece Misprint - Y-Fold VGA graded in 75+

4. Black Label - Comic Mischief variant - Overlap seal, WATA graded 9.2 A+

5. Black Label - Comic mischief variant - graded with overlap seal, VG 90+

At face value, you might think same game, all sealed, all black label, so price must be similar, and that would be completely false. The price variance between all these copies is in the thousands. Item 1 and item 4 are closest in value, only because both are of similar condition, the Masterpiece variant is more desirable, but the game's condition has not been validated by a grading company, whereas item 4 has. item 1 has the potential to sell very high in an auction, but at face value in the current market both would be valued ~ $3000. items 2 has the less desirable overlap seal, less desirable Realistic violence but with 80+ silver grade. Since its condition has been established, this item would not sell any more than $1500. item 3 is in a unique spot, because it is graded, and is a desirable print, but with a low grade. This item typically would be valued at $1500-$2000, but since most consumers willing to spend that kind of money in an item only want something of high quality, this item would have a very difficult time finding a buyer. Consumers with the ability to afford its value are not interested, and the ones that are interested are priced out. To find a willing buyer, you'd need to take a loss, and sell to a lower market. Which takes us to item 5, because gold graded copies of this game are generally hard to find, even 10 years back, this kind of item would attract the very high end of the market. Even though it is not the more desirable Y-Fold, or the masterpiece misprint, any grade higher than VGA 90 (or equivalent Wata 9.6 A++ / 9.8 A+ - do not confuse WATA grading with VGA they are not the same), particularly for a popular title generally not kept sealed during its release, can go for a very high premium. Historically, similar copies have sold for $5000+. 

In contrast, say you have a flawed (cello tears, minor cracks) black label copy, ungraded for sale, the best you can hope to sell it for is $500-700, asking for more would mean sitting on it for a very long time. 

This is basically it in a nutshell, it all depends on the popularity and demand for the title, whether it's Hot or Not in the current market, and whether it's in good condition or flawed condition. 

 

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My advice is first to study and better understand what grading services are about. Once you can understand the basic premise of their services, then things will flow easier from there. Also perhaps study closely pics or (ideally) actual graded items to have a better sense of “what grades mean what condition.”

As a rule of thumb, if a graded game is in a condition that can easily be bought as ungraded, then it will be a hard sell, or worth similar to an ungraded game. Condition needs to be scarce to make grading sensible/justifiable. 

How to sell at an appropriate price? Trial and error! But really, prices are seemingly too volatile to be absolutely precise. Expect the unexpected, that’s my current philosophy.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 6/28/2020 at 5:16 PM, GPX said:

My advice is first to study and better understand what grading services are about. Once you can understand the basic premise of their services, then things will flow easier from there. Also perhaps study closely pics or (ideally) actual graded items to have a better sense of “what grades mean what condition.”

As a rule of thumb, if a graded game is in a condition that can easily be bought as ungraded, then it will be a hard sell, or worth similar to an ungraded game. Condition needs to be scarce to make grading sensible/justifiable. 

How to sell at an appropriate price? Trial and error! But really, prices are seemingly too volatile to be absolutely precise. Expect the unexpected, that’s my current philosophy.

So for example if we're talking about a sealed Super Mario Bros NES black-box variant (Oval SOQ R), which would easily sell ungraded, would you say the difference in fair market value of a graded vs. ungraded copy would be slim enough to where you would suggest just selling them ungraded? I've wondered about this, because I did notice a sealed ungraded copy just recently sell on eBay in June for $13,200. Or would you say if the seller had this one graded it would've most likely sold for thousands more? Some pics for reference on the condition of this copy:

Screen Shot 2020-07-17 at 4.51.18 PM.png

Screen Shot 2020-07-17 at 4.51.05 PM.png

Screen Shot 2020-07-17 at 4.50.57 PM.png

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On 7/18/2020 at 9:25 AM, dc415707 said:

So for example if we're talking about a sealed Super Mario Bros NES black-box variant (Oval SOQ R), which would easily sell ungraded, would you say the difference in fair market value of a graded vs. ungraded copy would be slim enough to where you would suggest just selling them ungraded? I've wondered about this, because I did notice a sealed ungraded copy just recently sell on eBay in June for $13,200. Or would you say if the seller had this one graded it would've most likely sold for thousands more? Some pics for reference on the condition of this copy:

Screen Shot 2020-07-17 at 4.51.18 PM.png

Screen Shot 2020-07-17 at 4.51.05 PM.png

Screen Shot 2020-07-17 at 4.50.57 PM.png

This looks to be a very nice condition copy (assuming the top and right surfaces are the same as all the other shown surfaces).

I’m a Pal collector so I can’t give you specific advice on the NES markets. Though this looks to be a copy that is worthwhile to be graded because of potentially a high condition status. As a rule of thumb, if you want to guess the profit margins, then you have to study the markets for both ungraded and graded (for similar condition to your copy). Remembering also there are fluctuations with these markets.

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