Sunday, June 19, 2011

Why Video Game Grading Services are a bad Phenomenon

As the title of this post suggests (perhaps a bit too directly), I am not a fan of video game grading services. For those who don't know what video game grading is, it is basically a service that for a fee will evaluate the condition of your video game, give it a number grade based on that condition, and then encase it in a tamper-proof slab of plastic.

According to Game Sniped graded games first started hitting Ebay around 2008, so they are a relatively recent trend in the video game collecting world. In the baseball card world they have been around a lot longer, probably since the late 90s if I recall correctly.

I take their entry into the video game collecting world as a huge negative for the hobby. They represent everything that I dislike about collecting hobbies in general - anal retentiveness, greed, obsession with something as superficial as condition and people looking at the thing they collect as an investment rather than something to be enjoyed for what it is. All bad stuff and all of it perfectly personified in the video game grading service.

Metaphorically speaking, these services represent the "end of the innocence" of a hobby. They literally put the thing beyond its intended use. You will never play that video game again - it is permanently sealed, never to be touched by human hands. It is the physical manifestation of the process by which an item goes from being whatever it actually is - a video game, a comic book, a baseball card - to nothing more than a sterile piece of investment. They might as well be government savings bonds from the moment they get graded, because they are no longer good for anything other than being a repository of value. And bad ones at that - they don't even pay interest.

I have two other specific gripes with these services that I want to talk about here. The first has to do with the economics and the second with the visuals. Lets start with the economics.

1. Graded stuff in general does not obey economic logic. It is a pyramid scam waiting to collapse.

I just took a look on Ebay at the prices for sealed copies of Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES. I found 6 copies of it sealed, 5 of which were ungraded and one graded. The ungraded ones were selling for between 109.95 and 300.00 Buy it Now.

The single graded one was selling for 1800.00 Buy it Now, six times more than the most expensive of the ungraded ones.

That makes absolutely no sense. They are all sealed - which to me means they are all mint and thus all the exact same (there was no damage noted in the ungraded ones). Grading services from what I've found cost about 25$. So if we are generous and say that the most expensive of the ungraded games represents the true value, then logically the graded one should be worth $300 +$25 = $325. Maybe we could add another 25 for the hassle the seller went through to get it graded. That still leaves us with a price of $350.

There is really no rational basis for a premium of $1500 on this thing just because it has been graded. The increase in value has just been created out of thin air.

Of course, there are a lot of variations in sellers on Ebay and this is just one example, a rather striking one at that. We would need to look at a lot more to firmly establish the argument. Still though, from just looking around Ebay you can pretty much pick any popular NES game at random and you will notice that in general the premium sellers are charging for their graded games are totally out of whack with what common sense dictates they should be. There is just no rational basis for this and it can only be explained as a speculative bubble that will burst just as dramatically as the real estate bubble did a couple years ago when people come to their senses.

Bottom line: do not buy graded games as an investment.

Now, on to my complaints with the visuals.

2. Grading a Game robs it of its aesthetic qualities.

As I've said before, I'm not totally insensitive to the condition of my games. I like a game in a nice box that is in good condition, and sometimes I'm willing to pay a premium for it. Also, when I get a game that is in good condition I am usually careful with it and do my best not to let it get damaged.

Why? I think most of you will agree that the reason we might pay more for a game in good condition is simply because they look better that way. Particularly with boxed Famicom games, they look really great when they aren't all creased up.

Lets take a look at what those expensive NES graded games look like though:

(Image source: Joystick)

Pardon the expletive but these look like shit. Who designed these slabs? Michael Bay? I don't even know where to begin with what is wrong with these things.

First, just putting them behind plastic robs them of a lot of their character. One of the things I really like about NES and Famicom games is that most of them came in cardboard boxes. Cardboard is softer and has a more natural look than plastic. The ink on the cover looks different than it does on plastic and it reflects light in a different way. These are all positive things. Put cardboard under plastic though and you rob it of all of that.

Second having these labels with the condition number and hologram (I hate holograms) and other info visible on the front is just idiotic. It distracts from the game itself. If you are going to display these games then you want the games themselves to be the only thing showing. With these plastic cases the games are always under these sterile looking labels that are only functional if you want to sell the game. They look exactly like the labels on my contact lens boxes.

