“Friend of mine received this sealed and graded original copy of Pokémon Yellow,” Kick said. “U.S. Customs: Broke the acrylic case, ripped and discarded the seal, [and] sliced the front of the box off. Maybe they weren’t fans of Wata Games?”
Wata Games is an independent company that grades and certifies games for collectors. Chances are you’ll encounter Wata Games if you’re looking for high-quality, mint copies of old games. The company was responsible for grading and certifying The_Master_Of_Unlocking’s copy, giving it an A+ rating and a score of 9.2. According to Wata Games’ website, the game is in “exceptional condition” and worth $3,800. Or it was until U.S. Customs came through and decimated the certification.
“So…either they hated the battery inside the cartridge…or they thought it’d contain drugs or something,” one tweeter suggested in Kick’s mentions. “Can U.S. Customs just destroy things without recourse,” asked another tweeter, with many others demanding consequences against the agency.
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DISCLAIMER: pigs should not be able to rummage through your shit, damaging it, and when they didn't actually find anything get off scot free
anyway, Wata Games gets paid a percentage of the market value of the game you sent them for them to certify it; they decide how much the thing is worth; if you don't see the issue with that, i don't know what to tell you
Yeah this is a big case of “multiple things can be bad simultaneously.” Regardless of all my problems with the antique and collectibles industry and all that, cops should not be able to break your shit, and just go “Huh, nothing. Whoopsies.”