Thanks for watching! Do you grade your games? If so, why or why not?

At the core, I don't mind graded games. What I do mind is the speculation, the grift, the incited-FOMO, the greed, and the weird culture it has spawned.

Imagine buying a game just to trap it within a seal that cannot be opened forever. What a waste of money

People don't seem to understand or (at least pretend not to) that you have every right to buy what you want and collect what you want, but you don't have the right not to be challenged or criticized for it.

I love graded games.... and I love not graded games. I don't understand the hate

Sometimes this whole argument re: graded games is silly to me. Its not one or the other. There's a 3rd option: you can collect multiple things. Its humanly possible to have a game collection that happens to contain graded games as well as loose, complete, sealed, whatever makes you happy!

Grading games is such a grift . It’s everything wrong with the retro game collecting community. Having a piece of plastic around another piece of plastic doesn’t make plastic more expensive. People have decided that is what gives it meaning . Games were meant to be played. I started retro game collecting 11 years ago . The older I get the more ridiculous collecting gets . The wata weirdos should just get into art collecting . My parents have all my old baseball cards , one of these days. I’ll finally bring them home with me . At the end of the day, anyone can do whatever they want with what they purchases, But the people who try to push game grading on others and try to legitimize it as if it is a total normal thing do far more harm than they do good.

I like to play my games, so I don't want to have my stuff graded. I went through a phase where I collected without really playing them, I ended up with a closet full of junk that I never touched or forgot I even owned. I purged pretty much every thing I owned back when I first got married and yes every now and then I feel that regret bug creepy in but then I just look up a full gameplay video of it and that regret feeling goes away. Today I do still pick up some old games here & there but I usually price cap what I find, if its $5 or less sure why not but I will never pay over MSRP of any game. For me personally it just doesn't feel worth it, video game is a relaxing hobby for me to play and enjoy.

I was into art 25 years ago. Everything degrade. My 2nd grade drawings that I have done since 1987 became lighter color of gray and the paper turn yellow. Some of my paintings from mid 90s-2000 just lost its true color. The 2nd grade drawing was kept in a folder and in a tighted close box. Same can be said about Old Master paintings and protective framed. The Old Master Painting colors are chipped away. The Old Master Painting must be repainted again and have art preservative chemical but even that will wear out eventually. You probably heard of NO flash photography on Old Master Paintings. Here are the reasons why. Moisture and dryness. Lights and radiation or UV lighting. Time Material use State of decay In case of these people who collect this, the product must be in an atmosphere of total darkness, tightly sealed with practically no moisture and for a long time will the art be preserved. It will degrade eventually but slowly in that kind of environment. The difference is how can anyone repaint an image done by a printer. Edit. You have a bunch of baseball cards. Was the color as vibrant when you 1st bought them?

When it comes to grading games I am not a fan of it. I don't like how it turns a toy into an investment. When it comes to grading comic books and trading cards I have less of a problem with games because it keeps them well protected from the elements. Grading sealed games is not as bad as when loose games are graded. I would never get a game graded and I am not the person who would buy one though there have been times I considered it. A few years ago I saw on eBay a graded loose cartridge of Panic Restaurant for what at the time was actually a fair price for it. I would have bought it and opened it but I passed on it. I would never buy a graded game at full market value with the intent of flipping it. I really do not care about the condition of my games as long as I have it available to play, even if I don't have the time to play it. I have some games that look terrible and am fine with it. When it comes to buying games, I buy a game if I am comfortable with the price. if a game is too expensive, which may or may not be market value, I would not buy it. I have overpaid on items before but they were on items that were rare/unusual enough that if I didn't buy it then I might not have had any other opportunity anytime soon. This past week I saw a Gamecom for sale, something I do not see very often. Price seemed a little high and I passed on it. It was higher than what they go for on eBay. I am glad I did not buy it. I don't go out of my way to collect variants, they just seem to happen. Sentimental value and the history of a specific copy of a game are priceless. I collect/collected other non video gaming items over the years such as comics, Funko Pops, Beanie Babies, Webkinz, coins, videotapes, board games, trains, toy cars, etc. but video games have been my main focus when it comes to collecting. I have spent a lot of money on games that I would rarely play just to have in my collection but I don't see it as an investment. Grading games is a waste of money but it is the money of the person who is getting it graded so be it. My Star Wars figures are almost all unopened unless if I bought it loose. When you showed the Spongebob meme, that is Man Ray, not a robot.

The problem with grading is that it's a grift. Like, because a group of self-proclaimed 'experts' gave your game an arbitrary score and stuck it in an acrylic case, I'm supposed to pay you an extra $3,000? Yeah.. no.