The bottom line is that these things have no class. I love having shelves filled with loose or boxed Famicom carts. Over the years these things have come to have a bit of style to them. They look great, either alone or in a group.

Graded games though I would actually be embarrassed to have visible anywhere in my apartment.

You might say that encasing them in plastic and putting a label on them is unavoidable given the nature of grading services - they have to convey the information somehow while at the same time making the case tamper-proof. This is correct. But that is exactly my point: if there is no way to permanently grade these things without robbing them of everything that makes them worthy of collecting in the first place, then what is the point of having these services around?

Oh yeah, money. On that, see point 1 above.

Conclusion

I just really really dislike the fact that these services even exist. That is a very high level at which to dislike something. Existential dislike. Can't beat that.

As a closing cheap shot, I'll note that this is another thing that I like about collecting video games in Japan: I have never seen a graded video game in any store here. Even stores like Mandarake that have games selling for hundreds of dollars don't use these dreary services. Good on 'em, I say.

Related Posts:
-Famicom Cart Condition: Why Good is Bad and I'll Never Collect Sealed Stuff

27 comments:

  1. Hello Sean!. An excellent post, like always. I've been trying to contact you through your blog, but I couldn't see any email or messaging tool gadget anywhere. I want to ask you a couple things about your blog and Japan. My email is destroythefalcon@gmail.com, I am looking forward to read from you. Regards

    -Ben

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  2. The only thing stupider than sealing a video game is collecting baseball cards.

    good read, a little long considering I was totally on board in the first para though :D

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  3. Ah, so that's what those things are! I've seen a few of them while perusing eBay, but I didn't know what they were until now.

    Honestly, I couldn't see spending $300 on a sealed, "graded" copy of Super Mario Bros. 3, let alone $1,500. All I can say is that I hope no one falls for that latter price.

    I can understand being interested in complete-in-box games, or keeping your CIB games in good condition, but keeping them sealed and surrounded by a tamper-proof slab of plastic seems a bit extreme to me.

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  4. Ben - Thanks and good point, I should put a "contact" feature up here. I'll set one up soon and send a message off to you.

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  5. Thanks 8bit - except for the jab about collecting baseball cards:)

    I'd offer a witty retort but I don't know what your weakness is (other than video games).

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  6. Bryan - yup, if a game is ridiculously overpriced it is because somebody had it "graded" and thinks that justifies them jacking it way up.

    And I totally agree - $300 for a sealed copy of SMB 3 is ridiculous. 6 times that much is just naked theft from the gullible. It is just sad to see these things. The level of detachment they involve is just depressing to look at.

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  7. I've never heard about this 'grading' before but I know some people insist of only collecting sealed games and then never use them. It really grinds my gears (as Peter Griffin would say). I agree with everything you say here. It should be illegal to collect games if you don't play them... :|

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  8. I said it three years ago when grading first started in video games, and I'll say it again; it signaled the first shake of the death rattle of game collecting. If you own a graded game I have no respect for you as a collector, gamer player, or person. Period.

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  9. Simon - yup, it grinds my gears too. The logic of paying huge sums of money on something just because it is still wrapped in a thin layer of plastic is completely beyond my comprehension. Getting them graded only compounds that.

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  10. videogamesarerad - yeah I agree with that. I think the appearance of these services can be taken as a sign that the hobby is in decline. They aren't the cause of the decline, but a symptom.

    When I was a kid I really liked comics and baseball cards. I would read the comics and play with the cards, which were made of cardboard and came with gum.

    Now all the good stuff in both those hobbies has been swallowed up by what can only be described as greedy collectors who slab them in these things of plastic and charge ridiculous prices, which for some reason people actually seem to pay.

    I would say those hobbies ceased to be fun ages ago. I hope video game collecting won't go the same way.

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  11. Who's grading them exactly? I mean, who, beyond the original manufacturers, have the authority to
    evaluate a game's condition?

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  12. Hi Jyr,

    Good question. These are just private companies that do the grading. They basically just assume the authority to grade the games themselves, I don't believe they have any approval from or relationship with the manufacturer's of the games.

