How pernickity are you about cases?

[grolt]

At first I didn't even care about instructions when I was getting my games - I just wanted to start filling up my shelf. Now that I'm close to completing my US collection, I'm just looking for complete games. Cases, though, are a whole other story. Again, at first I just wanted the games, but now since I'm getting many games in lots, I'm finding myself with tons of extra games and therefore cases. I'm taking those cases and exchanging them with any chipped ones to try and ensure a flawless collection.

Does anyone else do this? Are you guys nitpicky about cases, or does the condition of the artwork matter more? If you do care about a clean case, what about the hanging tab...do you need that or would you rather have it without it? Or does it just not matter?

I have all 106 of my games all with full cases including the tabs, and now that I've gotten that pernickity, I don't think I could live with anything but!

Share your stories, brothas.

[Policenaut]

At first, I had some problems locating boxed or complete SMS games, that's why some of my US games are cart only, just a few like 8 or so now. For PAL titles, I look for the complete ones, again, just a few are boxed without instructions. As soon as I grab a complete US title I replace the boxed or cart only with the complete one.

[grolt]

policenaut said:

At first, I had some problems locating boxed or complete SMS games, that's why some of my US games are cart only, just a few like 8 or so now. For PAL titles, I look for the complete ones, again, just a few are boxed without instructions. As soon as I grab a complete US title I replace the boxed or cart only with the complete one.

But what about the cases...does the condition really matter, or at this point are you just trying to *get* cases?

[Kenneth]

I've sold around 500 sms games coming from bulklots over the past few years to get my complete set (maybe even more. can't tell precisely)
And yes, each time I sell one, I keep it's box if it's perfectly new so I can say proudly that almost all my games have perfectly mint boxes

[astaroth]

If i get games that i already have, and they come in a good box, i immediately swap the box with one in my collection, then just throw the crappy box away. If the insert is good i keep that in a folder, then store the cart and manual away.

Meaning i have loads of inserts, carts and instructions laying around! ;D

[Aypok]

In short; not very.

Manuals are a different story. When I decided to build up my SMS collection (and other collections, like the Mega Drive and Amiga) about seven years ago, I just wanted a half-decent case and a working card/disc/disk. That changed in about 2002/2003 and I started going just for complete games (with very minor and occasional exceptions).

Due to that, only thirteen of my 381 SMS games are missing a manual. Even then, most (if not all) of those are just variations - so I probably have at least one manual for my games. The down side is that I have to (usually - but not always) pay a little more for the games and have to miss out on some of the harder to find games - but that's all fine by me.

Back to the cases: As long as the case closes properly and the cover isn't damaged, it's fine by my standards. The tags don't matter at all to me - at a guess, I'd say half of them are missing. However, I can understand people wanting them.

Inserts also need to be good quality: unripped and unsun-damaged, etc. The usual. :)

I used to have a load of spare games obtained by buying bulk lots (something I've not done for quite some time - not for the SMS, at least). If the games had good cases, I would swap them with some of the more damaged cases in my collection. I dumped almost all of my SMS dupes/spares early last week - the cases ranged from "crap" to "destroyed". :)

astaroth said:

If the insert is good i keep that in a folder

Likewise. :) I've done that with a few of the better quality inserts out of my spares (manuals, too).

[ninjabearhug]

I'm not bothered about them being absolutely perfect, but i do like them to be clean and in pretty good condition- mainly so that my inserts remain in good condition. I'm not really bothered about instructions either, if a game has them great but i never read them and since i'm a gamer first, collector second, the most important part to me is that the cartridge works. I think i'm only 2 or 3 games short of the Euro collection but if you check my needs list there's about 30 games on there- i already have them they're just not boxed so they don't look as pretty on my shelves .

[Policenaut]

Sure, condition matters. Matters a lot, in fact it is one of the criteria we all have in the process, to have the game complete and in the best shape possible.

[rupert]

Every time I get a bunch of games from ebay, carboot sale gamestation the first thing i do is go through checking for miner variations (to feed my desiese) then I go through checking if I can upgrade any cart, manaul or insert to a better one.

Neraly all of my boxes are allready perfect, I don't have any in my collection with ripped plastic or chipped corners. I have never been bothered about hangers, I guess I could go through my spares and swap them all out for ones with hangers but it doesnt bother me.

Here is my list of condition priority (starting with most imprtant)

1) insert
2) manual
3) cart sticker
4) cart plastic
5) box cover
6) box edge/ spine
7) box manual tabs
8) hanger

Boxes are pretty easy to replace, in theUK at least, so it's my least priority but I do like them all looking nice.

[outruner]

your not alone,if i have any duplicate games i always check the condition and keep the best case or instructions

[David J.]

For SMS games I'm not really bothered much...

[Stan]

When I first started I took what I could get, and then slowly decided that I wanted ONLY complete games, and usually in really good condition unless they were too rare to pass up. I've been meaning to clip the hang tab on all my games so they sit nicer, but other than this I do prefer the cases to be in as good a condition as possible.

[eday2010]

I swap out any cases that are chipped, or the plastic sleeve isn't as sexy as it used to be new. I don't care so much about missing tabs...yet. Hopefully I won't care about that ever, but you never know!

[Melanogaster]

Hmm... interesting to see that some won't care about the hangers. The box might even be sealed but, for me, if it does not have the hanger, it's incomplete -- meaning that it will be replaced eventually, maybe some time later. I'm not that pernickity about (slightly) chipped corners (well, I guess you get used to it living on careless-children-land :; on the other hand, I can't stand "non-sexy" plastic sleeves... if we had every regular to post on this thread, they'd all have different little tastes and preferences, probably.

[laswat90]

Most of my games are just cart only!