I would only do grading and sealing for nintendo items, the market for those seems foolish and willing to pay a lot of money. And possibly neo geo as well.
Why Neo Geo? Conversions are easily made, and those graders surely won't attempt to open a perfect condition EURO Kizuna given the risk of damaging the sticker. Once it's in the box, there won't be a way to find out whether there's even a manual in there. Who will still pay $1000, let alone $25,000+, for something with the only guarantee for authenticity being a $200 grading service run by some nerds?
Doesn't sound like a sustainable market, seems like a potential bubble. Sounds like a small handful of dedicated enthusiasts with money to burn and listings from dedicated resellers on eBay that sit on these games for years. Also as someone here already pointed out we know they don't have the expertise to "authenticate" games and seals and basically give their paying customers 85+ minimum. It's a scam.
There are some items that received 100%. Some collectors are super proud that they have "the only copy ever to have received xx%", but what a pile of shit this fantasy market is! I saw Japanese versions of Stadium Events going for $2,200... the JPN version is freaking common, you VGA fuckpotatoes! -_-
grading as in giving an item a number is imo pointless. sticking it in a protective box will obviously help preserve it. if people want to do it, let them. Their money, their items. personally i hope the bottom falls out of it though.
Video games are a terrible business to be in, or a "investment" to have. #1 Gamers are first to feel financial problems in economy So here you have people who can't buy any more once economy is bad #2 Games are a generational and emotional experience. Most young people will never care about nes, neo geo or anything prior to ps2. They have no bond with the games, nor any emotional tie to them. So the prime time to sell NES games is when 80's gamers are about to have midlife crisis and want to reclaim their youth. #3 Inability to play the media. If you think you can get a sega cd that works in 40 years, good luck. It will require a ton of work to get one working. By then emulation will be so flawless they will be selling "complete sega cd collection device" on alibaba for $90 Games are about the fun we have with them, the emotions we remember playing them as children, with our children and grandkids. Then there are the hardcore collectors and really nothing short of flawless will do. So that is where the whole sealed 99/100 comes into play. How many people collect so seriously? 1000? 200? How many remain immune to financial issues and don't dump their collection, which will cause values to drop. Everyone wants to know what something is worth. To me all video games are worthless. Their cultural and emotional value however are priceless.
I could take a dump in a box, seal it, mark it as guaranteed, and they'd probably grade it. Useless shit in more ways than one...
I hate grading companies like the VGA with a passion. I am eagerly waiting for the day when someone documents a re-seal, VGA grading, and then re-opening on Youtube to screw with them and prove it is all BS.
Also VGA is what has ruined the market for a lot of collectors, who wish to pick up a game in box for $20, instead it's on ebay for $20,000. VGA is a bunch of bullshit, any collector will know that and just because it's in a box with a so called 'grade' it means fuck all. Only way someone will think that VGA is positive, would be someone who doesn't know their asshole from a hole in the ground.
One more reason I want to start seeing perfect reproduction/replacement boxes, instructions, stickers and so on.
We've had much discussion on our own Arcade and Retro forum in Ireland and find the whole thing distasteful and against everything gamers are about. Buying games and locking them away as collectibles, reducing the availability for others and driving up the cost overall, nasty business. Plus, the prices they come up with are completely fake, might as well be Holland and people selling their grannies for tulip bulbs.
Same, if the price of old video games tanked I wouldn't care, in fact I'd be happy because I'd purchase far more. Craigslist has actually gotten worse than eBay for the most part in my experience, just snake-oil resellers with inflated prices, many of whom look like they came from record reselling when they saw what they thought was another hot market. Good point about optical drives as well, though I'm amazed how many 3DO's and Sega CD's still work 20+ years later, perhaps they have a longer shelf life than once thought, but another 40 years on top of that...yeah, sounds like something in a video game museum or a new CD-ROM laser (though I doubt they will make such a thing in 2054.) Then again...people sell new NES 72-pin connectors... The actual lasers might be replaceable for longer than you'd expect. Fact is even the cartridges and consoles with no moving parts will not last forever either.
This is the reason I bought and xbox with coin ops 5 as pulling carts out all the time will eventually ruin them
