Collecting of Big Boxes of old RPGs

Kordanor

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Hey there!

While I actually have no place to put them on display anywhere in my 21m² apartment I am looking to buy some big boxes of some old 90s games. I guess they aint becoming any cheaper anymore. ^^

I am wondering if I am the only one collecting these. Though, I am not really a collector. I only got like maybe 30 boxes from when I originally bought them in the 90s, and now 3 additional ones I bought recently. I am only looking to buy very specific games I enjoyed playing back them and I am not buying like "All Lucas Arts Games" or anything like that.

From videos on the great LGR channel I saw there are lots of second hand goodwill stores in the USA, where you can have some luck finding these games. But something like that doesn't exist where I am living. Real Estate is just too expensive for shops like that.

So for now I rely on ebay. Interestingly I found several cheap offers in the US and I think also in australia. But it's hardly of any use if you pay 15€ instead of 20€ and then have to pay 15€ shipping costs instead of 5€.

Also I saw that there are some games which are quite expensive and mostly going for 50€ and more (not sealed). I am mostly looking for games around 20€ without shipping, which is kind of hard. And it seems like last minute sniping, maybe even from the sellers second account seems to be a common thing.

So is anyone of you also looking for stuff like that? Maybe even in europe? Any tips and tricks?
 
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I'm a collector as well - I bought many boxes new in the 90's and 2000's years.
When ebay was new it was also a great place to get old boxes.
 
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Being from Germany: You got any experiences with second hand shops? Saw that there is a "shop" called emmaus in cologne, but not sure whether you would be able to find any old games there.

Ebay seems to be mostly commercial these days. Started trying my luck on ebay kleinanzeigen but haven't made any deal there yet.
 
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I don't bother collecting though I have a few old ones from games I purchased. However, I was in tokyo not so long ago and there are stores and stores with nothing but unopened big box pc games.
 
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I knew two good PC games second hand shops in Berlin and Dortmund - but there are long gone.
 
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I have kept all my old boxes.

I would like to get boxed copies of all the old Quest for Glory games and the original Hero Quest one. I am mostly after the manuals and maps etc that went with them but I like the art of the boxes too.
 
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I didn't really appreciate the boxed copies until recently - now I treasure the ones with manuals, maps etc.

I'm trying to find Icewind Dale manual in good condition but hard to find one :(
 
I still collect sporadically; although I've admittedly slowed down a bit since the gradual advent of Steam.

I've got a few shelves full of old 90's-2000's PC stuff, but the main pride of my collection is definitely the C64 boxed RPG section.

@purpleblob; I have that manual from my original big Icewind Dale box. It's quite beautifully presented and in pristine condition although not ring bound like my very worn BG2 one is. I bought the game again for IWD2 some years later, but sadly it doesn't have a physical manual, otherwise I'd certainly offer it!

Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, second hand stores nearby very commonly had PC boxed games and other assorted retro gaming gear. I'd visit a local Salvation Army regularly and it was amazing how much material you would find and how cheap it was. This isn't so common nowadays it seems with more people aware of its potential value.
 
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I've got a few shelves full of old 90's-2000's PC stuff, but the main pride of my collection is definitely the C64 boxed RPG section.

Heh, yeah I get that. However I think that's a bit out of my league price wise and I also don't feel very "connected" to these games. I played lots of games on the C64 (see on the list linked in the sig ^^) but there is hardly any game of which I said that it had a big influence on me, or that I would recommend them.

I guess what I love most of that system is it sounds. So I could try to collect all Huelsbeck Games for example. But as mentioned in the beginning: Too expensive. ^^
 
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Ah, nice one.
I also can recommend the channel mentioned there: LGR ;)
Together with the 8-Bit Guy they are my favorite gaming youtube channels.

That said, LGR collects pretty much everything as long it's PC or before 90s. In addition he has the privilege of leaving near several goodwill stores in addition to receiving lots of fan donations. And even he has the problem of running out of space, even with an additional rented storage room he is running out of space and therefore refusing gifts by fans as it's just becoming too much. ^^

For me it's rather that I want to have these games I enjoyed back then, still like today to some degree now, and which left their imprint on myself, in a physical way.

It's also intersting to think about why we actually have old boxes from the 80s or 90s we never threw away. I mean, why did we never throw them away? Was it just because it was convenient to have a box which contained a manual and other stuff, so you don't have the individual parts flying arond? Did we already have some "pride" of having these boxes back then? Was it something which just felt "right" as in having a board game in it's original box?
I mean from practical reasons it makes absolutely no sense at all to have a cardboard box of a game which had nothing with it besides the discs and a manual and maybe a registration card. But I even have several of these registration cards still in my boxes for whatever reason. It's not like I kept them in the 90s thinking like "I am going to be a collector, it will be worth something". I guess it just felt right to do so. Like to keep receipts for games bought 10 years ago or logitech driver installation CDs (which however I both got rid of at some point).
 
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John Romero went over why big boxes for PC died out.
http://rome.ro/bigbox

Sounds extremely simplified and anekdotal though.
Especially considering that different regions, different countries and partially even different stores had their own boxed versions.
 
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Sounds extremely simplified and anekdotal though.
Especially considering that different regions, different countries and partially even different stores had their own boxed versions.

Retail best practise soon spreads internationally and stock space is expensive. I can imagine this sort of decision rippling through all the outlets. It did take a while for some publishers to make that adjustment through - especially in Europe I hear.
 
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Yeah, the "demands" seem also to be a bit different.

A good and maybe a bit weird example is Might and Magic X which is quite new.

It received a boxed version, but for EU only (small box, but it wasn't overpriced either). And if I remember correctly LGR had a video about boxes where he was talking about som exclusive EU box releases. Seems like the market for that is a bit bigger here.
 
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I didn't really appreciate the boxed copies until recently - now I treasure the ones with manuals, maps etc.

I'm trying to find Icewind Dale manual in good condition but hard to find one :(

I probably have it, but it'd cost a mint to send it to the other side of the world :D
 
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