Oh well

[bojay1997]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but vga grading atari stuff is a little silly. Sure it might be 85+ now, but the shrink wrap tends to kill those boxes on its own. It's a bit surprising that the case managed to keep it together so well for so long. It's probably just a matter of time until the game destroys itself now.

I think grading any cardboard box sealed game is silly primarily because of the fact that unlike coins or stamps or comics where it could be theoretically possible to maintain the item in its current state if you used an inert container, sealed games are inherently deteriorating because they are made of mixed reactive substances. Take a NES game for example. You have a circuit board that contains some metal and plastic, an outer cartridge case made of plastic with metal screws, a paper and adhesive coated sticker, a poly bag and plastic dust cover, paper manuals and warranty materials, a carboard box and shrinkwrap. All of those substances including plastic, metal, inks and dies, staples, paper and cardboard will continue to react to each other over time and deteriorate. That's why most museums that maintain game collections remove the plastic wrap and separate the components into various preservation containers. Treating a sealed game as a single type of material and sticking it in a plastic case is just not a good or wise long-term preservation technique.

Edited February 14, 2014 by bojay1997

[AtariLeaf]

A fancy way of saying that VGA grading is %$#@!$# stupid!

[Zwackery]

This image pretty much sums it all up for me:

 

 

(click to enlarge)

[jnovo79]

VGA grading is like $20 a game if you do it enough to pop for membership and don't care how long it takes to get it back.

 

I wish I knew about VAG, I like their grading system better...

[Rex Dart]

I wish I knew about VAG

 

[jnovo79]

 

 

Why whatever do you mean

[Austin]

Of course it doesn't come in a plastic box coffin, so there's that to consider.

 

This sounds so much cooler. I hear it raises the value, too!

[+Yurkie]

Let's not attack people who come here to sell stuff honestly. You don't have to have a 1000 post count to sell. And if you disagree with prices, then don't buy. I'd rather people look at this as a welcoming forum rather than a bunch of reactive angry internerds.

 

If the guy can get more money elsewhere, all the power to him. If you don't want to pay someone's price, then mocking is not necessary. Honest appraisals have more value to all of us. Am I the only one around here who thinks we should be polite?

 

At least he seems honest about declaring what he paid, literate and responsive. Which is more than I can say about some folks who come here to sell.

I disagree with you completely. When some asshole comes in off a google search and asks knowlegable collector opinions and then blows it off and then lists for dream amounts on Ebay I think it is a slap in the F*&%ing face. I think all the negativity he got was well deserved.

[AtariLeaf]

Who knows but both are from Canada.

Those Goddamn scamming Canadians!!!

[bennybingo]

Those Goddamn scamming Canadians!!!

[AtariLeaf]

How'd you find that pic of me and my brother BB???

[adamchevy]

How do I get all of my games vag graded? Sounds expensive.

[bennybingo]

How do I get all of my games vag graded? Sounds expensive.

yup...

 

[AtariLeaf]

How do I get all of my games vag graded? Sounds expensive.

 

Two ways - Dinner and a movie or the easier way is a bottle of JD and a 6-pack

[Greg2600]

$329 down the drain if you ask me.

[+wongojack]

Well, I wanted to chime in on this thread as it stimulated my thinking in a number of different ways

 

1) Is grading good/bad

2) What is the impact of a community on a market

3) What should the reception to a newcomer be - what if that newcomer has different opinions than the community

4) Do I think this guy is a douche

 

I don't really have much experience collecting outside of video games, so it was interesting to hear some educated opinions about why sealing a video game would not preserve the various elements that combine to actually make a boxed game. It was also interesting to hear how others had experience where grading had "ruined" a specific kind of collecting.

 

Frankly, I feel that the need for a 3rd party to grade something is most useful when the parties trying to do a transaction can't validate each other or validate the value of the item. This type of 3rd party authentication is something that has parallels in computer networking where a certificate authority is required to validate the 2 entities on the end of a transaction. In this case, there is plenty of 3rd party information about this item on the internet that can serve this purpose, so the grade is irrelevant.

