A graded sealed game arrives with a compound verdict, and the price turns on reading it correctly. WATA's grade is not one number but two assessments — the condition of the box and the quality of the seal — and collectors who conflate them, or ignore the seal grade, misprice copies routinely. Here is how to read the label the market reads.
A WATA sealed grade pairs a numeric box grade on a 1.0–10.0 scale with a separate letter seal grade (such as A++ down through lower letters). The number describes the physical condition of the box; the letter describes the quality and originality of the factory seal. Both matter, and a copy is only as strong as the weaker of the two — a pristine box with a poor seal grade is not a top copy, and the market prices it accordingly.
At the top of the scale, adjacent grades are not adjacent prices. The population of copies thins dramatically as the grade rises, so each step up the scale can multiply the price — the jump from a high grade to the next is often the difference between a strong copy and a record copy. This non-linearity is why grading is a bet on the ceiling and why the exact grade, not an approximate impression, is what you're paying for.
The same grade means different things on different titles. A 9.4 is common on a well-preserved late-era title and extraordinarily scarce on a fragile launch-window box — so a grade is only legible against the title's own population and history. Reading a grade well means reading it beside the population report and the title's print story, never in isolation.