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  13. On a related note, I've studied this website, it seems to be the main 'authority':

    http://www.vggrader.com/about_whyuse.aspx

    They don't present any qualifications, even bogus ones. I mean, how is this more legitimate than if you or I mocked up a half-decent website and start offering the same service?
    Seemingly, that's all it takes and then we can
    start adding premiums to our ebay listings. Huzzah. Actually, might be an idea for you, since you're trying to get rid of duplicates.

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  14. Yeah, and even if they did provide qualifications they would pretty much be just made-up. There is no university degree in "condition grading services" after all!

    I'm sure there are some services out there being run by people who know what they are doing, but its hard as you imply to know who to trust with these things. What really annoys me more than the services themselves are the Ebay sellers that massively inflate the prices of their stuff because it is graded. I collect a few other things (Baseball cards, old Star Wars action figures, etc) and the rip-offs for graded stuff in those things is even worse than in video games, where it is relatively new.

    I could complain all day about these things:)

    But as you say, maybe I should just hop on board, grade all my duplicates and double my prices:)

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  15. I know I am a little late to the party, but I do not think this is a fair article, and what is worse is that every comment here comes from someone who admits to knowing nothing about graded games.

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  16. Thanks for the comment, anonymous.

    I welcome opposing opinions so if you have any specific problems with the article I`d be glad to debate them.

    Just as a point of fact, not every comment here came with an admission of no knowledge of graded games, though some did.

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  17. Clearly you have no idea about the video game collecting market.
    Your comments here suggest you are one of the people in this world who would buy a mario n64 game new and sealed and then open it to play it. There are plenty of used copies of these games available on the market so please don't complain about the price of these games as they are increasing in value due to their age.

    Now lets look at your comments of grading services. Currently grading services are becoming more and more reliable and important to collectors because of the huge amount of people listing "NEW AND SEALED" games on ebay who don't have a clue what new and sealed means.

    e.g. some sellers will shrinkwrap a game and call it new and sealed, some will buy counterfeit games from abroad and call it new and sealed, some will have games that have been resealed and claim it is NEW & SEALED. On top of this you have the sellers who refuse to put a live image of their own product onto the market place.

    After collecting for many years you soon begin to realise that 90% of the games listed as NEW & SEALED on ebay are not LEGITIMATE auctions.

    The grading service really stops the seller from lying about its condition, authenticity & value. Most collectors would rather pay £1000 for a game if when they receive it they perceive it to be in the condition they wanted it. They would rather pay the higher price tag than buy 4 x copies of the same game not graded at £350 each and actually never finding one legitimate copy.

    Grading also stops the seller being bombarded by stupid questions from buyers like: Can I see a back box shot of the item?, Is it definitely in the condition you state? etc.. once a game is graded there is no reason for any questions to come through.

    As a business dealing specifically in UNGRADED factory sealed games specifically retro I can definitely see the benefits of getting games graded. The true issue is the cost of grading. In your article you said grading costs just $25. This is simply not true.

    VGA are extortionate in their pricing schemes you pay for everything.
    Here is a list of things you pay for:
    - Sending the game internationall7y to America (£12)
    - £25-£75 for their basic fee
    - £10-£30 for insurance of your game at THEIR CENTRE!!
    - £12 Postage back again

    Then you have extra services they charge for e.g....
    - Cleaning the game (WTF) - £2
    - Removal of stickers - £5
    - Encasing the game a certain way £7-£15

    You can easily spend £100 a game getting it graded to the standard that most people do to then resell it again on ebay.. Your argument against the grading service is weak and petty.. really what you should be doing is complaining about the price of the grading!

    Dont get me wrong I agree with you on the VGA aesthetics.. VGA RUINS the appearance of a game in their stupid acrylic cases.

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  18. "There are plenty of used copies of these games available on the market so please don't complain about the price of these games as they are increasing in value due to their age."

    Just as a point of fact, price in a normal market is driven by supply and demand, not age. Some older games are worth more because of their scarcity and popularity, not because of their age per se. There are a ton of really old sports games out there that aren't worth anything. So sealed Mario games aren't increasing in value because of their age, they are increasing because there is a limited supply of them and they are popular.

    And I've never paid more for a sealed game that I intended to open.

    "Currently grading services are becoming more and more reliable and important to collectors because of the huge amount of people listing "NEW AND SEALED" games on ebay who don't have a clue what new and sealed means."

