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Good point Tawmis, as a collector, to buy for the sake of pure collection (and not to play) then its a "horrible" feeling to unwrap the shrink wrap.
The enjoyment would be to have it on display and to just "know that you have it". The enjoyment is not from playing it.

However, I'm not that fanatical (unless I have several copies of the same title) so I'd open it - but carefully and try to leave the shrink wrap on as much as possible.

As well as collecting titles, I think its important to collect the machines that the titles were made for as well. But these days, to find an 80286 or 80386 machine at 2nd hand shops is now very very rare!

Here you can read a little bit about that topic:

http://www.vintage-sierra.net/slash.php

To make it short: If your game is shrinkwrapped in that folded manner, then you can be pretty confident, that it is originally sealed. I don't know though, for how long they were using that folding mechanism. I think it applies mainly to the AGI games.
From my collection probably half of them have this folded shrinkwrap.

But I do also look at the condition of the box "behind" the shrink-wrapped. If it looks bumped and scratched, I wouldn't buy. If it looks rather brand new, I can live with that. In contrast to you I would never ever open the shrinkwrap. Not even a small slit at the top to pull out the content. If it has been done, to me, it is not shrinkwrapped at all and you could omit the rest of the shrinkwrap all together. And I would value it the same way as a used box with no shrinkwrap at all.

Unfortunately, though, I won 2 auctions, which were promoted as "shrinkwrapped" and when they arrived, I found out, that they have been opened exactly as you mentioned. I can't be sure, that the content hasn't been tampered with / is still complete in its original format.
Might be illogical, as I can't be sure with shrinkwrapped games as well (as they might have been re-shrinkwrapped), but isn't collecting and paying a huge amount of $ for old games, that you probably won't even play, a little bit illogical as well

Kind regards,
Constantin

Thanks for the link, I saw that some time ago.
Paying for old games just to collect is ok, no more different than people collecting stamps. i.e. they don't use them to post letters with
But I find that trying to be less "psychotic" about shrink wrappage makes life easier After all, its not the plastic around the box that has value, just the fact that you own the game

I was taking one of my usual strolls through a local thrift store today and found this in the kitchen appliances section. I have never seen a Coktel Vision game on a thrift store shelf, then today, BAM -- Inca I&II Collector's Edition, shrink-wrapped, $4.99...right next to a large, boxed corkscrew.

It wasn't until I bought this little gem and took it home that I noticed a sticker with "Beatties" on it stuck on the side of the box, and some time after that, I realized that this particular collection wasn't even released in the US -- it's the UK/France release.

So many questions that may never be adequately answered...

@Hedegaard: Absolutely agree. And that is the reason, why I am trying to have always 2 copies of a game. One well pre-served open one, and one shrinkwrapped. The latter one mainly wrt a possible sale in the future. There are "psychotics" out there, who even care for simple 3rd party Marketing fliers to be present. If it's shrinkwrapped, you don't have to discuss this

Hedegaard wrote:Good point Tawmis, as a collector, to buy for the sake of pure collection (and not to play) then its a "horrible" feeling to unwrap the shrink wrap.

I suppose I am too untrusting of people on the internet. I wouldn't bid on a "sealed" classic Sierra game. I'd want to know for sure what I am bidding on.

Akril wrote:I was taking one of my usual strolls through a local thrift store today and found this in the kitchen appliances section.

inca9-11-13.jpg

I swear, there are no thrist stores here in San Diego that EVER have Sierra games...

I am always so envious in this thread, when I read about you guys who find this cool stuff in Thrift stores.

Tawm: the key is patience. It might be months, even years, before I find another boxed copy of a Sierra game at one of the stores I frequent. It helps if you have something else to look for, like books or series. Today I bought the second half of the first Blackadder series, now I finally have them complete. Yes, I could have downloaded or bought the DVD, but where's the fun in that? Actually finding what you're looking for, is only half the fun.

Did I say that I love Police Quest / Jim Walls?

Police Quest 1-4 + Remake, Codename: Iceman and Blue Force all shrinkwrapped. Additionally PQ3 in EGA and German (My mother tongue).
Not in this picture, but also present: PQ4 in German as well as Blue Force as Disk Version.

Constantin35, wow, that is really great!!
Remarkable, the whole PQ series in one go!

Actually this was not a one-time shot but a 2-year effort. PQ2, PQ3 and PQ4 and Blue Force shrinkwrapped I acquired with Amazon US Marketplace. Different sellers, and throught the years. Much cheaper than what you would pay for on EBay, if they would show up there at all. But you have to check regularly on Amazon and then have to inquire each time, as most times the seller doesn't have an actual photo uploaded. To prevent acquiring Slash-Releases you need to contact them and ask questions.

Still, as a thorn in my side, PQ2 is only Atari ST.

PQ1 & PQ1 Remake shrinkwrapped have been just recently added via rather expensive EBay auctions.
The german versions of PQ3 and PQ4 I acquired on german Ebay, were some time ago a seller was auctioning almost every german Sierra Release. (unfortunately apart of SQ3 german and Conquest of the Longbow german. The latter one I am still searching for)

Best wishes,
Constantin

Very, very nice! Congrats on the PQ collection!

Yeah, its nice to see some movement in this thread after so many months of quietness.
And nice story constantin!
You see how effort pays off, all of a sudden you're sitting with a "complete" collection of a series.
But I'll gladly help you out with your PQ2 Atari ST edition........send it to me, then you're free from looking at it....win-win situation

Constantin35 wrote:Did I say that I love Police Quest / Jim Walls?

Police Quest 1-4 + Remake, Codename: Iceman and Blue Force all shrinkwrapped. Additionally PQ3 in EGA and German (My mother tongue).
Not in this picture, but also present: PQ4 in German as well as Blue Force as Disk Version.

PQ.jpg

That's a freaking nice haul.

Tawmis wrote:I swear, there are no thrist stores here in San Diego that EVER have Sierra games...

I am always so envious in this thread, when I read about you guys who find this cool stuff in Thrift stores.

I'm actually kind of surprised to hear that. I'd think that a city with a population as large as San Diego's, there would be a higher chance of running into more obscure things in thrift stores.

Still, I'm pretty sure I've used up my "thrifting luck" quota for the entire decade.