Is it too early to be asking what qualified games are worth? Meaning the games graded by VGA that have been opened but recognized as new and unplayed.

If not, what is this bad boy worth?

Qualified right? answer: no idea

Oh yeah, "qualified". Thanks Robin.

I'd say, the regular price of the game in that condition, plus whatever you paid for it to be graded .

Fris you have one of those? I would imagine quite a bit. Easily over $1k.

EDIT: maybe this is too unrelated to the topic, sorry.

No where close. I agree with Adam, it's at least 1K. The game's not CIB, it is new & unused....there is a big difference. As a recent reference point, Adam sold a Qualified VGA 90 Super Mario Bros for 1K and if I'm not mistaken, it sold withing the first few days of being listed.

^^I know that, I was just kidding with the whole antiVGA feeling some people have. Nice TheFrisbee, you'll make some dough out of that game!

How do they know it has never been used? Just curious.

they use it.... haha they open it and make sure its crispy and glorious..... hurts to know it was opened though

That is silly. People must not understand how it works yet.

Most 85 sealed games would be 90 qualified if you just removed the plastic and sent them back in. I can't believe a Mario would be worth more without the plastic.

If this is really the case cash it in now. I can't see that trend lasting very long.

Perhaps they view the gold contacts under magnification?

My question is who is collecting this stuff? People who would want to go sealed but don't have the money? Because if that's the case, then $1k seems awfully high. At that point you might as well save money for a few more months until you can afford the sealed copy.

A 90 or 90+ Qualified game is near perfect. It's way easier to get a 90 on a sealed game. Is it that difficult to grasp collectors' desire for mint condition? Personally, I would never pay that for an opened game so yeah, I do find it a little silly but I'm sure others would find the thousands I spend on sealed games every month just as silly. I can say that rarebucky didn't hide anything in the SMB listing. It stated very clearly what the Qualfied grade meant and the buyer knew full-well what they were buying.

Not only did he know what he was buying, he LOVED it and was surprised he got it for the price he did. Some people value gem mint NIB copies just as highly as flawed sealed ones. FYI - I have never seen a sealed SMB of any seal type that graded 90 or higher.

Sounds like a scam to me. You can open a sealed game, play it 2 or 3 times, place it back in the baggie and then box and no one would ever know if the game has been used or not.

I'm sorry but this is WRONG.  I am against graded games myself, but they are experts and can check with signs of use.  Once a box has been opened you can tell it, and I'm sure once a game is inserted into a Nintendo you can see signs of it on the pins of the cart.

Well I'm not on the extremist point of view that it is a "scam", but how do they validate the games?  Aren't they looking for games that have never been opened, but then validate them by opening them? 


Yes, but my buyer was equally in love with his $160 Super Mario World CIB, yet that doesn't establish a new market value either. 

But at some point, common sense has to win.  I'm assuming high Qualified games are just mere placeholders for collectors that are waiting a long time for their title to turn up sealed in a high grade. 

No, they're not looking for games that have never been opened. They're looking for games where all contents inside are new and unused. As I understand it they use gloves to remove the contents and then inspect the contacts closely for use. It's not a "scam" - for some it's a cheaper way of getting their favorite games NIB instead of sealed. In the case of my Mario, it was actually truely NIB and never opened which led to the high grade. It was also gold seal.

Hmmm... interesting. But I thought one of the "telltale signs" of an opened box is the white line that develops along the back hinge.

If you had a game truely NIB and never opened, wouldn't you jeopardize the integrity of a game by sending it to people who are going to open it? That seems like a legitimate gripe on Qualified games, at least IMO.

And while it may be a chance of getting a game cheaper NIB instead of sealed, don't you think this person would grab a sealed copy and sell the qualified when presented the opportunity?

Let's be frank, if you got $1k to drop on a video game, then you can probably drop 2 or 3k too, even if it requires a bit of saving over a few months.

Yes, I have done that myself.  But I think there are some (I know a few) who are more than content to have high grade qualified games over much lower graded sealed copies.  As for them opening games - I can't speak to that, I'm not VGA (despite what some may think lol).  I can say in the case of my Mario when it came back cased there was still no white crease on the top hinge.  Tom once told me awhile back they have a way to open the box without disturbing the integrity of the hinge.

For VGA being trusted for all this, nobody who's a serious sealed collector in any forum hasn't ever owned up to being part of it have they? I hope not to hijack this thread, if anyone knows the answer, shoot me a PM?


But that game is more minty then my Black Ops game, good luck getting a price for it!

Going back to Fris' initial question, as far as qualified games go, i have seen quite a few go for (and i have paid on a few) about 40-50% of what a sealed copy goes for. Of course this may be higher for a difficult to obtain item such as a Kid Icarus or DK Math.

This is one of the few areas of collecting that Bucky and I greatly disagree on. I'm pretty sure that eventually the market will dictate that they are 20-25% of their like conditioned sealed counterparts. For example I bought a Q85 Duck Hunt for $100 recently, it sat on Ebay with a BIN of $125 for 48+ hours and nobody bought it because it was an absolute steal or a deal of the century and I'm sure we'd all agree that a sealed VGA 85 Duck Hunt would be worth more than $500. I think the Q85 SMB sale was an anomoly  not yet to be repeated in the open market anytime soon.

Jim