    I agree with you on that point. To the extent that they are being used to combat fraud on Ebay and other sites I agree that they are a useful service.

    "You can easily spend £100 a game getting it graded to the standard that most people do to then resell it again on ebay.. Your argument against the grading service is weak and petty.. really what you should be doing is complaining about the price of the grading! "

    Interesting point about the price. I fail to see how that makes my argument weak and petty though (and on a side note while I appreciate substantive criticism I would generally appreciate it if such criticism used more civil language. I know, it is asking for a lot on the internet).

    For starters, my general argument was that grading services were a rip off and the fact that they are even more expensive than I thought seems to reinforce rather than undermine that argument. Second, the example I cited had a 1500$ differential between graded and ungraded games, which is still way more than the 100 pound cost of the service that you cite.

    Also your comment generally misses my point about these prices being fueled by a speculative bubble. A lot of the people buying the graded games are buying them in the expectation that the prices will keep rising. They will not. Markets don't work like that - especially not collectables markets.

    While I can see there being a legitimate reason to charge a premium for a graded game to reflect the cost of that grading, charging a whopping $1800 for a relatively common game like SMB3 for the NES is ridiculous. This is not Air Raid for the Atari 2600 or some other rare title. The only way of explaining this price is that it is being inflated beyond any rational connection to reality by irrational greed and speculation - and I view this as a negative. Grading services have, as you point out, a legitimate purpose in assuring people that a description of condition is accurate. But they are clearly being used as little more than an excuse to inflate prices by many sellers. How you can view that as a petty and weak argument is beyond me.

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  19. The Below prices are INCORRECT

    VGA are extortionate in their pricing schemes you pay for everything.
    Here is a list of things you pay for:
    - Sending the game internationall7y to America (£12)
    - £25-£75 for their basic fee
    - £10-£30 for insurance of your game at THEIR CENTRE!!
    - £12 Postage back again

    Then you have extra services they charge for e.g....
    - Cleaning the game (WTF) - £2
    - Removal of stickers - £5
    - Encasing the game a certain way £7-£15


    Here is a moe Accurate pricing.. Prices are in USD and not in £
    Shipping to the USA - IRRELEVANT to what vga charge you
    Grading Fee - $25-$70 (for an average game)
    Insurance - $1 per $100 (this is also the insurance for the RETURN package with ups)
    Postage Back - Expensive for people outside USA (once again not vga's fault)
    Extras - Cleaning, Sticker removal, etc i would say are very fairly priced.


    To the point of eBay asking prices, are you on crack? Just because someone lists something for X amount doesnt mean anyone will pay it. That whole argument is just pure lol.

    " expectation that the prices will keep rising. They will not. Markets don't work like that - especially not collectables markets. "

    You cant predict the collectibity of the market, that is PURE speculation and nothing else (if your going to relate it to comics or cards, then your wrong as... Collectible Cards died due to over printing of rares.. Comics (besides rares) dropped in price in general as people stopped buying/collecting comics like they used too). Keep in mind that the video game market is still growing, with huge annual sales of games and consoles

    If someone has a 95 MB 3 first print i wouldn't be able to count with my 2 hands the amount of collectors who woudl EASILY pay 3-5K USD + for it. Is this crazy? Well a 3.0 action comic #1 is worth like 200K whilst a 9.0 is worth 2.4Million, but as you said its crazy right?

    I have been collecting sealed for years and i always prefer to buy graded as 95% of sellers are idiots who lie about condition. Proper collectors collect and pay prices based on condition (CIB and Sealed), so its only natural that the "best" (high grades) will demand a premium.

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  20. I am always conflicted about how to respond to commenters that ask if I am on crack. It is just so nice of you to be concerned.

    About it being pure speculation on my part that prices will continue to rise, that is correct. I possess no magic ball that tells me the future. The video game market is still growing, but my point is that no collectible market in history has ever had the potential for infinite growth. They all - comics, stamps, sports cards, coins.... even hummel figurines - have followed the same boom/bust tragectory. Once the hobby stops bringing in new money, the prices of most stuff (save for the extremely rare holy grail type stuff) will collapse.

