VGCollect Forum
General and Gaming => General => Topic started by: robert89 on April 28, 2018, 10:10:22 pm
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I want to hear some opinions on this.
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The same reason people collect unopened dolls and toys. To say they're the few in the world with a product that has never been opened, never touched, and ostensibly in the most perfect of condition (with the exception of its packaging maybe). Personally, I think the VGA and all other groups who "grade" video games for outrageous fees are a total scam and that games were meant to be played. I have but maybe 3 items in my collection that are sealed new and that's just because I found them cheap online and in thrift stores.
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First and foremost I do not collect sealed games, but unfortunately have interacted with a few people that have. This was my experience with them.
Sealed Collector #1: This guy worked as a manager at EB Games from like 1997 until the mid 2000s and pretty much snatched up anything and everything as soon as the store wanted to get rid of it. He even stashed stuff until corporate wanted it out of inventory and would buy it up as soon as they did this. From working at a game store for almost two whole console generations he amassed a MASSIVE collection of sealed games from the 16-bit era all the way to PS3/360 titles. He had some insane stuff like multiple sealed copies of Panzer Dragoon Saga, several brand new copies of Lunar 1 and 2 on the PS1, and dozens of different sealed PS1 RPGs. I found about this guy on CL because he was selling some stuff (none of this sealed stuff of course) and he insisted on me looking at his sealed stuff which I found a little weird. He then proceeded to brag about all the sealed stuff and liked to remind me how much the last sealed copy of game X sold for on Ebay and also how none of it was for sale. I asked him politely what the point of having 4 sealed copies of Super Smash Bros was and he pretty much responded by saying because no one else does. It was obvious he got a huge ego boost from having so much desirable sealed games and got off on other people wanting his stuff, but not being able to have it. I didn't end up buying anything off him that day.
Sealed Collector #2: I was out hunting for games at a local retro game store and he was talking to one of the store employees about how he wanted to preserve games by getting them sealed and would pay top dollar if he had to. I found his reasons somewhat noble, but he was very arrogant when talking about his sealed collecting, again seeming to get off on the fact that he had sealed games that no one else had.
Aside from my personal experience with sealed collectors, I've heard they're typically a whole other level of crazy and anal retentive that most people don't want to deal with.
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People just like having nice collections, whether they play the game or not. Some people buy sealed, while also buying an open or loose version so they can play if its something worthwhile. I personally don't care as much about sealed stuff, though if I came across a sealed game, I'd probably keep it that way, especially for cartridge era games. That's rare to find.
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They're a perfect, pristine replica of the game when it left the factory. If you were to open the sealed game decades down the line you'd be one of the few people still able to have the experience of opening the game as though you'd bought it new from the shop. And most of all they're the best possible condition for the game to be in which means they're far more valuable.
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To me collecting sealed games is fine. - Even for the people who claim to be doing it as an investment. But when people do it to stroke their own ego, that's when it starts to become annoying. "Oooo Look what I have, and you don't." What are you? Six years old?
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I wouldn't bother collecting sealed games because I plan on playing them. I can sort of see the appeal, though. The collector wants something in the best shape possible.
If they're using them as bragging tools, then I just roll my eyes and carry on.
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I have a lot of sealed games but usually because I open games when I intend to play them. But when I'm looking for an older game to purchase (because I want to play it), a sealed copy is very appealing, knowing that it'll have all the components in it and isn't a fake cart (something becoming more commonplace, unfortunately).
Sometimes I end up finding a used/open copy for cheap of something I own sealed, so I usually figure I'll sell the sealed copy down the road but don't make a big deal of it to people looking at my collection.
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I don't do that with anything. If I buy something, I intend to play/use/watch/read it.
I don't slab comics, and I don't keep games sealed. What a waste of an item. Games are meant to be played, and comics are meant to be read.
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I don't do that with anything. If I buy something, I intend to play/use/watch/read it.
I don't slab comics, and I don't keep games sealed. What a waste of an item. Games are meant to be played, and comics are meant to be read.
I dare you to say and do that with a rare factory sealed retro game or the more expensive graded comics ::)
You have some balls of steel if you do open one of those :o
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I don't do that with anything. If I buy something, I intend to play/use/watch/read it.
