Well, are you displaying it or planning to sell it for profit? If not, I don't see any reason to keep things sealed. Personally, shrink-wrapped boxes are just embarrassing to me, and I very rarely sell anything.

Yep I buy stuff to enjoy it - shrink wrap comes straight off over my way 😀

I'd likely never sell stuff. I suppose the miser in me always thinks of being in a bad way and needing to sell stuff, so I hate to devalue it :p

Under normal circumstances I definately break the seals. For something retro though....it depends on how much it's sealed box value is compared to open box value.

open it and use it

I always get the feeling that anyone telling you to keep things sealed is being selfish, less sealed copies in circulation = less opportunity for them to invest for profit.

Games are toys. Toys are meant to be played with.

If it is my only copy and I plan on using it, yes. 99% of my vintage software gets opened when I buy it.

Somehow I forgot to reply here.

I'd say keep it sealed unless you want to actually use it. You do have spare copies of that game, don't you? 😜

I only got a couple sealed ones, but that's the way I bought them in the shops when new. I just never needed to actually open them as I already had other copies so I always preferred to use those.

I'm mostly kinda with badmojo, keropi, SquallStrife and Unknown_K here. I keep things sealed but won't really make a fuzz about it to open it when I actually need it (but I might perhaps film/piccy it 🤣)

Some interesting viewpoints expressed for sure.

My biggest thing about opening a sealed product is, sure its nice to preserve things for history, so what about degradation? Its basically in the best environment it will ever be in until you break that seal.
But undoubtedly its easy to leave it sealed and find copies online, or just buy jewel case only or open box, etc.

I think I will open it though. I intend to play it at some point, when my retro machine gets built

Neco wrote:

Some interesting viewpoints expressed for sure. […]
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Some interesting viewpoints expressed for sure.

My biggest thing about opening a sealed product is, sure its nice to preserve things for history, so what about degradation? Its basically in the best environment it will ever be in until you break that seal.
But undoubtedly its easy to leave it sealed and find copies online, or just buy jewel case only or open box, etc.

I think I will open it though. I intend to play it at some point, when my retro machine gets built

Not always, you could surprise yourself with what shrinkwrapping does to old unused vinyls. (I did!) Most of the times an item that is well taken care of as well as known to be functional holds a higher place than the prettiest of the prettiest doorstops. 😀. Plus you could always leave most of the cellophane so that the box doesn't wear out. Enjoy your stuff bro!