    IN that regard, BTW, the fact that the video game market is growing is a slightly different issue. It is a question of the collectible market that is important, which is seperate from the market of people buying games as things to play. This is kind of a side note, but in a few years they won't even be selling games in physical form anymore anyway - which is very similar to what you note happened with comics (ie people didn't stop reading comics, they just stopped buying them in physical form as they became available online).

    In the interim it is of course possible that a lot of stuff will go up in value. The trick is getting out before the market turns to bust, which is impossible to predict.

    I would be remiss if I didn't call you out for referring to yourself as a "proper collector"here too simply because you buy CIB and sealed stuff. It implies there is an "improper" way of collecting, which I think is incorrect. People can collect whatever they want however they want.

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  21. Well as to the crack point, you have said how VGA MAKES games cost 5x more. That is utter bull, so a seller prices a vga game high, that doesnt mean its worth lol; does that mean vga is rubbish because a person is trying to sell an item for a higher price? In many cases grading games (at a particular grade) can increase the value 10 fold, you however make it out like thats what it does all the time.

    "(ie people didn't stop reading comics, they just stopped buying them in physical form as they became available online). "

    Comics started to decline around 2000, it has nothing to do wth digital (which only happened in the last few years), the ages went (bronze, silver, gold, after which people moved on). Things like video games, films, internet, etc; become much more in depth and appealing so the nostalgia of comics was really second in comparisson to the benefits offered with other sources of entertainment; as a result kids/tenneagers shy'd away from comics in favour of other forms of entertainment.

    My idea of a proper collector is one who strives for the best and nothing less, as anyone can buy the common $5 game carts and call themeslves a serious collector, but what i consider proper collectors are ones who go after the rarities, complete or sealed items, sets, etc.

    As for your point, yes all hobbies eventually go into decline, that said what doesnt go into decline are the higher end rare items. There are still many comics, cards, stamp that fetch 1M+; as a decline as a whole doesnt necessary mean the higher end items will follow suit.

    What i find fascinating is how a NON sealed collector complains about an agency that grades sealed/brand new items and at this point doesnt Affect the market in which you collect; i dont collect Ferraris but maybe i should make a blog about how the idea of a rare Ferrari is just dumb. This last paragraph is just my 2 cents ;)

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  22. "Well as to the crack point, you have said how VGA MAKES games cost 5x more. That is utter bull, so a seller prices a vga game high, that doesnt mean its worth lol; does that mean vga is rubbish because a person is trying to sell an item for a higher price? In many cases grading games (at a particular grade) can increase the value 10 fold, you however make it out like thats what it does all the time."

    I never said any such thing. I said that a look at ebay prices for SMB3 indicated that a graded copy was going for about 5 times more than an ungraded one. VGA didn't do that, sellers did.

    "My idea of a proper collector is one who strives for the best and nothing less, as anyone can buy the common $5 game carts and call themeslves a serious collector, but what i consider proper collectors are ones who go after the rarities, complete or sealed items, sets, etc."

    So everyone else is "improper" then?

    "As for your point, yes all hobbies eventually go into decline, that said what doesnt go into decline are the higher end rare items. There are still many comics, cards, stamp that fetch 1M+; as a decline as a whole doesnt necessary mean the higher end items will follow suit."

    Yes, I believe I conceded this point (that really rare items will likely retain value) in an earlier comment. Of course Super Mario Bros. 3 - the subject of the post which you take issue with - is by no means a higher end rare item, nor are most of the games people are price gouging on Ebay for.

    "What i find fascinating is how a NON sealed collector complains about an agency that grades sealed/brand new items and at this point doesnt Affect the market in which you collect; i dont collect Ferraris but maybe i should make a blog about how the idea of a rare Ferrari is just dumb. This last paragraph is just my 2 cents ;)"

    Except that this blog isn't about how graded services are dumb, its a blog about collecting old video games. Graded services are obviously a part of that, so why should I not comment on it? This was just a post I put up a couple of years ago, sorry if it offended you.


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  23. Rumor has it that they give out higher grades to re sellers from Australia. Is this true??

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  24. The grading thing (in cards and video games) is proof that a sucker is born every minute.

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  25. Have no idea about Australia, nor any idea as to why they would.

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    1. Its true, I heard it over at sealedvideogames/forum

      VGA love Australian re sellers

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  26. My thoughts exactly. Could not have said it better myself.

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