NESology?

I like NESophile, but that's the userID of someone on another site

edit: although that would make the hobby NESophilia, which might throw up some FBI flags if we start using that term liberally lol

OK I guess I am no longer literate enough to know what nesophilia is. Do I even want to know?

just a couple letters too close to pedophilia, although I guess if stretch it you could say it's someone who likes their nieces a little too much?

Oh brother. where's the "wah waaah" horn

necophillia?

nesocoleptic?

VeGan?

Oy...

I don't know if the idea will collapse or not. The reason it caught on in other collectable hobbies is always because of the subjective nature of describing condition.

I have no experience with comics, but have plenty in Star Wars. Truth is, it's tough to trust a seller's notion of the condition of their sealed figure (for example), because they have an inherent bias. In theory, the AFA eliminates that bias to help the buyer have an idea of exactly what they're getting. AFA 90 and above are harder to come by, and will command an appropriate price.

As this relates to video games (sealed only, as I do think that it is impossible to do this with open/CIB games), the VGA is banking on the same principle applying. However, as I mentioned before, the cost of grading/entombing the sealed game would only help to dissuade anyone from submitting a sealed game with a normal value of $50 or less (which by my count, is more than half of the library.) For example: You can buy several sealed games on ebay with great regularity for $20-$25. Is it possible that they may be in outstanding condition but not a 10/10? Certainly. Is it worth the additional $20+ dollars that would have to be rolled back into the selling cost to cover the VGA service? No. Not when the pictures you can see or request will dispell questions about condition in most cases. A 100% increase on a common title to cover that service cost would not make any sense to potential buyers. The value is less, and has probably remained so over the last decade. Paying $40 for a $20 game (not even including shipping) simply won't fly with any regularity. Reason being, the risk associated with buying a $20 sealed game and having it arrive in slightly less than the condition you desired doesn't cost anything. You can resell without losing money. On the other hand, paying extra for someone to confirm that it's in the exact grade you already think it is, is meaningless.

So, as I said in the other thread, this only makes sense if the normal value is high enough to cover the cost of the service without increasing the cost to potential buyers (ie. the extra $20 is trival on a $500 purchase), AND if the risk involved is great enough to require an elimination of subjectivity from the grading process.

Honestly though, if you're planning on spending $1400 (on let's say, a sealed Chubby Cherub), I'm fairly certain that you can get as many pictures as you'd like to confirm the condition. Having it graded independently would serve no real purpose at that point.

I don't know how this will turn out. There are so many retards out there who spend a ton of money on sealed games (not sure why, exactly) - but you've all seen them on ebay. We've already started to witness an increase in prices of CIB games in nice condition ($100 on Zelda, for example), so I have no doubt in my mind that this will only increase negatively on CIB collecting as the VGA begins to filter down through the hobby.

It's not evil, but it sure as hell is irritating and won't serve any purpose to the long term CIB collector, except make the hobby more expensive than it already is.

I find it less than ironic that two of the greater proponents (on this site) of this advent in collecting either have everything to gain, or no real reason to oppose it.

No offense to either of you, but Bronty, you have a huge, valuable, sealed collection - so this can only benefit you should you choose to take advantage; and Dangevin, you don't collect boxed games, let alone sealed ones, so you have nothing to gain or lose either way. If this succeeds, it doesn't affect you, and if it doesn't; same result.

Like I said, no offense to either of you, I certainly have nothing against either of you - it's just an observation.

All of this is just my opinion, but I've been around this hobby and another that was directly affected (negatively) by the advent of this type of grading service.

Oh, I'm not sure what to formally refer to the hobby as, but I can say that we should all describe ourselves as having ObNESsive Compulsive Disorder.

What Orrimarko said.

Amen. That is pretty much the same exact stuff I was saying in the other thread as well. I think another reason grading in other hobbies done so well was because of the technology back then. It wasn't as easy to take/upload/send photos back then so you had to rely on descriptions alone in the earlier days. That is no longer and issue and we can easily send 50-100 photos for 1 truly high end game if need be.
~~NGD

Orri, I've made my stance on that public many times.   I have no interest in selling my collection.  If I ever do sell it, barring the unforeseen, it will be decades from now.    Grading really doesn't help me one bit since I'm not cashing out and, as I've also stated previously, I wish it wasn't here yet.    But it is.   So what's better, for them to come along, screw it up to hell and start grading reseals, or for me to try and get involved at least a little bit to try and give them a helping hand?  

The way I look at it anybody who ever had a clue knew this day was coming sooner or later anyways.   In today's collectible markets, grading rules the day and hate it or not you basically can't get away from it.    I would have liked for the inevitable grading service to start many years from now when the hobby is more mature, but what are you going to do.    Its here now.

