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[Impotaku]

Let's differentiate, if you buy a sealed copy of a game you want it for collecting only, you don't plan on opening it. If you buy a CIB copy you can both be collecting and playing it. I got friends who love to play with the physical consoles, I'm in a SNES collecting group but many have started collecting TurboGrafx games too because they are cheap still in comparison (especially Japanese ones). Now, we all know that physical games will eventually fail, a battery in a SNES game might leak and ruin the circuit, or the pins might get too damaged, a disc might decay or become too scratched to be playable, etc. In that case those games can drop their price so if you bought them as investment they will be a complete loss. Some of that could happen to sealed games but in this case you are buying the item as a piece of memorabilia, not to play it so if the battery decays and eats the whole PCB away it doesn't matter as long as it doesn't destroy the box.

I personally collect games that I a) played as a child/teen, b) games that I read in magazines at that age but could never buy, c) games that I want to play. Very rarely I buy something to not play it, which is why I nowadays focus more on portable and consoles that have a portable version than home consoles where you need a CRT to experience the game as when you were child. But I totally understand someone wanting to pay 500 or 1000 for a sealed copy, or a copy of a game that had low production.

Not everyone who buys a sealed game sits on it, There are also people like myself who buy sealed games to open & play because they want a copy that's pristine as finding copies out there in pristine condition is extremely hard for quite a few titles so buying sealed gets you a near guaranteed mint copy. Dont care how rare or valuable a sealed game is if i want to play it then it's getting stripped of it's plastic. I have no interest in hoarding sealed games to sit on them.

Stupidly rare game, took years to find a pristine sealed copy but i wanted to play it so zip.

Sealed copy of Zanac another pricy game, someone even messaged me hate because of this pic saying i'm ruining collecting by opening it. Boo hoo cry some more LOL it's getting enjoyed like it's meant to.

Another that's near impossible to find sealed, and now theres 1 less LOL