Grading and Market Value, When a Score Changes Everything
by Simon Larocca·June 10, 2025
Il grading carried out by TGMGrading is the process of evaluating, authenticating, and protecting a video game in its physical format.
During the procedure, the title is visually examined to identify any defects, alterations, or signs of age; secondly, its original elements are verified (seals, manuals, discs, or cartridges) and it is classified according to a numerical scale from 1 to 10, which defines its quality.
Infine, the product is placed in a transparent plexiglass case, non-openable and tamper-proof, with an official label that shows its grading and details, including the game title, release year, and the parameters with the scores shown.
The evaluation is carried out by a carefully selected committee of qualified experts, made up of figures from multiple specific sectors, such as entrepreneurs, lawyers, notaries, video game producers, professional collectors, and trade specialists.
Tali valuations are carried out objectively by analyzing hundreds of measurable parameters, including the quality of the materials, the state of preservation, the integrity of the seal, and much more. In addition, each assessment is contextualized historically, meaning that the production standard of the era in which the game was published and the average preservation conditions typical of that period are taken into account.
Questo approach allows the most accurate, impartial, and consistent evaluation possible. The team of experts who evaluate the titles to be graded is led by two highly specialized professionals: Federico Salerno, a lawyer and professional collector with years of legal and technical experience in the protection and enhancement of collectible assets, and Carlo Santagostino, a historian of computing and video games, a developer with decades of experience in the e-commerce, multimedia, and digital applications sectors, capable of bringing a scientific and philological approach to the historical evaluation of titles. In addition, The Games Market has developed an additional support tool for the grading procedure: thanks to a proprietary system that uses artificial intelligence, TGM has access to a database of hundreds of thousands of original specimens, constantly updated and allowing each individual video game to be compared.
TGM grading makes a title guaranteed in its content and therefore its market value increases over time, as well as protecting the physical investment from any future damage (scratches, moisture, light) and making it easier to resell the title one day, while also giving certainty to buyers.
Thanks to leading professionals in the field, such as the aforementioned Carlo Santagostino, it assigns historical and collectible value and offers an official and impartial guarantee of the authenticity of the graded title. Today, it is the global standard for those who wish to transform a simple video game into a museum-grade collectible.
Bly graded preserves its value over time, and preservation itself determines its value: a graded note can be worth even 10 times more than the same note sealed but not graded, which instead loses value (wear, moving, yellowing, etc).
With the grading process, the video game gains much more value not only economically, but also in the context of preservation, ideally connecting the nostalgia effect and its real value as a collector’s item as well as the cultural value of a collectible title.
Simon Larocca
My name is Simon Larocca, and I am a gamer, collector, and lover of pop culture in all its forms. I go to the cinema whenever I can, I have been reading since I started wearing glasses, so, basically forever, and I have a passion for storytelling in all its forms, so powerful that it became my profession. But as Doc from Ritorno al Futuro would say, there would be no present if one did not look at the past with respect and admiration, and it is the Simon child of more than thirty years ago, give or take a year, who is to thank for that.
Simon Larocca
My name is Simon Larocca, and I am a gamer, collector, and lover of pop culture in all its forms. I go to the cinema whenever I can, I have been reading since I started wearing glasses, so, basically forever, and I have a passion for storytelling in all its forms, so powerful that it became my profession. But as Doc from Ritorno al Futuro would say, there would be no present if one did not look at the past with respect and admiration, and it is the Simon child of more than thirty years ago, give or take a year, who is to thank for that.
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