Former PCGS President Brings Expertise to Videogames

Brett Charville educates new collectors on how rare coin and trading card certification now assists video game hobby

A recent former president of Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS), Brett Charville, has launched an informative website, www.StandardGaming.com, to educate collectors about how third-party certification concepts for coins and trading cards are helping the increasing popularity of video game collecting.

“The market for certified collectibles took off in 1986 when PCGS launched its rare coins authentication and grading service. Today, there is a grading service out there for virtually all fungible collectibles that are small enough to be encased in plastic. One of the most exciting and fastest-growing collectible areas getting the certification treatment are rare video games,” said Charville, founder of Columbus, Ohio-based Standard Gaming.

“It’s such a new collectible field that it lacks many key pieces of collectible infrastructure that we take for granted in hobbies like rare coins and sports cards. There’s less pricing data, sparse information on varieties, and few reputable places to buy and sell video games,” he explained.

Charville, who served as President of PCGS from 2019 to 2021, points out that several numismatic-related companies are already actively getting involved with the certification and grading of video games.

“Certification company Video Game Authority (VGA) has been grading games for over a decade. WATA, the video game grading service that started in 2018 now is a division of Collectors Holdings, the parent company of PCGS and PSA. Additionally, Certified Collectibles Group (CCG), the parent company of Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC), recently launched CGC Video Game Grading,” he said.

The primary goals of StandardGaming.com are to provide simple-to-understand educational guides and content for collectors entering the graded video game market as well as offer fairly priced, entry-level games available for immediate purchase.

For more information, visit www.StandardGaming.com.