Grading a common game seems silly and grading a rare game that’s already worth high value seems redundant. Just doesn’t make sense. You can preserve games with needing a grade number attached

As a collector, I don't grade because I collect to keep, but I have no issue with it. However, as a buyer, I never buy graded games, not because I think it's bad, I just don't find value in it versus a CIB game in good or better condition. If/when I buy a game, I will play it and I feel that's counterintuitive to what graded games are about.

8:22 it literally says collectors edition on the front? Maybe I’m misunderstanding your point

I think it’s STOOPID (purposely spelled) that people grade their games and or collect/buy graded games. Games are literally made to be played. There is no ifs or buts about that. A developer doesn’t sit there and work thousands of hours on a game and think to themselves: “I really hope Mr Chris purchases my game and never plays it but instead grades it to display it or make a profit from it”. I literally open and play every single game I collect. That is the point of gaming. I don’t consider collectors, gamers. A gamer is someone that actually plays their game. But hey, waste your money I guess

Graded collectors are the new sealed collectors. Prior to grading the target with a bullseye on their back was sealed collectors (and to a lesser extent CIB collectors). Many of the primary talking points against Graded games now were used then. "What's the point of keeping games sealed? Games are meant to be played!". An oft used phrase. Sealed collectors were often mocked for 'wasting' money on new games when they could instead buy used games for less. To an extent this was even present in the fight against CIB collectors who were seen as elitist or fools for spending all of that extra money on cardboard and paper when the cart was all you needed to play the game. Grading in general has absolutely no impact on 99% of collectors and gamers. In reality where the overwhelming majority of graded games are only sealed ones anyway the price of CIB and loose games remains unchanged. There are exceptions, and people do grade opened games, but that's not the driving force behind price increases. There are many reasons that contribute to prices going up but I've found that many lay the blame at the hands of grading as if it's the whole problem. Or at least a huge one. It's not. The people who are hurt most by grading are the sealed collectors who are already maligned as an 'other' group anyway. Their prices have definitely increased because of grading. While there arguments against grading, many of which I agree with, having been in the hobby for 20 or so odd years and interacted with the community in general for around that long my conclusion is that most of people's issue with it can simply reduced to the jealousy, an unwillingness to accept that people engage in the hobby differently than you do, or ignorance. Just think of how many arguments against grading, sealed collecting, or people collecting in general who don't necessarily play their games fall apart when you analogize it in the context of a hobby adjacent to gaming. Something like Pokémon cards. How many people collect Pokémon cards but don't play the trading card game? But that's what the cards were made for, to play the trading card game! Why is that so readily accepted that people have decided on and accepted that there are multiple purposes for having said cards but when it comes to video games all of the sudden they only have one purpose and if you ain't playing em' you're an idiot and wrong or a bad influence on the community? If some dude high off his own farts wants to go pay Wata or any of these other companies a hundred bucks for an acrylic case more power to em. There's no reason why you should feel any compulsion to go ahead and follow suit. Just do you and enjoy the hobby however you like.

I personally think collecting graded games and collecting sealed games in general makes absolutely no sense. And that's because collecting CIB games is a thing you can do instead. Graded game collectors like to admire their perfect condition game, but it's really just the box they're admiring. If we're actually talking about holding a piece of video game history, then the outer box is only part of that. I'd say grading a cartridge actually makes more sense to me than grading a sealed game. The cartridge is where most of the nostalgia is, not the box. Grading a sealed game locks you out from the cartridge and the manual, and grading just the cartridge locks you out from playing that cartridge (but people grading games care less about the playing aspect and more about the collecting aspect). Maybe a big brain play is to grade a sealed version of a game, then grade a manual for that same game, then grade a cartridge and put them all side by side on your shelf. Or, you can instead collect a CIB copy of the game, which would give you the main benefit of flipping through the pages of the manual (it also gives you the benefit of being able to play the game, but I'm debating more the collecting aspect of things).

Possible to get a retronomics on the Armored Core series?

Criticism of grading aside though, I will be starting a digital download voucher grading service. Pay me monies and I will give your digital download voucher a score and stick it in an acrylic case. Then you can sell it to a sucker.. I mean customer.. for x1,000 the price.

Awesome video, I really like your perspective on grading. Also I think it would be interesting to see a retronomics on GBA.

Great video, Nick!

Breaking open a sealed box to play a game gets really old 😂

Not a fan of speculators, so I've stopped selling new games on eBay and save them for conventions where these people can take a look at the game upfront before they buy it. I'd prefer to sell to people who A) love the game and B) want to play it or maybe just treasure it as something that has actual value to them beyond the dollar amount.