I don't slab comics, and I don't keep games sealed. What a waste of an item. Games are meant to be played, and comics are meant to be read.
I dare you to say and do that with a rare factory sealed retro game or the more expensive graded comics ::)
You have some balls of steel if you do open one of those :o
Of course I would, unless it's something I'm not into anyways. I'd much rather use the thing than have it just sit there and collect dust on a shelf.
But I mean, if something I wouldn't care about otherwise, I'd just turn around and sell it. I still wouldn't hold on to it. (Then use that money to buy something I do care about).
If I got a sealed a copy of say Punisher on Genesis, yep, opening it, because that's a fun game. If it's a copy of Showcase #56 (1st Green Lantern), I'd open it up and read it to because I'm a huge GL fan. I mean, I'd definitely be more delicate about it, and immediately return it to where it belongs when I'm done. But it would be read.
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I don't do that with anything. If I buy something, I intend to play/use/watch/read it.
I don't slab comics, and I don't keep games sealed. What a waste of an item. Games are meant to be played, and comics are meant to be read.
I dare you to say and do that with a rare factory sealed retro game or the more expensive graded comics ::)
You have some balls of steel if you do open one of those :o
Of course I would, unless it's something I'm not into anyways. I'd much rather use the thing than have it just sit there and collect dust on a shelf.
But I mean, if something I wouldn't care about otherwise, I'd just turn around and sell it. I still wouldn't hold on to it. (Then use that money to buy something I do care about).
If I got a sealed a copy of say Punisher on Genesis, yep, opening it, because that's a fun game. If it's a copy of Showcase #56 (1st Green Lantern), I'd open it up and read it to because I'm a huge GL fan. I mean, I'd definitely be more delicate about it, and immediately return it to where it belongs when I'm done. But it would be read.
That's kind of dumb considering you could sell the sealed copy and buy it cib and have 70$ to buy something else you want to play with that.
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I never started as a sealed collector and will not stop myself from opening any of my sealed games, but I do have probably about 100 sealed games or so (mostly LRG). I will only ever buy a game used or sealed (none of the Gamestop "NEW" crap) so if I find myself wanting to play a game that is still sealed in my collection I have no quarrel with opening it up but if I have no pressing want to play it it will forever stay sealed in my collection.
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It is acceptable if you open an old game where the sealed difference is only like 50 ish $ at most I get that.
at a hundred or a bit more you better have a good reason to make it worth it and if the difference is a couple hundred to a couple grant if not more It's a getting pretty stupid especially if were having the argument that games are meant to be played ::)
Give the market that sealed game and get a used minty one :o
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I don't do that with anything. If I buy something, I intend to play/use/watch/read it.
I don't slab comics, and I don't keep games sealed. What a waste of an item. Games are meant to be played, and comics are meant to be read.
I dare you to say and do that with a rare factory sealed retro game or the more expensive graded comics ::)
You have some balls of steel if you do open one of those :o
Of course I would, unless it's something I'm not into anyways. I'd much rather use the thing than have it just sit there and collect dust on a shelf.
But I mean, if something I wouldn't care about otherwise, I'd just turn around and sell it. I still wouldn't hold on to it. (Then use that money to buy something I do care about).
If I got a sealed a copy of say Punisher on Genesis, yep, opening it, because that's a fun game. If it's a copy of Showcase #56 (1st Green Lantern), I'd open it up and read it to because I'm a huge GL fan. I mean, I'd definitely be more delicate about it, and immediately return it to where it belongs when I'm done. But it would be read.
That's kind of dumb considering you could sell the sealed copy and buy it cib and have 70$ to buy something else you want to play with that.
That is a great point. I like the way you think.
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I'm the type of gamer who will buy a game (that I plan to play) as long as the game works, I honestly could care less if the game is sealed or if the box is even in good shape (obviously if it is it's better tho lol). I'm a gamer on a budget so the only games i'll buy sealed (which i'll open) are new games.
