Just got this email from CGC. Is anyone really grading DVDs and Blu-Rays? That is insane. Not everything in this world needs to be encased in plastic and graded.
Did You See? CGC Home Video Expanded Its Services to DVD and Blu-ray!
Letās extend the holiday cheer into the new year! In case you missed it, CGC Home Video announced the expansion of its expert authentication, grading and encapsulation services to include DVDs, Blu-rays and other digital home videos.
āCollectors have been eagerly waiting for CGC Home Video to begin accepting DVDs and Blu-rays for certification,ā said Paul Zamarelli, CGC Home Video Senior Finalizer. āWeāre very excited to begin offering these services, and we canāt wait to see what collectors submit to us!ā
I donāt think this will really go anywhereā¦tbh, reminds me of the video game grading crap that companies like WATA do.
Pokemon cards āworkā when graded - you can see every aspect of the card, front and back. DVDs, boxed video gamesā¦simply do not work.
With graded cards you can still admire every aspect of the card. With DVDs and video games, youāre paying for a box that you will never open, an expensive box containing a game that will never be played, yet you can probably find on ebay for 30 bucks used.
I think grading older/retro and some modern video games works. There just needs to be a realistic expected market price and return for the product. For instance, Iām a big fan of Soul Reaver for the Sega Dreamcast. New/sealed is about $100 to $150, but Iād love to have a graded copy of it for something like an extra $50 to $100 depending on the grade. Iām leaning more towards a certified authentic copy than an actual graded copy but the prices online are all stupid.
In some capacity i think that desire could exist for fans of certain movies but idk lol.
I think there is genuine organic collectability for graded video games, but I think overall itās still very niche.
But with DVDs and Blurays, I struggle to see the organic demand apart from people thinking that grading anything will add value just because. I would guess most stuff submitted will be very modern releases.
At this rate Im wondering when will they begin grading vinyl records? I have a few signed vinyls that Id love to get encapsulated for protection. Heck, you could even tie it to a digitalized copy of that exact vinyl being played accessed by QR code on the label. Record collectors would love it if they threw some money into it and focused on the preservation aspect of it. Theres even already whole databases from hobbyists about the specific printing versions and tracking of releases.
Im kinda surprised they havent been yet given the trend of grading everything as evident by this thread. There are a slew of legitimately rare and valuable vinyls. Iād be surprised if there are any significant amount of valuable dvds or bluerays.
I just canāt get excited about graded movies personally. I donāt have any deep attachment to specific movies enough to want to collect or display them like this
You didnāt ask me but I can answer. There are some games Iāve sunk 100, 200, 400+ hours into. Not just playing but maybe watching YouTube video essays or speedruns about. There are games where I have literal relationships where we would spend the majority of our time together playing specific games.
Video games occupied a large part of my personal growing up experience. Often the themes and stories arenāt as sophisticated as a movie but the level you engage with video gams as a form of media is just so much deeper and significant than the passive act of watching a movie.
There is so much more intentionally behind the physical game too. Everytime I look at the box
of an N64 game or the cartridge, the art and shape takes back to that moment of time. Compared to a DVDā¦ in my mind a DVD is made of flimsy generically sized plastic cases and a disc that is basically indistinguishable from any other form of media at the time. I think the favt that every movie is rereleased on VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, streamed, easily downloaded, etc. Thereās no obvious āformā a movie can take that is worth collecting. In contrast, video games have a singular, distinct physical release and reprints ( if they exist) are intentionally made distinct for the most part.
Overall there is significant daylight in my mind between video games and movies. There are loke 50 different video games Iād probably spend at least $100 to buy and display in a high condition and like maybe 3 movies I would even consider treating the same way
I used to collect DVDs/Blu-Rays. So many Friday/Saturday nights were spent at Walmart with my arms buried in the $5 movie bin, birthday money was spent on movies, Black Friday shopping, and later Amazon Cyber Monday deals. But that all became irrelevant for me in the 2010s when streaming platforms really took off.
So as someone who spent a considerable amount of time and money in the movie theater and in the movie bin, even I canāt wrap my head around grading DVDs/Blu-Rays. If they were legitimately rare (e.g., special releases and collector editions), that would be one thing. But for most DVD/Blu-Ray releases, there are millions of copies and many films will find themselves drowning in the $5 movie bin some day (okay maybe $10 movie bin due to inflation?).
