Three graders, three scales, three market receptions. How they differ and where each carries weight.
Hangtabd Editorial·2026-07-15
Not all grades are equal, because not all graders are. Three houses dominate game grading, and the market treats their slabs differently — a grade from one may command a premium or a discount against the same grade from another, depending on the title, the era, and buyer trust. Reading a graded copy means reading the house as well as the number.
The three houses
Each grader occupies a distinct position in the market's trust hierarchy, and that position shifts over time.
WATA
The house that drove the sealed-grading boom and set the modern conventions — the numeric box grade plus letter seal grade. The dominant reference for sealed grading in the current market, and the standard most record sales are graded against.
CGC
The grading group that entered games from a deep collectibles-grading heritage. A major, widely-trusted house with broad reach; its slabs carry strong market confidence and its scale is closely watched alongside WATA's.
VGA
The original game-grading house, active long before the boom. Older VGA slabs carry historical weight and are common on early-graded copies; the market reads them with attention to the vintage of the grade itself.
The slab is part of the object
Because trust differs by house, era, and title, the same grade in different slabs can price differently — and the market's preferences move over time as houses' reputations rise and fall. A copy's grading house is not a footnote; it is part of what you are buying. When comparing two graded copies, compare the houses as deliberately as the grades.
Grading is not authentication of value
A slab certifies condition and, crucially, that the seal or copy is authentic — but it does not make a copy worth grading. The houses grade what they're sent; a common title in modest grade in an expensive slab is still a common title. The value judgement — whether this copy deserved grading at all — stays with the collector. The house tells you what the copy is, not whether it was worth the ceremony.