I don't really see the point of having a sealed video games collection but do you as long as it makes you happy :)
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I never intend not to open a game I open alot of new games but some I put aside to play later and never get to it. If a game becomes to expensive to open I'll use one of my son's copies instead of opening mine. They go buy the same rule and use mine if mine is open. But only if the game becomes expensive. I won't judge people on what or how they collect it's fine just don't be a dick it's only for fun.When this stops being fun for me Ill stop.
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I don't buy sealed games unless they're a recent release because A. Money and B. I intend to play the games I buy most of the time.
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As a toy collector, this is a question that comes up pretty often. The mint-in-package group just likes to have a perfectly new copy on the shelf, sometimes arranging them as if they were on a store shelf.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that kind of collecting (seriously, there’s no “wrong” way to collect), even though I don’t get anything from it. Believe me, I experimented with it by having a few MIB toys on my shelf, and it did nothing for me. Same thing with games; it’s all about playing the game for me, not about just owning a box with a product inside I can never experience.
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To most of us who actually post on the forum here this might seem like a strange thing to do, but this is a collecting site after all and the apex of 'collecting' anything is to build a collection of items which are in the best and most complete condition possible, for video games this is usually new and sealed.
With video games, a lot of us end up with a 'collection' because we want a library of games to dip into and actually play. That's very different than wanting to build and display a collection of, say, model cars, where the collecting and display is the ultimate aim, not to take them out of the box and push them around worksurfaces making brum brum noises. That's all new and sealed game collectors are doing - collecting in the real sense.
I don't like braggarts either, which is why I avoid talking games to most people apart from folk on this forum, with my nephew or with some of the owners of game stores I frequent.
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Thought 1:
It's not that hard to seal a game really. I have some sealed games I'll probably never open but all of them I obtained for less than they costed at retail when new so I don't care if the seal is a fake.
Thought 2:
I collect for the thrill of hunt and the thrill of completing. "Gotta catch them all" as they say. When I buy games, play them and put them on a shelf I can't call it "my collection", it's "my havetion". On the other hand when I want all jak and daxter games - now that's a collection started for me. And guess what some of them jak and daxter games can be universally recognised as shitty and are dirt cheap sealed - I'll keep them sealed, who cares. Collecting games is a game in itself.
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Thought 1:
It's not that hard to seal a game really. I have some sealed games I'll probably never open but all of them I obtained for less than they costed at retail when new so I don't care if the seal is a fake.
Seeing this reminded me of another thing.
Just because you bought a game at the store doesn’t mean it’s “factory sealed”.
I worked at a Software Etc store in the late 90’s, and we had a shrink-wrapping machine in the back room. We would open games and remove the discs to use the boxes for display, then replace the disc and shrink wrap it if someone was buying the last copy.
Also, Software Etc had a “check-out” perk, allowing employees to take games home to try them for a few days. Then we’d re-wrap them.
Just a note to MIP collectors, you might want to check the wrapping on your game.
Just another headache I avoid by not collecting MIP ;)
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Thought 1:
It's not that hard to seal a game really. I have some sealed games I'll probably never open but all of them I obtained for less than they costed at retail when new so I don't care if the seal is a fake.
Seeing this reminded me of another thing.
Just because you bought a game at the store doesn’t mean it’s “factory sealed”.
I worked at a Software Etc store in the late 90’s, and we had a shrink-wrapping machine in the back room. We would open games and remove the discs to use the boxes for display, then replace the disc and shrink wrap it if someone was buying the last copy.
Also, Software Etc had a “check-out” perk, allowing employees to take games home to try them for a few days. Then we’d re-wrap them.
Just a note to MIP collectors, you might want to check the wrapping on your game.
Just another headache I avoid by not collecting MIP ;)
Not a big deal, unless you're GameStop and decide that it's okay to take out the digital content that is part of the price. That's some B.S. that shouldn't even be legal.
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What if you keep a video game sealed for years and years. and whoever opens that game finds no game in the box or sealed case?
Or in my case a defective PS1 disc that is bent from the factory
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What if you keep a video game sealed for years and years. and whoever opens that game finds no game in the box or sealed case?
Or in my case a defective PS1 disc that is bent from the factory
What did you ended up doing with the box and the disc?
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seriously, there’s no “wrong” way to collect
There's the answer right there.