Dan, I know that you're not planning to part with your collection any time in the foreseeable future. I would definitely have someone like yourself provide knowledgeable input now, than not.

I don't know that I agree with the inevitable part of it; the only reason that it has become a reality is because the marketplace has forced it into this situation. You'll note that this is only happening with certain systems (those that typically command the most money on the marketplace.) It's not because the other systems don't have collectors (or even sealed collectors), it's that they don't draw in the dollars. This relates back to the reason to grade in the first place - only when an investment (of sorts) is involved.

Sealed NES, SNES, and Atari games have major investment potential, so these are the systems focused on. I only think that VGA is taking advantage of an opportunity, which is profiable at this particular moment in time because of the current state of the hobby. Five or six years ago, I don't think that this would have taken off at all. It's not that the hobby wasn't there, or that the technology wasn't there - it was (on both counts.) It's that the prices of games were much lower, and this would have made the business of grading unprofitable.

Again, just my opinion, but I don't think that this was inevitable at all. If people had a little more sense on how much to spend on video games in general (let alone sealed games), we wouldn't have even been talking about this. Condition is constant over time - dented or not, creased or not, etc. The value is what is not constant, and that's why the opportunity exists.

Sorry Jason but that's a load of BS.    Take a comic book.   If its missing page 13, and the seller doesn't tell you, a scan of the front cover doesn't exactly help.  If its been expertly restored a scan doesn't help.    You still need to see it in person and the same is true for games, I don't care how many or how good the pics are.     You can take a 1000 photos and certain defects still won't come to light until you have it in your hot little hands.   Furthermore, its the seller taking the pics not you.    If the seller takes crappy pics or takes them in a manner to deliberately hide or minimize an existing flaw, those pics don't do crap for you.   If that black box game has been resealed convincingly with magic marker color touch and all that, the pics don't help.    Certainly pictures are better than descriptions.  But the availability of pictures does not take away the need to see the item in person.    I've bought many a game that looked good in pics and was not what it was cracked up to be.

well sure.  who's going to grade a sega game worth a $1 sealed, and who's going to submit it.   Waste of time.    But what I'm saying is that I think enough of our hobby that I believe it was inevitable that prices would rise.    And just as inevitable that once prices rose to a certain level that grading would happen.

also, really don't know where you're going with the condition constant over time thing (you lost me) but damage happens. It falls off the bookshelf. You drop it. Its shipped poorly. Damage does happen sometimes even if you are trying to protect condition

At the end of the day, some of you guys are against it and that's fine. I'll say it again, I wish it wasn't here yet.

I think most (not all) of the guys here against it are guys who haven't dealt in graded collectibles. Those of us that don't care are (mostly, from what I can tell) those who've seen this story before and realize that trying to stop it is like trying to saw lumber with a wet noodle.

Once that guy with the mint sealed zelda gets 1k or 2k for it, he'll never sell without grading again. And sales like that are bound to happen. So rail against the wind if you want but I think you just succeed in making yourself hoarse.

Any action that leads this hobby to be regarded as "more legitimate" is welcome.
Any action that detracts from the legitamacy of this hobby is unwelcome.
With values as they are now....and will probably one day become...this is a very welcome and professional sign of respect to collectors in this field.
We are no longer just geeks.

So collecting graded stuff is cool and collecting ungraded stuff isn't?    That I don't agree with.  If you were a geek before you still are     Grading isn't getting us better looking wives or girlfriends any time soon

yeah I'd say C-10 is pretty geeky term.

Jeez it looka like there is not even a dent or scrape on the boxes and they still only got 85's. Such a waste of money.

Does anyone know this seller? Are they affiliated with VGA? Seems to nothing more than a shameless plug to get the ball rolling to me....looks like they are testing the waters to see what will happen. Start off using a few popular tiles, a few semi rares, and a commons. They don't seem to be bringing a lot, but it is still early.
~~NGD

The market is flooding now. More VGA on the market. 11 of them now.

well it appears they are from portland... i've never heard of them in the collecting scene. Billy Galaxy or my buddy y-bot might know who he is as they both deal with vintage games and toys in the PDX area.

That's obvious.  What I meant is all things being equal, condition is constant.  Barring an external variable (sunlight, moisture, droppage, shrinkwrap crushing, etc), the condition of the item won't change.  The value, however, will - regardless.

The condition of your sealed Wolverine (which is very nice, BTW) won't change unless it's exposed to negative, external stimuli.  The value of it will be affected over that same period of time, even though the item remains unchanged.

Its the dramatic increase in value that allows for this grading business opportunity.  That's what we're talking about here - condition and value.  If the condition never changes, but the value does, then there's money to be made by those who are willing to capitalize on the increase in value.

That's what I meant.