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In both cases, the sellers are using their knowledge and experience in determining how to describe the item, but their knowledge could be flawed. They might have little experience with vintage video games, or maybe even none at all.

Sellers want to get higher prices for their games, so they might be tempted to overstate their condition a little…. sometimes more than a little.

Certification does away with all that nonsense.

For CIBs, we identity the cart variant and manual variant. A lot of knowledge, experience and time goes into these aspects of video game certification. We haven’t even touched upon grading yet!!

Creating an understandable, consistent, fair scale to rate the condition of video games is key. Wata has done it. Now you can buy vintage video games sight unseen and you will have an unparalleled level of confidence in your purchase.

You could learn about cars for 8 hours a day for the next 5 years…. Or, you could ask your friend who has spent the better part of his life learning about cars. He looks at the car and gives you an honest, impartial appraisal of its condition, giving you all the information you need to make your decision.

That’s precisely what certification is. Every Wata grader has devoted much of their time and energy to acquiring tremendous knowledge about video games for over a decade.

Wata certified games will help you make a sound decision about your video game purchase.

Or photo of certified and uncertified same game side by side?

Or photo of live bidding at a collectibles auction?

Or screenshot of Heritage Auctions online event/bids?

We will have Sloan do probably a montage of visuals.

If a collector is bidding on an uncertified game, there is doubt about the game’s true condition. The game could even be counterfeit! The bidder holds back, hedging his odds of being disappointed with the game he might win.

With certification, bidders can go all out to acquire an item they want in their collection. Additionally, Wata certified games sell faster than comparable raw video games. Would you rather sell a $1,000 game within a year, or get it certified and sell it for $1,000 in a week?

No collector wants to buy something that might be what the seller claims. They want to rest assured that their investment decision is sound. That they got exactly what they paid for.

This is the confidence Wata certification provides.

Other grading scales go from 0-100 with big gaps between some scores. These are hard to follow and understand. Wata’s grading scale is way more intuitive!

We eliminated the descriptions in favor of simple numerical clarity and added a photo guide of games which exemplify the grades. We think this is easier to understand and, if not, we are here to help.

Here’s a quick overview of conditions that will affect grades and what you can expect to see when your game is Wata graded and certified.

This is a perfect specimen with no flaws present and great eye appeal.

While extremely unlikely, this grade exists, but is reserved for the cream of the crop.

Like other collectibles, we have broken the 9s into more degrees of separation, as this level of detail in condition is usually heavily tied to rarity and value.

For some items, the difference between a 9.2 and a 9.8 can be exceptional, so we want to distinguish it with separate grades, as condition heavily influences value.

The grades from 9.0 to 9.8 fall into the condition of what most people would call “mint”, ranging from borderline to nearly perfect. Flaws within this range are small and easily countable.

These are above average with some notable detraction, close in condition to what most collectors would consider “near-mint.”

A small tear or crush on an otherwise beautiful box. A crease on a mint cart label.

These are nearly perfect, but with some noteworthy flaw.

These are all above average condition on a 10-point scale. These games have average, honest wear, but exhibit more signs of use.

With varying degrees of separation, these are likely the lowest grades for game conditions that would satisfy a collector, as the flaws are approaching unsightly, but are not quite there yet.

Here is where condition starts taking a turn for the worse. You may think 5 out of 10 sounds okay, but consider that the condition is less than half of what it could be. Life hasn’t been too kind to this game, overall.

That doesn’t mean it’s worthless, though. Maybe it’s an ex-rental copy of a rare issue that has been cut, stickered or written on. Stuff happens.

Things are getting pretty bad here. Something out of the ordinary has likely happened. Not nuclear annihilation, but defects like sun fading, water damage, mold, or very heavy wear and tear have occurred.

These grades are reserved for real cases of abuse; the worst of the worst. A crime of some sort has been committed, and these poor games were involved.

These will likely be high end items that hold value in any condition, and need grading to be authenticated as such.

We don’t have a 0.0 grade, because we can’t assign a grade that is essentially no grade.

However, we do have grade alternatives for items that are outliers of the conventional grading practices. We have short abbreviations for these outliers that describe their state instead of a numerical grade.

For example, a prototype will display “PRO” for “prototype” and a demo will display “GEN” for “genuine” where the numerical grade is normally located. Items like these are necessary to authenticate, but don’t make sense to grade based on their unique and handmade nature.

When you see lettering in the place of our numerical grades, you are looking at an item that falls into this “no grade” category.

Instead of combining the two major elements of a sealed game – the box and the seal – we grade each separately.

First, the box is graded just as we would any other item we receive. Next, the seal is given a quality rating that will be displayed along with the numerical grade.

With this system, a buyer is given an accurate understanding of the condition of both components, without having to guess which item had a more significant impact on the grade.

While you may not be able to precisely predict the grade a game will achieve, being an educated buyer, seller or trader and having a good idea of how things will grade can only help you on your collecting adventure.