Finding 20 or 30 year old games that have never been opened is a rare discovery. Its simply unlikely that people would ever buy games to just bring them home and sit them on a shelf, unopened and pristine. It might happen more often today, as brand new games can be sometimes picked up for under $10 on sale, but back when it was uncommon for people to have libraries with dozens if not hundreds of games seeing people buy games to just bring them home and never open them was a rare occurrence.
Collecting factory sealed games is a high-end subset of game collecting, as the prices for these games can vary from high to crazy. Do these appeal to you, as examples of a game exactly as you would have found it in stores back in the 80’s or 90’s? Or do you see games as something that needs to be played regardless of its condition or rarity?
Where do I stand?
I have a few factory sealed games in my collection. Several were titles I picked up long ago before the game collecting craze took off. One was a game I actually found in person -- shopping for a Confirmation gift for my Catholic nephew at at Christian bookstore, I actually found a shelf with several, brand new Wisdom Tree NES and Genesis games. Without a second though, I grabbed a copy of Exodus for the NES and walked out a happy game collector that day. In retrospect, I wish I had bought out their entire stock.
In my opinion, the rarer a game is the more I lean towards opening it. This seems counterintuitive, but I feel that more common games are better kept in factory sealed condition. Its easy to track down another copy of common games if you want to play them, so keeping a loose and sealed copy of a common game is easy.
Rare games, on the other hand cannot be easily tracked down. Sure, a factory sealed copy of Little Samson might sell for double the price of a complete game, but first you’ll need to find a collector dedicated enough to pay that price (eBay has tracked 1 sale of a sealed Samson in the past year). If you want a sealed copy and a copy to play, you’ll need to drop another $1,000 to acquire a loose cart.
What about fakes?
Unfortunately as retro game collecting has exploded in popularity, scammers creating fakes has become a big problem. Faked game carts is bad enough, but faked factory sealed games is a horrible scenario -- a shady seller can buy a $70 complete copy of Mike Tyson’s Punch Out and shrinkwrap it and sell it as a factory sealed copy for $700. Its the perfect crime, since the buyer never intends to open the game and would never discover if they were being ripped off.
Every console generation has a specific way in which games were sealed, so if you're interested its best to consult detailed guides on how to spot re-seals by platform. As NES is my favorite console, here's an example of a factory sealed game: the "H-seam". All licensed NES games use what's referred to as an H-seam, which has lines along the vertical edges of the spine, which meet in the middle and cross the middle of the back of the game. Here's an example of an H-seam:
In summary
If you do decide to start collecting these rare treasure, just make sure what you're buying is legit. Do some research to make sure you know what you're getting.
While games are meant to be played, there's something wonderful about seeing a game in the exact same condition that you would have seen it in a store 20, 30 or even nearly 40 years ago.
Another fascinating and top quality article ! Isnt hindsight a wonderful thing ? As a 51 year old who was a keen gamer in the 80s and 90s, little did I know the value of the games and consoles that were unceremoniously dumped in charity shops !!
I also have mixed feelings on collecting or saving anything that remains sealed. Things were made to be used and enjoyed. Museums are for old things that have history.
I know a couple of collectors of model railway engines, and they are obsessive about boxes and their condition, often never even taking a train out just to run it once. This is sad.
As I said, I'd much prefer something that has a past, a story, whether it be a video game or stamps or whatever than something that is simply a show piece. Collecting should be more than just saving stuff, it should be about immersing yourself and enjoying. I just don't quite get simply looking at something, especially something like a video game where you can get so much more out of playing it and marvelling the technology of today through comparing it to the past.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend mate :-)
yes!!!
I have some factory sealed games. Mostly Atari 2600, Atari 7800 and Atari Lynx games that are easy to find though.
This one touches close to home. I was a sealed collector. Had all the big Genesis titles sealed. Just starting on NES when I found an old video store selling the building. I had bought sealed games there a few years earlier right before they closed their doors for business. I got in touch with the owners and they still had thousands of sealed games. NES, SNES, N64, Playstation. I ended up buying over 600 boxed/complete games from them but they were way too strict on their sealed games. They wanted $50 each and they were firm on that price (and you had to buy them all). I offered them $15 a game right then and there but they said no. This was in 2005-2006 and totaled $25,000 - literally all of my money including investments. They're still friends on Facebook so there's still a chance but I haven't been in the video game selling business in a long time.
They had no less than 30 sealed black box games. Most of the sealed games were at their house but they accidentally left a few behind, I saw these with my own eyes including multiples of Soccer, Popeye and at least one of the Donkey Kong games.
They also gave me for free three huge garbage bags full of empty boxes, including 5 big box Earthbound boxes with inserts and books, and NES gems like Adventure Island 3, Bubble Bobble 2, tons of Capcom boxes and about a dozen Maxi-15 clamshells.
I did end up sneaking some awesome sealed games out: Megaman X2, Megaman Soccer, Ogre Battle to name a few.
Your posts always bring back awesome memories!
awesome memories!
msx
amiga500
80s 90s
;)