Games are meant to be played, not locked in a box. Same with cars, they're for driving not just to sit in a garage and never do what they are made to do. Like you, the value to me is in the personal history of a game or console. I still have many childhood games and consoles from birthday's and family, that's the real value to me.

Your hat looks nice, maybe you should get it graded.

Here is another question. People are grading 7th gen and above. All 7th generation and above need a patch (internet and servers). Would that company still opened 15+ years later on. DLC code have expiration date. Would anyone wanted to play CyberPunk 2077 ps4 or Xbox one vs when it first came out and bare bone 20-30 years later?

Listen I am not afraid to say I don’t agree with graded game collecting. They are essentially taking games that would-be owned by collectors that want a mint version of a game, and ensuring that game will never be played ever by encasing it in plastic. The people who do this are not gamers. They don’t care about the history, nor have nostalgic for the hobby. I get so annoyed when I go on ebay for PS2 or GC games, and see either beat-up copies for $40, or graded ones for $400-$2000. Gone are the days when I would buy sealed copies and open them just because I wanted a nice, clean copy of a game, because now all those sealed copies are stained by wata.

The latest video from Red Letter Media about grading their VHS is awesome as a mock around the shady bussiness around it. They even successfully sell nukie and make it the most expensive VHS

And you are completely wrong about first print ocarina, and which version is which and how you tell the difference. For example the two you showed can both be a first print, depending on the cart contained. Obviously when sealed...there is no way to tell on this game specifically.

You should do price charting for Dreamcast games

Grading a game costs 35$, a generic acrylic case from China costs 20-30 and has a large manufacturing margin with loose tolerances which makes it somewhat useless for protecting the game because it'll rattle around. That alone makes it worth the "cost"

Its totally fair to voice your own opinion game collecting...whether its loose, cib, sealed, graded, sets etc. I mean who really cares at the end of the day like you say. Just to focus more on that subreddit (I've been a member for many years). I personally find it baffling that if anyone posts a graded game that they love and is part of their collection its all hands on deck 'scam' 'you're ruining the hobby' 'fuck wata/vga/cgc etc' and plenty of worse comments that often have to get moderated, do these comments pop up for other collecting posts? Short answer is no. This is probably why one person posted this meme attempt, as its hysteria and sacrilege if you grade anything and this sentiment is repeated to the point of nausea. I respect your points as they're your opinion and certainly there has been plenty of valid criticisms for graded games, however, I think you're misinterpreting peoples intentions when they post a graded game on that subreddit (which is rare due to the hostility), I believe the majority of these posts are people simply sharing their passion.. its not to force grading on to people, are people seeking validation? sure, everyone who posts their collection is in some sense, but seeking validation and forcing grading on people are two very different things.. and I would have to respectfully disagree with you that people post graded games so that their game gains value, the market, for better or worse, decides that. Good video man - just wanted to respectfully share my opinion !

Something I didn't hear you mention in this video is game preservation. It's not preservation to take a game and seal it so that only one person can own (not play) at a time.

Sweet Apple IIe in the background :)

Grading a sealed copy of a game with an old battery in it is like grading a carton of milk. It's going to go bad and when it does go bad It might ruin the game.

Karl has VGA games, as I know. But that's fuckin' bullshit. Especially with cartridges that have battery.

I think the concept at its basic form makes a lot of sense. If you want to know the condition of the game you're purchasing, a graded game would tell you that. It would be more useful for non sealed games rather than splitting hairs over sealed ones But the idea of encasing them in slabs never to be used is an entirely different thing. I suppose it's only way to maintain the accuracy of the grade... but still...

People trying so hard to rationalize everything... if you don't like grading don't do it.... we don't need a thesis's explaining why. Doesn't make you right, doesn't make you wrong. As well, does that grade have a reasoning behind it too.

Your video and opinions overall were very fair. The are only two things I would point out. First, is that the Rondo of Blood incident was for a game that was graded a while ago it was discovered recently but not graded recently. Lots of companies change over time and WATA is one of them. Secondly, I really don't agree with your thought that every graded video game collector cares about value. You should a post on someone saying they don't care about value and just cared about owning something unique. You compared it to owning a prototype or a Stadium Events. Not really a fair comparison when the average graded game is easily under $1000 and a Stadium Events is way more.

Quick note: Earthbound is far from rare. I believe I’ve heard there are around 500k copies in North America alone. I could have that wrong but it’s not even close to rare. It’s coveted.

Graded games is such a stupid idea, just some cringe people thinking you can slap an extra price tag on something and pretend you deserve more money.

We had this same conversation years ago with comics. Advice to a new collector is collect what you value. Im not in it for resale, im in it for my own viewing. For me buying low grades of comics and games feels amazing. Knowing I own something rare, even if it is low grade.