I'm not a sealed collector, but if I do find a sealed (older/out of production) game, there's no chance in hell I'll open it. I have 3 sealed games, and they'll stay that way.
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What if you keep a video game sealed for years and years. and whoever opens that game finds no game in the box or sealed case?
Or in my case a defective PS1 disc that is bent from the factory
What did you ended up doing with the box and the disc?
I threw it out and now I feel sorry for it. It was a copy of Ford Racing for PlayStation 1. the CD was thicker then usual and the CD was slightly bent to the point that my PS2 slim could not
spin the disc. But I always could have tried it in a PS2 phat model but I never did.
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What if you keep a video game sealed for years and years. and whoever opens that game finds no game in the box or sealed case?
Or in my case a defective PS1 disc that is bent from the factory
What did you ended up doing with the box and the disc?
I threw it out and now I feel sorry for it. It was a copy of Ford Racing for PlayStation 1. the CD was thicker then usual and the CD was slightly bent to the point that my PS2 slim could not
spin the disc. But I always could have tried it in a PS2 phat model but I never did.
Yeah. I usually tuck these in storage. Sometimes you can find a disc for dirt cheap online or in thrift stores. A lot of people are looking for box and manual too so you can trade.. With regards to PS1 disc there are also Bleem discs floating around (I have one) and with bleem you have a much wider variety of CD drives you can try to read bad CDs.
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Because it's cool, think about it. A sealed game has never been touched, and is new from a factory from way back then.
However that's my reasoning, outside of that I'd say it's mostly for bragging purposes, but I never open anything sealed which I buy, unless it's a newer game.
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seriously, there’s no “wrong” way to collect
There's the answer right there.
I'm not a sealed collector, but if I do find a sealed (older/out of production) game, there's no chance in hell I'll open it. I have 3 sealed games, and they'll stay that way.
It's all about the individual and one's collecting parameters. For example I have failed many times in the past at collecting video games. I would buy up everything I could, burnout, feel guilty and then sell most of it away only to regret it years later. I decided last year to rebuild but before I did I setup some personal rules and guides about what I would keep. For me I focused solely on loose copies of NES and SNES with a secondary focus on loose Gameboy, BOXED Sega Genesis, and cased PS1. Now I have bought sealed games and complete in box systems when the price was right and in turn sold those to feed my focus areas. In addition I only keep games that I had as a kid or wanted but never had the chance, no completion sets.
This my seem silly but its kept me out of trouble and away from burning out. Not everyone is like me (thank goodness) and you just have to find whats best for you...even if that's a sealed experience.
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This my seem silly but its kept me out of trouble and away from burning out. Not everyone is like me (thank goodness) and you just have to find whats best for you...even if that's a sealed experience.
Nothing is silly in that hobby, i think there is as many way of collecting than there is people who collect, look at me for example i don't like making money with my hobby so i don't sell my dupes, i try to trade them with others collectors or i give them away sometimes (and that is, for most people, really silly right ;) ?). I even knew a PS1 & PS2 collector who didn't care about the games, he only care about the boxes (i remember that he sorted them by item numbers, and he didn't even care if the disc was inside or not, the only thing that mattered was the spine, it needed to be perfect).
Back to topic, i think i already answered that on another thread but i don't really care about sealed games, i always buy a game with the intention of playing it and the plastic around the box prevents me to do it (well... most of the time i pass on them because the price is too high anyway), but it happens sometimes that i find one cheap (it happens a lot with PC games, they're so cheap that people buy them by lot but don't even have the time to play with them, they don't even bother to open them).
Recent games that i find sealed (X360/PS3/Wii or more recent, and DVD case for PC) i open them directly (i don't even bother checking if the game could be rare or not), for games more ancient than that i try to trade them with another collector for a CIB copy of the same game (of course without the bothering thing around it ;)) and sadly if i can't find anyone to trade it with... well the next time i'm in the mood to play with it i will open that game without hesitation (right now i actually have one sealed game to trade but after more than a year i found no one to trade it with, it's a PAL UK/FR variant of Ace Combat Advance, but i'm not in the mood for some Ace Combat lately so the plastic is safe... for now).
Another reason that i don't collect sealed games is basically what oldgamerz said previously.
