And who knows what is inside those shrink wrapped boxes.

I don't really remember games being shrink wrapped. They just always had the round stickers holding them closed at most.

Scams like this are nothing new. Even Space Quest 4 from 1991 makes fun of it with the ReShrinkwrap 2000. But the joke suggests that boxed games used to be shrink wrapped back in the day.

I wouldn't buy a "sealed" copy if there's an option to get an unsealed copy where you know exactly what's going to come with the box. But if you don't intend to open the box anyway, you probably have enough money and can afford to waste it on what could be a sealed box without the game inside.

That said, I did find a few shrink wrapped big box games on flea markets and the ones I bought cost me about 1 € to 1.50 € each (Toonstruck, Dark Reign 2 and a few others you've probably never heard about) I did open Toonstruck because I just wanted to play it (it did have the CDs in a jewel case and the manual inside, so I guess it was still factory sealed). I only have two big box games that are still sealed to this day, both of them only cost me 1 € each, so there's a chance they'll increase in value some day. Or I might actually play them, who knows.

I'm not a fan of shrinked boxes, just for the cause that you want to know and see what's inside. That would be the main reason why
You definately want to have a look at the manual, the technical supplementals, dive through the media (disks/CD) and adore some suppield posters and gimmicks.

A shrinked box does not offer any "nostalgic enchantment" by just standing in the cabinet.

K1n9_Duk3 wrote:

Scams like this are nothing new. Even Space Quest 4 from 1991 makes fun of it with the ReShrinkwrap 2000. But the joke suggests that boxed games used to be shrink wrapped back in the day.

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Ah, Radio Shock before they renamed it Hz So Good. 😀 I loved Space Quest 4.

What makes this entire thing even more amusing is that in the town I grew up in, it was actually the Radio Shack that would do this. A friend managed the store, and showed me their stockpile of copied games and utilities. Basically every software package that came in, they opened, copied, and resealed. I was around 10 at the time and didn't see anything wrong with it. How times change.

But yeah, that I grew up near a Radio Shack doing that, to see the ReShrinkwrap being sold at Radio Shock in-game made me chuckle.

I remember buying a shrinkwrapped copy of Tachyon: The Fringe from a Virgin store in London in 2000. I opened it up at the hotel and found out that it had no CD inside the jewel case. It was my last night in the city so I took the subway, got to the store about 10 minutes before closing and presented them my case. They immediately gave me a replacement, which I opened in front of them. The box had full contents. I advised them to find out if it was a return.

Pilfering game boxes then re-shrinkwrapping them is not new practice..