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Thread: Switching from CIB to Game-only

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    Default Switching from CIB to Game-only

    Have you ever started collecting for a console only to eventually hit a price roadblock or another personal reason and jump ship from complete copies of games to cart/disk-only?

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    Maybe in terms of what I bother to hunt down, but I've never decided to sell off manuals and boxes by themselves just for the uniformity of having collections that are either all CIB or all loose. I'll always be happy to get a CIB game, even if most of the others I have are loose.

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    In a way I do.

    I started collecting quite late, so price were already rather high. For my SNES collection (my main focus, about 100 carts in total), most of them are in loose state, but I've been able to find some of them CIB.

    As the CIB titles I have are good games (Contra III, Zelda III, Secret of Mana, Yoshi's Island, Wario Woods...), I've kept them in my collection, but stored separately. The carts themselves are stored alongside all my other SNES carts, while the few boxes and manuals I have are stored elsewhere. It may sound stupid, but that way, when I want to play them, I don't have to seek two different places to find a game.
    Same goes for my Gameboy collection, and my tiny NES and Genesis ones.

    However, I'll be honest: If I could afford it, I would definitively have made a CIB collection, at least for the SNES.

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    For most of my console games such as NES, SNES, GB, GBC, GBA, GG, and NGPC ones, I keep the cartridges separate from the paper boxes and manuals. That way I don't bend nor damage the cardboard boxes nor booklets when retrieving or returning the games, and it is faster to get the games without the fuss of the papers and folds.

    For the NES games I have the original Nintendo-branded black dust sleeves protecting the games for many of them; for others, I have non-branded black sleeves or the plastic all-around cases for the carts which I procured back in the old days. For many of the NES carts, though, they don't have any of these things as that is how they were when I acquired them.

    For SNES, some of them have cases, and others have those official semi-clear contact covers from Nintendo.

    For the others carts with plastic cases such as DS and 3DS, I keep the cases separate, lined up on shelves, while the games are either stored as a lot in small, fast-access cardboard boxes, or specialty cases which hold many of DS/3DS games for simple organization and alphabetical sorting.

    Most of the disc-based games I keep in their cases, except for some Wii games which I have stored on a CD spindle. I own a few PS and PSP games which didn't arrive with cases. In those "case-less cases," I store the games in CD wallets, including a specialty wallet made just for UMD's. Unfortunately, it seems CD/DVD wallets are growing more uncommon.

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    For me, it's always been a case-by-case basis. Way back when I was a kid, I was less interested in keeping a box than the books, which paid off a bit here and there. Starting about 15 years ago, my policy was geared more getting a game in playable condition then whether it has the goodies. On the other hand, since I was very much still zeroed in on PS1 RPGs, getting CIB games was (and mostly still is) worth the extra bit of hassle. This still holds true for most of what I decide to nab (PS1 still, but now PS2, PS3, and 360) since it's still fairly simple to do. However, the reintroduction of SNES into my life has also revealed that I usually can't afford anything but a working cart for any given game. I decided that having a playing collection with all the games I want is a much higher priority than getting a few boxed games I'd be hesitant to play.
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    I guess I did hit that roadblock but it was years ago. Back when the greed crept into the Nintendo stuff around 2011 and people started to make you pay by the piece, not by the game is when I quit bothering on such things. I feel when you buy a game you're buying the package and if that package is loose, with a manual, or all there, it shouldn't dramatically change in the value. To me that's like going to the store to buy a Switch game now, let's say a Nicalis title first run. Do I pay $30 for Cave Story+, but then if I want the keychain, that's another $5, and the NES wannabe manual that's another $5, and then the box and art adds another $10? Nope. Used games were like this up until about a decade ago. At first it was reasonable, you paid like a $5-10 premium to get the whole deal, that I can understand and I can see why as it's enticing then. But when you're taking a game, then asking full price for it loose, then doubling that price or tripling because you have the rest of the materials it came with included is just sleazy and I don't do it when it comes to cartridge games.

    That said, and thankfully it doesn't seem to mess with the price much, I do still buy CIB when it comes to discs since they're notoriously easy to lose or damage due to the lame fragile design of them, and same with DS/3DS game cards too when I got those.

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    Collecting and playing games has always been an experience that requires the packaging, artwork, manual back-story, instructions, and tips.
    Once I finally made the decision to downsize my libraries the first to go were the cardboard box games from Nintendo. I've kept a handful of FC, SFC, and N64 favorites, but mainly I'll be content to play with SD carts.
    For the platforms I'm still interested in, it's CIB or not at all. For me there's no point in having a cart or disc if I can't browse it on a shelf by looking at the spines, and then reading the stories usually inside the front cover, and then checking the control instructions and tips to be sure I'm not missing anything while playing - those are key parts of of my enjoyment and appreciation of videogames.
    Last edited by Koa Zo; 12-12-2017 at 06:45 PM.

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    For awhile I was on a CIB kick, and in fact still have a few CIB or at least boxed games. I don't see a point in downsizing the ones I have--since that essentially means selling my copy and then rebuying a cart which, for all I know, might end up with a net monetary loss--but when acquiring more, I usually am not a stickler for CIB/boxed anymore. I do like having manuals tho, especially for say Koei strategy games where they might be guesswork if you don't have a manual. Fortunately these days most manuals exist as PDFs online.

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    I pretty much switched from collecting to just buy everdrives. Sure i love buying CIB games, but its not worth the asking price anymore, its just too much $$ and at the end of the day i get to play on real hardware, the exact same rom. I only collect cheap stuff like ps2 xbox now, those are cheap af!!

