WATA, CGC and IGS: how the three VHS graders actually differ

If you're buying a graded tape, the number on the slab is only half the story. WATA, CGC and IGS each grade sealed video differently, and a 9.4 from one is not a statement about the same thing as a 9.4 from another.

The box grade and the seal grade are two separate things

This is the single most important thing to understand, and the thing newer buyers most often miss. A graded tape carries two assessments:

• the box grade, a numeric score for the condition of the cardboard, artwork, corners and edges;
• the seal rating, a letter grade describing the shrink wrap itself.

A tape can be a beautiful 9.6 box with a C-grade seal. That seal grade is doing a lot of work — it is the part that speaks to whether the wrap is original, and original wrap is most of what the premium is paid for.

When you compare two listings, compare both halves. "CGC 9.6" tells you much less than "CGC 9.6 A+".

WATA

WATA grades on a 0.0–10.0 scale with a separate seal rating (A++ down through C). It built its reputation on sealed games and brought the same framework to video. Its labels have changed design more than once, so the label era is itself a detail collectors look at.

CGC

CGC came to tapes from comics, where it has decades of history, and applies a familiar 0.5–10 scale plus a seal grade. Its population reports are the most accessible of the three, which matters when you're trying to work out how rare a given grade actually is for a given title.

IGS

IGS grades with sub-scores rather than one blended figure — box, seal and, where relevant, the cartridge or cassette itself get their own numbers. Collectors either love this or find it noisy. The advantage is that you can see exactly where the condition sits rather than inferring it from a single number.

What this means for price

Our weekly data consistently shows the same pattern: the grade matters, but the spread within a grade is wide, and it is driven by title demand far more than by a tenth of a point. A common title in 9.6 will usually trade under a scarce title in 9.0.

So read the whole label, then look at what that specific title has actually sold for. The number alone will mislead you.