 

If grading caught on for Atari, I think it would bring the price up for boxed games, but you could argue that if it was really prevalent that it might balance out and actually help identify items of superior quality. However, spending 5 minutes looking at graded items reveals that its currently used as a tactic to simply overprice something and artificially increase value.

 

We were all once newcomers to this site and this community. For me, I didn't have an existing community of classic gamers, so AtariAge was a unique experience for me. Some of the people giving this guy grief (and only a very small amount of grief imo) have helped to educate me and point me in new directions without taking advantage of me. As a result, I've kept coming back and have even brought newcomers into this community. I'd like to think I've even made the occasional contribution. This individual wasn't coming in to be educated and he had a ridiculous price on his item. Something that far out of bounds is going to get a big reaction, and I didn't think the response was really very extreme. I'd rather newcomers who are coming online to connect with something they love be greeted like me and guys like this get told how it is. If he actually wants to participate in this community, he will in spite of this greeting.

 

I don't think this guy is a douche - knowledge is often money. He has knowledge about this item and others don't. There are worse crimes in the world than selling someone something they want. That being said, its is pretty douchey to get told that you got ripped off and still mark it way up and try to re-sell it.

 

All that being said, more money is usually a good thing because it means more output and more production. I will offer a prediction that if grading does catch on for Atari stuff that those who most deserve to benefit from the price increases will be late to the party and benefit the least. Those that have stockpiles of this stuff who love this old technology should hedge their bets here and at least invest a little in this process. That way if the prices take off, people who love Atari can use the extra money to actually create new possibilities like more homebrews, flashcarts, and hardware add-ons that would benefit all of us.

[Austin]

4) Do I think this guy is a douche

 

I don't think I even need to read the rest, this alone made me laugh out loud!

 

Edit: In all seriousness though, I did end up reading the rest. The part about being a newcomer to the forum resonated with me. We were all there at one time. I remember I didn't have any issues as a newbie, people were for the most part nice and welcoming. Really, that's how it should be. On the other hand though, coming in and flaunting an expensive item is most certainly a different kind of way to introduce one's self, so I can see why people react negatively to it.

Edited February 16, 2014 by Austin

[AtariLeaf]

I think the total aversion of the Atari community to embrace the scam that is VGA grading prompted the sarcastic comments. None were over the top IMO and the OP took it like a champ and I commend him for that. Yes he grossly overpaid and YES he's totally out there with his hope of getting $1000 for it. I suppose he's hoping some crazy Nintendoage VGA nut with more money than common sense will see the name "mario" and snatch it up.

[ianoid]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, grading is appealing to a different audience than us seasoned collectors. You are talking about people with more money than time, perhaps interested in these things as commodities or as shelf dressing. They don't want to worry about messing up the condition or playing them. Perhaps these are on the Mario bandwagon and just want to buy up stuff already graded.

 

Of course poorly priced games are silly, whether they are graded or not.

 

And if it's not your market, it's almost silly to attack it so viciously, since you haven't got enough experience with it to know who is a part of it. It's like getting angry about multimillion dollar fine art purchases when you don't know who the buyers are or what the market trends are like.

 

I know sense and restraint have little place on the internet, so I'm giving some of you who are up in arms about this more credit than the greater internet by evening posting a response, when walking away would be easier.

[ianoid]

deleted (duplicate post weird)

Edited February 18, 2014 by ianoid

[AtariLeaf]

I know this has been posted before but it seems to be a pretty definitive statement on why VGA grading is completely made up nonsense and has no basis at all in reality.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BbHDMXxm04

[Greg2600]

Jason's point is exactly right, and I concur on how it ruined the Comic/sportscard hobby. I read/see many instances of people paying for grading, but rarely do I hear about those games actually selling!

[roadrunner]

I have a dumb question, do games have to be sealed to be graded or can a loose cart be graded too,
or how about a CIB that's been opened?

[Austin]

I was about to post that video myself, AtariLeaf, you beat me to it.

[Greg2600]

I have a dumb question, do games have to be sealed to be graded or can a loose cart be graded too,

or how about a CIB that's been opened?

 

They're grade anything I believe, although as that video shows, the plastic case may not fit properly, and it lets in air, making it kind of a pointless protective shell. They grade opened boxes, but it gets a lower grade and you pay less for the grade. Regardless it's a scam.