Sealed MarioLand Gameboy Game Graded at 85-90?

[Ze_ro]

Please elaborate. Wouldn't the customer realize that the seam was different/incorrect? Or wouldn't you at least notice the weight difference?

In my opinion, the sealed game scene is so young that people really don't have the experience yet to tell the difference between a legitimate seal and a reseal. People at NA have tried to make lists of how NES games were sealed, but there are variants out there (known and unknown), and there are tons of people who have easy access to the kind of equipment used to seal things. I can't imagine spending hundreds or thousands on a rare sealed game when for all I know, the seller has already replaced the cartridge and manual with SMB/DH so he can dump the loose cart and manual on eBay for even more money.

Slabbing games seems even more ridiculous... if the best people in our hobby often can't tell the difference between a factory seal or a reseal, then why on earth would anyone trust VGA with it? But hey, no one will ever open up that slab or tear off the shrinkwrap to find out anyways, because they're too worried the game will lose it's value... so who cares, right?

When we're reduced to trying to judge the age of plastic, or trying to look for signs that a box flap may have once been opened, then I think we really need to reexamine our priorities in this hobby.

--Zero

[jb143]

I think everyone is just bitter that they didn't think up the idea first. Buy a bunch of cheap plasctic cases, collect money and a boxed game from people, open the box and replace the treasure hidden inside with a bag of dirt weighing about the same, seal the box inside previously mentioned plasctic case, assign an arbitrary value to it, sent it to your customer, laugh all the way to the bank.

[Bojay1997]

Check the price-check section in NintendoAge or the "what's it worth" section of SealedGameHeaven.

Apparently, DP members prefer flaming to being helpful...

Or we care so much about this hobby that we don't want the dozen or so morons who are sending stuff in to get graded, listing and re-listing the same games on Ebay, all the while either faking bids or selling to each other to actually start a new market for their crap, thereby encouraging others to do the same which in turn makes collecting harder and more expensive for the rest of us.

[Zoltor]

I'm all for grading, but only if It's properly graded lol.

A box with massive damage or wide crush marks/creases shouldn't be getting 9.0/90 ratings, hell they shouldn't even be giving them 8.0/80 ratings, let alone 8.5/85.

Properly graded, and sealed in a "hard case"(to prevent future damage) should increase to value to about "double"(not the 400%+ that people are puting them on ebay at) of what it would normally be worth in said condition, however with the crappy grading, and sealing being shouwn in this thread, it would actually probally detract from the value if anything, not add to it.

[tubeway]

How do other sealed collectible markets compare? Action figures are easy, since most show the full product through a window in the packaging or a blister pack. But what about records and movies? Laserdiscs? Those are all forms of media where the product is almost completely hidden by the packaging.

[Bojay1997]

How do other sealed collectible markets compare? Action figures are easy, since most show the full product through a window in the packaging or a blister pack. But what about records and movies? Laserdiscs? Those are all forms of media where the product is almost completely hidden by the packaging.

I'm not aware of any companies grading and sealing those materials for the same reasons that game grading/sealing is ridiculous. All they would really be grading is the outer box and wrap. Nobody will ever know what the game inside looks like or the manual looks like until they open it. Unlike an action figure or comic where you can actually grade the whole item, this ignores a huge part of the product and the underlying function of the item (i.e. whether or not the game plays). For those reasons and for many others, I doubt game grading/sealing will ever take off beyond the handful of people doing it currently.

[Bojay1997]

I'm all for grading, but only if It's properly graded lol.

A box with massive damage or wide crush marks/creases shouldn't be getting 9.0/90 ratings, hell they shouldn't even be giving them 8.0/80 ratings, let alone 8.5/85.

Properly graded, and sealed in a "hard case"(to prevent future damage) should increase to value to about "double"(not the 400%+ that people are puting them on ebay at) of what it would normally be worth in said condition, however with the crappy grading, and sealing being shouwn in this thread, it would actually probally detract from the value if anything, not add to it.

I can't tell if you are being sarcastic or if you really are a moron and think that all those pictures are anything other than clever attacks on the stupidity of paying someone to grade a game and stick it in a sealed plastic case.

[Icarus Moonsight]

*stares at a DVD trying to view the content*
*still trying*
*losing hope*

I'd have to conclude; I don't think it's the packaging that's the problem.

[Zoltor]

How do other sealed collectible markets compare? Action figures are easy, since most show the full product through a window in the packaging or a blister pack. But what about records and movies? Laserdiscs? Those are all forms of media where the product is almost completely hidden by the packaging.

Well the best/most stable, and reliable grading system in a collectable market, I would have to say is PSA rating of sports cards/non sports cards(aka like MTG cards).

The only issue with PSA, is they don't recognize signatures/signed non sports cards as a collectable aspect(which it is, just like it is with sports cards, well as long as It's the actual artist who signed it anyway), so they wont grade any signed cards(which is bound to eventually change), but other then that, they're perfect at what they do, and thus exceptionally reliablr(which inturn creates a stable market for graded cards).