"Round oval 1st print made in Canada" the only true collectible variant 🇨🇦

I think of grading as putting mummy in a sealed tomb and show it as a museum piece when no one wants it anymore at a later time. I understand comics and cards being graded because those are look at things but I can't see a real collector buying a rare graded item when they can buy few rare non-graded items for the some price.

Ah yes, Ocarina as the title picture. The poster child game for people who are butthurt they cant afford a nice graded copy.

I swear Retro & Current Gen game collecting feels worse than being a stockbroker, cus there's just so much random shit coming up at once to estimate or predict. I used to be ashamed as a Trophy Hunter for having so many games on the backlog, and now I see these days. It's become the norm to only play 3/10s of one's collection. People have become value chasers announcing weekly 6 game hauls just to collect dust on shelves. It's only till they say "where do I put this?" for the 5th time in a row where they figure out...they've been hoarding random shit around. Then they mentally collapse under the compressed space liquidating to just breath, and suffer mass losses. Handing over equally minded value chasers this so called hobby. A very sad state we're all in when you stop pointing fingers, and reflect on what's actually worth having around. Grading should be a means to preserve/protect games you grew up with, but people don't see a wall of nostalgia anymore...they see digits of make belief value.

5:20 too many times 😢

Seeealllleddd!!! Only time can time.🇺🇲💎🌱💪🏽

People can buy and collect whatever they want. People are just babies and like to bitch and complain about everything.

I'm of the faction that believes most people grade games with the idea that they can ask a much higher price for the item because the slab and grade will set it apart from competition of ungraded games on eBay. It creates a market comparable to a Ponzi scheme. While it makes sense that distinguishing subtle condition superiority of highly sought after and rare games would be important to those already looking to spend a large amount of money on the game... We tend to see that most of the graded games listed on eBay are titles that have many listings competing raw for say $150 (usually some really common but popular game) and then once graded the seller wants $1k for it. Then there are many instances of great games that are fortunately abundant sealed like persona 3 FES or Sin and Punishment on Wii, but you have dingleberries buying them from the power sellers who have hundreds of copies just to send it off for grading so that they can take a $50 sealed game + $80 grading = $300 listing price on eBay. So what I expect to see happen is the truly rare and highly sought after games will reward those who submit for grading before selling and this will incentivise this behavior, while those grading easy to buy, or cheesy low demand games will be buried in their cost of grading and they will soon give up on this too-good-to-be-true business model. And as a result, game grading companies will experience a much lower volume of submissions in the future. The one game I own that I want to get graded is a sealed Shining Force 2 that's in amazing condition. I want to protect it and would never open it. It's my favorite game of all time. To me, a piece like that is worth grading.

speculation is a part of any market. I don't let any of that bother. who cares.

I love people who grade games! In a ponzi scheme, you always want to have people under you to be able to profit out of their backs! So I collect game. I have a lot of sealed games (because I buy mostly new games - but a seal is easy to break and when I want to play a specific game, I have no problem opening the seal, and I do). The day I will want to sell my collection, I know I will have people interested in buying my games because they will see the potential profit in grading them... Thank you guys!

I buy games to play them

Retro collecting is a big business now. The days of it being a fun hobby that normieS don't care about are long gone. All because of grading companies.

I collect and resell graded games and even in a bear market make a lot of money, get over it nerds

I just don't understand the appeal of graded, sealed games. Games are meant to be played. I feel like some of these collectors border along the line of hoarding.

This guy really doesn't understand the very fundamentals of investing, critical thinking really needed here

Graded games have another problem if you want to buy a graded game. How do you know that the game is authentic or a fraud.

GrAdInG iS a ScAm, DuH

Personally, I never cared about condition. The only thing that mattered was if the game played or not. And as we have moved into the 2020s, the need to have a basement full of physical media is all but nonexistent. I’m a gamer first, a collector of stuff a distant second. Whether you grade your game or not, if you view your video game collection in too high esteem, you’ve got some values that I could never understand.

Why own physical copies at all? Why not just buy all digital?

I just bought my first graded game , just cause I love it so much and already own a open copy , bioshock infinite :)

Grader's are fake gamer's.

Graded games 🔝📈

Boo hoo

James Rolf is not real gamer he only cares for movie reviews instead so he mine as well give me his games to

It's not good it ruined gaming along with fake gamers/scalpers/flippers

Metal jesus rocks is not a real gamer and has ruined gaming

Fake gamers should give me all there Bubsy 3d it's a game no one likes they may Ree because it's rare but none of no one wants the copys they want cause rare but don't actual want d game fake gamers are hypercrics

Graded games are bragging rights who cares. Got a rare game share it. Never play it. Play the rom instead.