Why does it pain some of us to open sealed games?

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This is my *sealed* backlog for the 360. Yes, I buy more games than I can play, but no, as a collector I don't feel I'm wasting money. And no, I didn't pay anything close to $60 for any of these, more like $20 or less. I also have a DS and Wii backlog similar. Oh and, I've played Fallout 3, just not my copy.


I don't know what it is, why it is that it pains me to break a seal. I'm not a sealed collector. But the longer I go owning a game I've not opened, the more I don't want to open it. I hate just gutting into the copy, knowing there are thousands out there already gutted. Being such a cheap ass, I could never bring myself to buy two copies of the same game. Being someone who doesn't have time, and probably would never have time to play all of the games I get, maybe I think someday years down the road a sealed collector would shit a lung for this lot. So this is why I try to avoid buying new when it makes sense, but sometimes it actually doesn't when a new copy is cheaper.


I'm thinking about doing it all in one swoop, to make it less painful. Maybe a mass unboxing-video. Might be for my own good.


Anyone else get into the same mess?

I don't do this with games, but I am like that with paper money. When I get a crisp bill from the bank machine, I can't bring myself to fold it or spend it. I carefully hold it by the edges and put it in a sleeve when I get home. Am I a money/coin collector? Hell no. Do I have silver and paper currency stashed away for reasons beyond my comprehension? Yes.

If you think not opening games is weird, try not spending money and trying to beat inflation.

Most of those titles won't be worth a lot, years down the road. If you had a rare title, it might be in your best interest to keep it sealed, but none of these titles fall into that category.

Yes, I feel the same way. However, there are cases when it's better to leave a game sealed, as well as times where it doesn't make sense to keep a game sealed. I'll give you a couple of examples.

First is my sealed 32X Primal Rage. It may not be the most rare 32X game, but it's pretty much a given that sealed copies of more uncommon games will start to become legitimately rare down the road. I'm keeping this copy of PR 32X shrink wrapped for posterity. Heck, I've even been thinking of sending it into VGA to have it graded and slabbed for both potential value increase as well as preventing any kind of damage (well, other than more sunfading, unless I buy a UV-resistant case).

Concerning the other side of the coin, there are often games that were so heavily mass produced, it's very common to find them sealed still. A more modern example is Drill Dozer on GBA. This game has been easy to find sealed, even today. If you find one, it probably won't cost you much more than a cart only copy and there will be loads more where that one sealed copy came from. My situation is a little different though. I have a pirated Drill Dozer, a legit cart with the manual and a sealed copy. Given the circumstance, there is no point in opening the sealed copy.

Hope this helps a bit in your decision, sort of. :)

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Originally Posted by gamevet

Most of those titles won't be worth a lot, years down the road. If you had a rare title, it might be in your best interest to keep it sealed, but none of these titles fall into that category.

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That may be, but who knows. If a collector ran across a large lot of sealed Genesis games, would that be something even if not all of the games were top notch?

I would freak just to see that many sealed Genesis titles in the same place.

For me it really depends on the game/age. Let's say I was at a flea market and found a sealed copy of Mortal Kombat for Genesis and Sonic 2 for Game Gear. I wouldn't open them due to the fact they've been sealed for so long. Even though they are very common games. But if I found more than one copy I would open one for sure. Guess it's kinda like a time capsule feeling opening a sealed game that's been sealed for years.

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Originally Posted by Guntz

Concerning the other side of the coin, there are often games that were so heavily mass produced, it's very common to find them sealed still. A more modern example is Drill Dozer on GBA. This game has been easy to find sealed, even today. If you find one, it probably won't cost you much more than a cart only copy and there will be loads more where that one sealed copy came from. My situation is a little different though. I have a pirated Drill Dozer, a legit cart with the manual and a sealed copy. Given the circumstance, there is no point in opening the sealed copy.

Hope this helps a bit in your decision, sort of. :)

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By 360 standards, I would imagine most of the j-rpg and hack-n-slash titles I have would be on the smaller side when it comes to the number of copies produced. Of course, 360 standards probably aren't anything as small as 32X, no matter the title.

Then again, there are games like Destroy All Humans: Path of the Furion, that are already becoming very uncommon to find, going for $100 sealed on eBay as well as a handful of other titles that have climbed back up to full retail. One popular title, Dead Rising, is going for over $100 for sealed copy of the non-Platinum Hits.

It really just makes me wants to visit VGChartz and re-analyze which of these have sold the least, to determine which ones to keep sealed. Damn!

When I buy a sealed game, my intention is to rip it open and claim it "MINE" :3

I think your just a typical odd classic gaming guy like the rest of us, i cant stand to see a console not used so every time i see one at sales doesn't matter if i already have 10 of em, i make an offer. But honestly i don't think many games will be rare in the future since gaming is so much bigger these days.

Because you've got a kind of psychosis? ;)

But really, I enjoy opening a sealed game. That fresh scent of printed paper, the shiny, untouched CD or cart, a smooth manual... to know you're the first to handle it and give it the purpose it was made for as you pop it into your system. After all, game's aren't meant to be sealed forever. They're made to entertain, and they can't do that stuffed on a shelf with the wrapping still on them. It's a waste of space and money in my opinion to leave a game sealed.

So open them, play them, and enjoy them. And if someone can't do that, then they should give/sell the games to someone who will.

I've never kept games sealed, but really, it's probably gonna end up being a good investment. At least for some of the games. A lot of old games that are brand new sealed are selling for hundreds of dollars on ebay, so who knows. Maybe one day you'll come across a small fortune thanks to it

Games are meant to be played, so I open em and play em. I don't let a thin slice of plastic get in my way.

Well, there is one point in keeping these sealed. I'm pretty sure most current gen. consoles will be more or less broken in 20 years, so it's not like you'll be able to play the games anyway. Good luck finding spare parts.

I own a sealed copy of Shining Force CD, but the only reason I haven't opened it is because I don't have the Sega CD RAM Cart yet, and I'd rather just leave it sealed until I'm actually going to play it. In the past I have purchased sealed copies of older games (Sonic CD & Sonic Jam are the two that jump immediately to mind) when they were cheap enough and/or complete used copies weren't readily available, and I have never had any qualms with opening them up. Games are meant to be played.

I'll never understand the desire to have a game/keep a game sealed. Sure there is potential for the game to be worth moo-lah 20 years from now, but games are to be experienced....and the experience of looking at a sealed game is dull.

And yes, I know you can buy *two* copies...but I really shouldn't have to purchase two.