What if you keep a video game sealed for years and years. and whoever opens that game finds no game in the box or sealed case?
I have a terribly bad luck when it comes to new games, sealed boxes without disc inside or with the wrong disc... it happened to me more than a few times, so with my luck this sort of things will probably happen.
My first bad luck case:
(https://i.imgur.com/jvR9Rij.jpg)
Resident Evil 2 was one of my birthday gifts for 1999 but i was too focused on FF7 (that i got at the same time) to even bother opening it until months after... :'(
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^ Ouch.
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did that resident evil have the original ps1 seal since it is an european copy.
So with the ps1 logo on the tear strip.
I have seen plenty of reseals with generic seals and in the US it's pretty hard to determine when it is a genuine factory seal since it does not have any indicatation of the seal being from nintendo or sony other than the sides and folds on the seal wich might give an indication what would be correct,
Also in europe there were plenty of stores wich open the games cases to check the games etc however the original seal is gone and it has been replaced by a generic seal by a reseal machine etc.
in your case it seems like a store employee screwed up and swapped the discs by mistake before resealing. I can imagine it being very rare if it was actually an original ps1 seal so your pretty lucky if that was indeed an original ps1 factory seal. Considering that you experienced it allot i might guess you were getting games at a certain store wich resealed games that's not normal stuff.
As far as factory sealed today goes. the really expensive stuff is not going to get opened so even if the game is broken or wrong it will not be used or seen anyway. It makes no sense since a used copy is allot cheaper if your going to use it anyway.
People who collecty factory sealed just want a perfect copy. Certain fans of certain series want a game in perfect shape they have a used copy and will not use the brand new copy anyways as far as non hardcore factory sealed collectors go.
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Almost twenty years after i don't really remember, i was a kid back then, i remember tearing a plastic but don't remember if it had the tear strip (i don't remember that i had trouble tearing it so i guess it had a tear strip but to say if it had the Playstation logo on it or not...). But that was just the first case, it happened to me more than a few times, sealed games with the official tear strip bought on the day of release, last time it happened was two years ago with the Limited Edition of Dishonored 2 on PS4, the game had the right disc, no problem on this side but the rest of the box empty so i didn't had the papers with the codes to download the DLC and the digital copy of Dishonored 1... of course no problem now since i open my games directly in the shop after paying to check them (the owner know me and know how lucky i am... ;D).
in your case it seems like a store employee screwed up and swapped the discs by mistake before resealing. I can imagine it being very rare if it was actually an original ps1 seal so your pretty lucky if that was indeed an original ps1 factory seal. Considering that you experienced it allot i might guess you were getting games at a certain store wich resealed games that's not normal stuff.
Could be for the Resident Evil 2 copy but i moved a lot in twenty years and the actual shop owner where i buy my new games is a friend i have since we were kids so i trust him (and he take care of each "lucky case" i get, and it seems to be bothering to contact his provider each time). And that is the story of why i like to buy used games instead of new & sealed games ;D (or even digital copy directly for PC).
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It's not a pricey game anymore, since there's been better releases of it since. But for a while there, it was.
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Just decided to reply to this post now because of something that happened to me recently.
I never pay more for having a sealed game. Actually, I'd prefer paying more for having an unsealed copy of it for one simple reason: Whenever I buy a sealed retro game, I never have the needed courage to open it.
Recently, I found Layer Section II (RayStorm) for the Saturn for only ¥1,500 (a little under US$14,00), which is already a pretty good price for a shooter on that console and, when I got back home, I noticed it was still sealed...
I don't think I will ever have the guts to break the seal of a good game like this that, for some reason, has been kept unopened for over 20 years, so it is currently seating sealed in a special place on my collection...
Overall, what I want to say is that, sometimes, I've actually given up on buying some games just because they are sealed, but once a sealed retro game finds its way into my collection, it is probably never going to be opened...
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The only games in my collection that I planned on never opening were the collectors editions. Everything else in my collection that is still sealed, I never got around to playing.
I also picked up many RPGs or non greatest hits etc. from the bargain bins or clearance shelves when I would see them. Back in my early 20's I knew a lot of collectors who did the same and we could trade with each other.