I've been sitting in a box of sealed games I want to get graded and slabbed, mostly personal games I want to persevere. Problem is Wata hasn't really responded to my emails or DMs, also I just notice their social media isn't really updated. Some of you fine folks confirmed they may still be transitioning to a new address and their latest newsletter said they were really swamped with games.

My question is would you go ahead and send it to them anyways given everything? Would you wait? In sure there's many here who have dealt with them or even might know someone. Thanks for the anticipated advice.

Not looking great at the moment I think you should wait

http://nintendoage.com/forum/mess...

I would if they answered my question about the label which I've asked twice already with no reply. I can only submit games if they can print "Cartridge" on the label instead of "Cart." That's a deal breaker for me.

Im waiting.

Damn. Just picked up a sealed Xena N64 about an hour ago. Maybe if I send it in now I can get it back by Christmas. Was hoping to give the girlfriend a sealed, wata graded Xena for the holidays!

That's really weirdly specific.
 

Pet peeves are pet peeves.   I can't stand it when people say "ness" and "suh-ness" when referring to the NES and SNES.

Or when valley girls call Starbucks "Starbs".   So I get where he's coming from.
 

Sure but this is a PRODUCT. You don't get to decide what the NES Seal of Quality is called, why should you be perturbed over the verbiage on a product like this?

I have autism so there's absolutely no way I'd be able to have that without putting some sort of sticker over it to block it. I think if they're going to have a professional service, they shouldn't have spelling mistakes.

If they can correct that just for my submissions, I'd send them this. Until then I can't do it.

Because it's fucking lazy?   What if they shorten manual to "man"?   Then your cases say "Cartman". 
 

I mean that's a nice photo and all but I don't see them changing the way they run the service just for that.

Suddenly your copies of these games are unique, and manufactured uniqueness in a grading system is bad for business.

Starbs! Holy shit! 🤣 That's gonna be my new go to slang starting tomorrow.

Also, it has always been Nintendo or Super Nintendo when speaking. When I go over to Dick's house, we just play Nintendo.

People want Cranberry vodka shots, they say lemme get 5 crans. Or however many they get. 

Does starbs have cran drinks? I think it's punkin season at the mo. 🤣

It's deffo punkin seas ri nay. I get one on the dailies.
 

Wanted to pass along some recent communication via the Wata FB page

Recent Wata Posts in the last 24 hours via Facebook on 9/5

Hello everyone, this is Deniz Kahn. Things are cranking up here at Wata and we have a backlog of games to grade and send out. As you can imagine, we have put all of our resources to working through them all and as a result we have focused on both grading and shipping a substantial amount of games each day, albeit to the detriment of our social media and email management. I would like to personally apologize for not only the delay but the lack of communication. Our customers are incredibly important to us and your patience and patronage means the world to us. As such, we are adding more people to the Wata team; one of them is our new social media person, Bryan, who is going to man our social media accounts. Bryan will be able to answer questions regularly and accurately, and will be able to funnel requests to the proper channels when required. We have more people coming on board to help with the operations and are committed to working around the clock (literally) so that we can minimize our backlog and get your orders completed as soon as possible.

We are committed to providing you the same quality in service and product that we have stood by since day one. Thank you to everyone who's sending us games and more importantly thank you all for your patience during this exciting time of growth.


2nd Post-----

I see a lot of concern with delays, we are working our best to address all of your concerns. Here are some Do's and Don'ts that will assist in preventing further delays.

Do's and Don'ts:

DO:

1) Please pack your games with Scotch Tape (or no tape) so that we can unpack easily without having to worry about damaging the item.

2) Please put your submission form in the box with your games. If we do not have your order number at minimum, there will be a delay in processing your order.

DON'T:

1) Do not DROP SHIP your games to us. Wata will no longer process drop shipped games. There are several reasons for this. First of all, people sometimes think that Wata Games purchased the games which is actually against Wata policy. Wata does not buy or sell games. The second reason is that it is difficult to track down who actually owns the items. If there is no submission form or order number in the box, then it takes a lot of time and effort on our part which slows down the processing of all orders. This creates a major delay.

