VGA Face Palm (Just read their FAQ)

Yup, I've been noticing auctions from this guy for some time now. Blows my mind how anyone could be pleased when buying from him - even his 100 items have noticeable damage in the pictures. Not to mention it looks like he uses sliding bottom cases made by VGA, flips them upside-down, and then places his label on the "stand" portion of the case - now that is hysterical.

 

VGA is pointless.

it's established itself as a middle man, some sort of 'authority' on the value of games, in a market that simply doesn't need this sort of service. people buy, sell and trade fine without these money hungry bastards stepping into the equation. sickening! I long for the day they are exposed to all as the sham of a company they are.

 

That just isn't the case, VGA don't tell you how much your game is worth, they tell you what condition it's in. If people are correlating VGA's condition rating to value it's their own dumb fault for completely missing the point.

 

Well, they only grade it, that is true. But they claim to be an 'authority' without presenting any references and qualifications for that job.

 

VGA doesn't even tell you the condition of every game...if it's not sealed they won't even take a look at it.

 

They may not grade value, but pointing that out is pedantic, since you knew exactly what he was saying: what makes them authorities? How do they determine whether a the condition of a game is worth 80 or 85 points?

 

I think that's the only way to do it though. Open games add a thousand more variables in terms of completeness and in my opinion, are almost impossible to grade in a fair and comparable way. For example, some flyers or registration cards were only included with certain batches of a print-run (the same serial number, not only in a new Greatest Hits release or something), so a game is not necessarily incomplete if a registration card is missing. However, it would be if it was from the entirely identical looking first print-run. How would you determine that?

Sealed games = original condition. And that condition is evaluated.

Only question that remains unanswered is who the guys are who claim to be capable of giving proper evaluations.

 

Sorry, every time I hear about these VGA people, I think of this:

 

I know what he was saying but using something like that to criticize their business isn't really a fair evaluation of their service and paints an image of them which isn't really true. Sure they present them selves as some sort of "authority" but surely they at least understand what they're doing? Checking the box for crushes or holes, checking the seal for marks or tears, checking for bad odors or visible signs of mold, it's pretty simple to tell someone the condition of a sealed item. The problem is not everyone believes it or is satisfied with the item they've purchased and this service offers people a way to be sure of the items they own and make buyers feel confident in their purchase. The fact that VGA is used as a stepping stone to manipulate rarity and boost value of games has nothing to do with the kind of service they provide, no mater how involved in that they might be.

People buy and sell coins all the time, some are in circulation, some are "untouched" since they left the mint. People look to services to have them graded to look for damage and provide protective casings to prevent chips, scratches, tarnishing, corrosion and other ways in which a coin can be devalued. Funnily enough not every graded coin sky rockets through the roof and has a starting bid of $5000, why? Because people understand the purpose of the service and aren't in it just to make money from fortunate individuals.

Here is an example of one coin grading service, I am not sorry that VGA at least tried to provide a similar service for game collectors, regardless of their background or qualifications. It's just a shame the market is the way it is and they get so much scrutiny for something which the community are responsible for.

http://www.pcgs.com/about/

 

That coin company has plenty of people who've written published material on the subject though. Where's anything made by the guys at VGA that'd prove they know what they're talking about? A scale of grading is pretty stupid anyway, since who cares about some arbitrary number that someone pulled out of their ass? Isn't it enough that some people argue about what it means when an item is in "mint" condition? Can't wait to see when people start sperging someone's games CLEARLY being 90 instead of 90+.

 

Personally I think they are a rip off, especially at their prices.
Also, to encourage collectors to take the risk of posting their prized possessions there and back is such a bad idea and I'd never be interested in a VGA graded item BUT...
I completely understand why they exist, and why people use, and trust them.

The reality behind it is that buying and collecting on eBay is a dangerous game at the best of times, at least in this case, you have some sort of assurance that the item is actually sealed, and in good condition.

As for unsealed items... VGA simply look at a sealed item and essentially say if it's bashed or creased etc.
If the game was unsealed, they'd need proper experts on all games. People who know if that NGPC game has a pink or yellow slop, and that Japanese Saturn game has a spine card with whatever written on it, and that precautions leaflet revision 10B should be in that N64 game etc..
Never going to happen.

If they offered some sort of insurance on their gradings, they'd probably be able to charge even more.

Chris

 

No links must use screencap

 

Because it's the community who pull arbitrary figures out their ass on sites like eBay with words like mint, rare, limited and other bull crap which is only as good as the word of the person who is selling it. I could sell you a game on eBay and say SUPER MINT with some really convincing photographs yet when you receive the item it could just be near mint in your eyes and not only have you bought a game that's not in the condition you wanted but you now have to endure more bull crap as you try and get your money back. Grading services a meant to help avoid that and stop people getting ripped off, as opposed to being abused for the complete opposite reasons... Whether they're qualified, I don't know, but I'm not displeased by the fact that someone is at least trying to do that for the gaming market.

I guess game collecting isn't quite as serious as coin collecting in which it's actually desirable for some people to own coins of a given condition. Tiny factors like a thumb print change the nature of an item completely to some collectors, I don't think game collectors are that concerned about it so from that respect I can understand why this kind of service isn't taken seriously.

 

So what makes the VGA grade reliable or worth anything? I've been trying to get an answer, but nobody has provided me with one yet. What makes an arbitrary number by some wannabe authorities credible?

 

Because it's an arbitrary number based on one scale from one company, as opposed to a million different scales dependant only on the person selling on eBay, someone who may or may not be totally honest about the item in question. If VGA create a scale and grade each item fairly according to that same scale, you can be confident that any item given a particular grade IS going to be the condition described relative to the rest of your collection.

If you collect VGA graded games which are (I'm making this up for an example) graded 75 and above, you know any item above 75 doesn't have a broken seal because it was graded by VGA and VGA will not grade an item higher than 74 with a broken seal. So 74 means broken seal, 75 means intact seal, where as John your not so local game dealer could just say "mint" and you still have no idea what you're getting (John probably can't be bothered to get out an eye piece and inspect the seal for you because he just wants fast money and isn't really interested in losing a sale to a small imperfection he cares nothing about).

 

Oh my god, that's amazing.

I kinda want to offer $250, see what he says.

 

I tried $250 just for kicks, it was auto declined so he set a minimum on best offer.

 

VGA themself don't price these.

However, it's dickhead sellers who think some "authority" makes the price of the game x200. Every time I see a VGA GRADED!!!!! in the title I don't bother clicking the link, no matter how rare.

 

lol can't believe there's people selling wii:u's for the much, and even getting them graded, might actually be worth the price they are now new... in about 20 years....

 

They're just taking money from suckers. There's one born every minute, so they say.