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    Boxes are an extra bonus, depending on the game I will hunt out a missing manual or something of the sort. but as far as carts go it doesn't matter to me.

    Disc games though those have to be CIB otherwise I wont bother. But its not for the value factor, its for the safe keeping of the actual game. Its not that hard to keep a disc case around.

    Games I care about CIB would be as an example my copy of princess tomato. I have everything except the manual, that's a game that's sought after so I figure if I get the manual i'll be able to get a better trade for it.
    One of the few disc games that snuck in not CIB was albert odyssey, its missing the manual as well but the rest of the case is there, add panzer dragoon saga disc 3 to that list too, it was packed in with panzer dragoon for some reason in the lot I got with albert odyssey and I am sure theres a really pissed off person out there missing disc 3

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    After I sold many NES games CIB (to a video rental store) I wanted a few back, plus a couple other games. But Funcoland only had them cart only (cheap tho) and ROMS/emulators weren't really a thing for another decade, so thats why I have a few games with no box/manual.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Nz17 View Post
    Have you ever started collecting for a console only to eventually hit a price roadblock or another personal reason and jump ship from complete copies of games to cart/disk-only?
    Yes, mostly due to space constraints. I live in a small apartment. It sucks when a shelf gets tipped over and some of your once-mint boxes instantly become worthless. I do feel like a cartridge is naked without its box and manual, but yeah I don't have an unlimited source of funds for a CIB collection

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    If I can't get a CIB, then NO SALE. I don't want some second-hand scratched up, beat up shit people list as Like New. I just paid $26 for KOTOR 2 CIB and the thing looks like they just pulled the shrink-wrap off. I'll pay more if the game looks like this one does.
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    Quote Originally Posted by PreZZ View Post
    I pretty much switched from collecting to just buy everdrives. Sure i love buying CIB games, but its not worth the asking price anymore, its just too much $$ and at the end of the day i get to play on real hardware, the exact same rom. I only collect cheap stuff like ps2 xbox now, those are cheap af!!
    Same here.

    I never specifically shot for CIB, even from the early days, other than a few titles that were favorites. Of course I was always happy to come across CIB games, especially NES stuff, but it was never a goal. I know some members here bought large lots of flat folded NES boxes and booklets from me many years ago. Now if it's a CD media format with a jewel case or keep case, then it has to be complete. That's always been how it is, I could never understand people who would (in the peak of the original PlayStation era) have a stack of loose CD's or a CD wallet next to their system. You just bought that game and you already lost the case, wtf?!

    However over the past two years I've made the move to flash memory cartridges. I PLAY so many more games now, so many more fan-translations, prototypes, hacks, etc. - and play them to completion - then ever before. Just this morning I shipped out the last of my NES games I'm going to sell, leaving me with 17 total NES cartridges from the 550 or so I was at about eight years ago. One of those is a duplicate, a CIB copy of StarTropics in addition to my original loose copy. I opened that copy to inspect and replace the instruction booklet staple, which was oxidized. Anyone here remember when I found those like 40 CIB / sealed NES games for $3 a pop? It was from then. There were way more but a lot of them had moisture / humidity damage from a roof leak in the back of the seller's storage shed (which began to actually warp the plastics) so I cherry-picked the best and sold what I wasn't interested in here.

    I'd rather play games these days as it's so infrequent for me to find anything at flea markets or yard sales anymore. That means the place I'm going to stumble upon new games or new experiences with games I'm aware of is in a ROM list on a flashcart. For the hands-on side, I have more fun occasionally importing a beat to crap PC Engine or Famicom and rebuilding and restoring it these days.

    So for me the progression was: CIB (when applicable / easily available) -> loose cartridges -> flashcarts.
    Last edited by InsaneDavid; 01-08-2018 at 12:06 PM.

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    You know I've been at it a long time since the longer period where such things as dust sleeves/cases, any type of manual/poster/other inserts and boxes were included in the price or just had a minor $5 up charge and that was basically it. As things went to hell it was a nasty pill to swallow but one by one I've walked away from buying complete games, then bothering with game+manual in most cases too and just settle for the game. I don't ditch the extras if I still get them at reasonable old style included or slightly higher valuing as it's just right. Some things though I'd rather just do without than not have it all, and that's overly fragile optical media and also way too easy to loose tiny stuff (DS/3DS, etc.)

    Money is the driving reason entirely, but even if I had a fat stack in my wallet I really wouldn't buy the entire thing still, maybe the manual still depending, but it's just not worth it anymore to have a collectard hoard to lord over people who wish they had it as it's stupid and wasteful. You can do far better with a free faq, a cheap or PDF copy of an old guide book, or someone doing a talking free youtube run of a game or section if you get stuck.

    Right now I'm after ages getting back into PCEngine/TG16 stuff and I'm resolved to get a kit, but I still will buy the occasional HuCard when it's something I truly love and I will buy card only and keep them in a trading card 2 piece box case instead. The insanity thrown upon the TG16 boxes and worse cardboard slips(US) and spine cards (JP) are as unholy rotten as it is buying Nintendo paper if not worse in some cases.

    Just keep the games, play the games, and let the sharks eat each other to death elsewhere out of sight.

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    Spine cards are definitely a goofy aspect of collecting. I've never really cared if they're included or not, outside of just seeing them as an extra bonus. To me, they're akin to the plastic wrap or price tag. I'd never pay any extra to get a copy with a spine card versus one that's lacking, and I certainly don't see the latter as incomplete, assuming it comes with game/case/manual/whatever else may have been inside the case.

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    I have boxes for N64 and a lot of Genesis/SMS, that's it. The rest I usually tried to get the manual to go along with the cart.
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