2) Do not overpack your games and then tape with heavy packing tape. It is very difficult to unpack these as we have to be extra careful to not damage the games while getting the tape off. This is why we prefer Scotch Tape.

3) Do not send in any oversized games. Take the time to refer to our FAQ for what games we can currently grade. If you send in something oversized or odd, you will have to wait until we can encapsulate it.

4) Do not add a note to the order if it's something we need to know early in the process. The notes are only for the graders and they're not seen until grading. For example, if you want us to make a note of something before grading, please put a note on the game itself.

5) Do not ask us "pre-grade" crossovers. If you submit a game that's encapsulated by another grading company, we really cannot accurately assess any flaws, condition, or authenticity without removing the game from the case. We can and will safely remove the game but please do not ask for any kind of accurate assessment beforehand.

6) Do not ask us to "pre-screen" orders. Do not submit five examples of something and say, "please choose the best one." This may be a service we offer later but at this point, with our current backlog it's not something we can offer.

I also am not a fan of their "loose" wording/labeling to be honest. It might have a rhyme or reason but it bothers me too with my OCD. I'd rather "Cart" be "Cartridge" and things like "North Carolina Pedigree" or whatever it was, to have never been put on the slabs.

This is my personal take, I like professionalism and consistency with my purchases. It would be like Chevrolet putting "Chevy" on everything - wouldn't feel right nor proper to me. The Pedigree thing bothers me exponentially more though...2 slabbed identical titles should have the same labeling minus condition variations if you ask me.

I have a bunch of orders that have been marked as "Completed" for over 10 days and have received no notice of shipping or confirmation they've been sent out. Anyone else encounter this? Does WATA send you shipping confirmations? How do you actually know when they sent the package?

I posted the same thing in the other thread.  7/17 submission, 15 day bracket, marked as completed, but that's it.  No shipping info, no notice of pending shipment.
 

During a single stretch between relationships I was at a chick's house and she offered me a coke. I said "Sure", and she handed me a diet coke. I said "Oh sorry, i didn't know you meant diet". She said, "Ew, you drink reg?" That was our 1 time seeing each other. lol

I 100% agree. That does nothing but stimulate artificial demand. 

And to that point, it SHOULD open the door to customers being granted specific requests. If 1 customer can request a special nickname for their collection, what's to stop anyone from doing so? And if that's an option, why can't someone request "Cartridge" instead of "Cart"? (since we've already entered the realm of custom slab labels)

I'm shocked that other grading services haven't popped up, given how successful wata has been, and how obviously swamped they are. Anyone want to start their own? Offer low introductory prices, and there's practically guaranteed business.

And I agree that "cart" doesn't belong on graded games. It might as well say "this LoZ cart is in super dope shape."

I took "Starbs" for a test drive with my wife. She was not impressed.

I just picked that up too lol it's in my box to get graded lol

I'm not a fan of the inconsistent labeling either, down to font size, line spacing, word placement. Even things like the front of the label saying "5-screw, round seal (Cart)" with cart in parenthesis back the back of the label with "Cart: 5.0" with the word and a colon strikes me as inconsistent. Maybe that's too OCD. I kind of hope we get a CBCS-style change in the Wata label. Wata's not awful, but CBCS went from one of the most amateur looking labels to one of the cleanest and easiest to read IMO.

Mostly I wish the full box contents were listed on the label and we didn't have to use their matrix and app (nonexistent at the moment?). I want to know that if a game is encapsulated it has all the right little inserts, down the damn baggie because otherwise I don't want a the game slabbed in a $40 case where I can't fix it without a lengthy and expensive re-submission process!

To answer OP though, I've held off on submitting some of the nicest stuff in my collection because of how backlogged they are. I have a dozen or so games they've had for a long time.