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Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Is Collecting Sealed Games A Real Hobby?

Jet Set Radioooooooooooooo!
Greetings. This post was suppose to be posted about half a month ago, but assignments seemed to to keep coming in and I kept on buying cheap, shit games. So in-between playing cheap, shit games (DNF isn't that bad to be honest) and doing assignments, I forgot to write this post. Over that the object you see in the above picture took about three weeks more than it should have to arrive, further postponing it. When it did finally come I was too busy screaming at my TV because of how crap Homefront was, but how it had an awesome story and I didn't want to stop because of it.  
It's kind of hard to see in the above picture because of the flash, but that copy of Jet Set Radio is still factory sealed. Going on Ebay while slightly intoxicated is never a good idea (repeat with me, never) and next thing I knew I had spent roughly $10AUS on this. Good deal really, so I don't feel too bad. That's just roughly two Red Bulls I've missed out on.
Sealed Dreamcast games are quite common because the console (in terms of console life spans) isn't really that old. I think because of how quickly Sega pulled the plug on it, lots of games were probably forgotten about. It seems to be quite common when a box of still sealed games is found in a warehouse somewhere, and that was probably the case for this copy. The sales page said more than 10 were available, so I guess the seller got them in bulk.
A lot of people will probably be like; "Hell yeah sealed Dreamcast game, it's just like Christmas 1999 again" and then they would proceed to play their favourite Smashmouth album while taking the seal off. But I can't seem to get myself to open it. I love the game and I've played it, but for some reason I rather keep it sealed because of some sort of weird collectors desire.
Games are meant to be played, not imprisoned in clear plastic. Everytime I see images of whole collections that are completely sealed, I feel dirty. More so when the people just keep it so they can sell it later for a profit. I guess I would never sell this (like anyone would buy it anyway) but I feel I should keep it sealed. This is the only sealed game I own, everything else is open and fully playable. Would it be okay to just keep this sealed? And make sure I don't have a whole collection full of sealed games that's only good to look at and brag about on the internet?

7 comments:

  1. I hear what you're saying. I personally make sure that I play every single game that I buy, if only for 15 minutes or so. The worst thing that I can see happening to me is to start buying games to increase my status or worth as a 'collector'. I don't want to be a collector, I'm a gamer.

    Saying that,I do have a sealed copy of Sonic Spinball for the Game Gear, but only because my Game Gear is STILL broken...

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  2. Game Gears seem to be quite good at being broken.

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  3. It's silly, games are meant to be played! I only buy games that have been opened, preferably complete in box and stuff, but never sealed, because, as a collector, I too would feel bad for opening it.. I love Jet set radio for the Dreamcast, I feel sorry for you not being able to play it!!! But I know the feeling, I got a still sealed Zelda for the SNES, but I don't feel to big of a need in playing that game (yes I don't really like Zelda) but just in case I bought an opened copy as well, mainly because I know a lot of my friends would get angry if I opened the sealed one haha ^^
    But there's no joy in having a complete collection still sealed in my opinion.. sure it's worth shitloads of money but you can't play!!
    Then again, there might be a difference, there's gamers and then there's collectors, I guess the pure collectors don't care about playing games, and the gamers don't really care for collecting, but then there's the mix of gamers who are collectors and I think we prefer having playable games in our collections ;D

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  4. Yeah, the sad reality is that there are a lot of people who collect fully sealed games just to make a profit later on. Feels quite off to me, but I guess there isn't a lot I can do until I win the lottery and go around buying those collections just to open them ;)

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  5. Haha, good one, I hope you win the lottery some day ;D

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