I love to collect things. I have several collections. Russ Trolls. Final Fantasy figures. Rocks. But one thing I’ve never understood is the desire of some collectors to house the things they collect in plastic, never to be touched. Or exposed to things like… you know… air.
So when I saw this, it just struck me as a waste of a perfectly good game. Yes, those are classic games encased in acrylic, suffering pitiously for lack of being played. The idea behind this blasphemy is similar to the way coins and baseball cards and the like are graded and encased to protect them and increase their value.
The encapsulation is done by the Video Game Authority, which, for a fee, will grade the condition of your precious never-opened copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 and lock it away in a tamper-evident block.
Now me, personally… if I buy a game, I have every intention of playing it. I don’t buy games to display them on a shelf, nor do I buy them as an investment. I don’t really care about their condition, as long as the console will still play it (hence why a fair portion of my library is scratched all to hell, missing the booklet and/or original case, and has other people’s names etched in permanent marker on the discs… they were purchased second hand for cheap).
Even more appalling is the prices some of these graded games are selling for. Sure, Super Mario Bros. 3 is an awesome game, but is it really worth $100+ when you can find the same thing sans box and booklet for $1.25 plus shipping?
To each his own, I suppose, but it seems a pity to let a perfectly good game sit around without ever being played. Of course, I also took my Final Fantasy figures out of their boxes, so I suppose I’ll never really understand.
Nikki Blight: is still trying to find that damn princess... when she's not writing fresh code for the217.com.
Comments
Add your comment
the217
Sections
Buzz Magazine
Nikki Blight
is still trying to find that damn princess... when she's not writing fresh code for the217.com.
Matt (Matt) says:
(Posted April 16th, 2008 at 12:28 pm)
How odd. Is there really a market for this? This reminds me of the speculative market that swelled up around comics in the ’90s (which eventually ate itself). I mean, collectible software?! I don’t get it.