[megasdkirby]

The value is the same as an ungraded game. No, that doesn't count when some retard, who you seem to be aspiring to, puts their game on eBay for 400% the going rate and it sits their for 7 months, until some other moronic opportunistic buys it, only to put it back up immediately for 600% the going rate.

VGA is making a killing by pretending to increase value of sealed titles when all they are doing is rubbing their dick on your game before making an arbitrary meaningless rating and sticking it into a plastic box. Meanwhile, they have your money and you have the same thing you had before.

Keep supporting this bullshit and watch it all collapse like comic books when they start grading CIB games and carts.

Portnoyd, you are my new hero.

Really, what is the entire purpose of this "grading" bullshit anyway? It's not like it will magically make the person who holds it popular or grant the person an assload of money. There is simply NO reason why this grading system exists in the first place.

I keep seeing this bullshit appear on both Ebay and Amazon, and it's quite retarded. A nice complete copy for $30 or some game graded by some unknown jackoff for $400?

What's worse? Some idiot WILL eventually purchase the $400 copy. What the hell?

People who send in sealed games to get graded, and then immediately put them on eBay are the heart and soul of this hobby.

--Zero

QFT.

[GameBoyGeek]

Well this thread has officially helped make up my mind about grading. I had thought about having several of my factory sealed games graded and to be honest I thought it was kinda stupid. Glad curiosity didn't get the best of me. In the long run I don't know that people arnt opening my games and trying to reseal them. Im not much of a sealed game collector I'll buy them if i find them in stores or video game shops like game over. But Ive only bought 2 sealed games from eBay. Hagen final conflict and a case of donkey Kong land 3 games still in the Nintendo shipping box.

[EColeman24]

Off topic, but the above photo of Indiana Jones brings to mind the new season of Robot Chicken. Anyone seen the episode where they have the guys constructing the tunnel up to the idol explaining everything as he goes to the chief of the tribe? And the chief is freaking out on all the money being spent!

Heeeelarrious!

Robot chicken never ceases to amaze and amuse me!! I try not to miss an episode of that show...thank god for DVR

[Jorpho]

Really, what is the entire purpose of this "grading" bullshit anyway? It's not like it will magically make the person who holds it popular or grant the person an assload of money. There is simply NO reason why this grading system exists in the first place.

Oh, sure there is. As long as people are picky about getting sealed games, they're going to be picky about the condition the sealed games are in. As the point of collecting sealed games eludes me in the first place, I can't elaborate much beyond that.

[darkslime]

Yeah it does grant the person an assload of money if it gets a high grade because some fucktard will buy it for an inflated price.

I'm thinking of getting some of my shit graded and letting it sit on eBay for awhile. It'll sell eventually.

[tubeway]

Even better: The people that one-up sealed game collectors by collecting sealed shipping cartons that have like six copies of the same game. Imagine one of those behind plexiglass with a grading sticker. Oh, the joys of our hobby and the neurotic collectors that exist on its fringes.

[megasdkirby]

Oh, sure there is. As long as people are picky about getting sealed games, they're going to be picky about the condition the sealed games are in. As the point of collecting sealed games eludes me in the first place, I can't elaborate much beyond that.

But don't they (VGA) open the games before placing them in that stupid plastic? If they did, it just lost all rarity value. I'm not too sure about this though, but it would be shocking if they did open the game to verify the contents.

[darkslime]

There's really no way to tell. For all we know the VGA opens the game up and puts some rocks in equal to the weight of the video game, then sells the cart and manual on eBay.

[Zoltor]

But don't they (VGA) open the games before placing them in that stupid plastic? If they did, it just lost all rarity value. I'm not too sure about this though, but it would be shocking if they did open the game to verify the contents.

Holy crap, they better not open factory sealed boxes or not only does it completely defeat the purpose of getting something graded, but it also drops the value of the item down by an insane amount.

[Jimmy Yakapucci]

Holy crap, they better not open factory sealed boxes or not only does it completely defeat the purpose of getting something graded, but it also drops the value of the item down by an insane amount.

Don't worry. They don't open the boxes. This, of course, means that they are only grading a box and not the game. At least with a comic book they also examine all the pages during the grading process. I can't remember the name of the overseas grading site, but from looking at their grading scale they take off more for an imperfection in the shrink wrap than they do if the disc has popped off the spindle and is rattling around in the case. Yes sir, you have a mint 10 case on that game that is now probably all scratched up. Go figure.

JY

[megasdkirby]

I can't remember the name of the overseas grading site, but from looking at their grading scale they take off more for an imperfection in the shrink wrap than they do if the disc has popped off the spindle and is rattling around in the case. Yes sir, you have a mint 10 case on that game that is now probably all scratched up. Go figure.

JY

It would be funny if the game is graded solely on the box, yet there is no actual game INSIDE the box.