A new grading service in town, CGC

[Niku-Sama]

I know how some of you feel about grading and this is not a discussion about if things should or shouldnt be its a discussion about how this works out in the end compared to other companies.

Ok so i am back from Portland Retro Gaming Expo and i just happened across this booth, I had no idea that CGC was getting into grading games. I know of their comic service of which i've never used but i head good things so i chatted them up a bit and then continued on looking for deals.
well when i couldnt find any takers for my trade bait i went back and thought why the heck not.

I talked a bit more and learned that their process was a lot easier than VGAs strange form and after some of the threads i made here i didnt want to deal with WATA/Heritage Auctions so i took a gamble.

I submitted a game, Project X Zone 2 for 3DS new and sealed. Its a game that doesn't mean much to me but could be beneficial to slab and if it all goes tits up i didnt lose much.
At the time of writing a new sealed ungraded Project X Zone 2 average price is $90. I think i got it for $15 on clearance at a big box store and never got around to playing it.
The process to sign up was easy, they work on a subscription service like some of the others, starting off at $25 if you are looking to submit.

Submission price was about $70 and that includes shipping back to me, since i submitted at the show i was able to save a few bucks by not paying to ship it out.
It is currently mostly only sealed north american released games. I talked to a few people and they were planning on doing other regions soon but the day i submitted the game i had was the first day they were taking submissions.

as i was leaving i saw the guy packing it up, did a good job of it too, not like how some ebay sellers do.

i will keep you posted, it was hard for them to estimate lead time, again first day ever they were doing submissions but the approx was ~30 days

for a short time i'll have the only and highest graded CGC Project X Zone 2 game...

maybe i should brought something a little more interesting, like Odama for gamecube or something

edit:
oh yea, website is here:
https://www.cgcvideogames.com/

[Gameguy]

Does this grading company add value to the games? I know with trading cards certain grading companies are viewed as adding value, while others barely add extra value at all. It depends on what collectors value as the standard grading company for a specific collectible.

Basically I'm wondering if only WATA or VGA graded games will be considered valuable collectibles in terms of sealed video games.

I'd also like to mention that the apparent value of Heritage Auction games is currently imploding with recent auctions selling for significantly less than each preceding auction.

[Niku-Sama]

it can. In general a verified card or comic is worth more than one that isnt, plus at that point its also protected and tracked in the population report, as long as it stays slabbed
i cant say for VGA but WATA is in the shit for some shady business while working with Heritage causing those big prices.
https://ftw.usatoday.com/2022/07/wata-games-lawsuit-market-manipulation-false-advertising
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2022/may/19/game-on-wata-heritage-auctions-face-lawsuit-for-al/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMtjl0O2a4Q

i had considered working with wata for grading some randos i have but the bs they are pulling is pretty bad, plus i found it interesting at the expo that wata and heritage were right next to one another on the vendor floor. seems things are still a bit fishy.
i think these auctions your talking about are also an indirect reason to the overall price hike in the retro gaming collector market. they tried to create the hype that these are all super valuable, like that "rare variant" of SMB3 that sold for absurd monies. sealed is one thing but the rare variant bs about it. its the same box i have and i've had several of them pass through my hands. theres no reason it should have been a record breaker

[Niku-Sama]

OK i've been meaning to get back to this but i've been pretty busy with my new job.

I got my graded test game back on Dec 26th, it was the highlight of my day because i remember vividly trying to fix my uncles van to get him home while hes making things worse like a psychopath. pulling more things out and not putting them back before moving on to test something else. maddening

anyway here it is
10973

10972

https://www.cgcvideogames.com/cert-lookup/results?certNumber=1010011001

it came in a HUGE box with lots of packing but i guess your paying for $20 in shipping back so i guess i see that being warranted now.
they grade on the typical scale 1-10 with one being dog crap and ten being caught and slabbed right out of the womb of the manufacturing facility, stepping up in 0.5 increments till 9 and then 0.2 increments till 9.9 and then finally 10
it was an OK overall experience no major complaints but some minor ones.

the bug they had with their system early on right after submitting sending reminder emails ever hour or less was annoying but not a big deal but after i alerted them about it i was left in the dark and got no notifications after that
the QR code on the back initially didnt work, i just tried it and it does but i was pretty sure it was supposed to link directly to the certificate online and it only brought me to the search page, seems kinda strange. i would think it would help thwart fakes (if people try to fake these) to link directly to it instead of just a search page, attention to detail that some counter-fitter would probably miss.
lastly, it took a while, but they all do i guess

i'm looking to send some more of my more "rare" or valuable to me sealed games