So, here's an on odd thing, I was taking a look through my collection earlier and I noticed a folded up piece of paper at the bottom of my Castlevania (NES) box. It was a receipt from when the previous owner had bought it from a Toys'r'Us back in 1992, for a wopping £29.97. Now, It might just be me, but I find stuff like this really interesting, possibly because I'm a sad bastard, I dunno. But does anyone else keep their video game receipts, or has found something really interesting like that while going through their collections? Personally I think it gives the item a sense of history and just adds something special to it. What do you guys think, am I just a weirdo here?
I usually put a receipt in a game case, just in case I need to return it, though I do get a little kick out of getting one with an ancient receipt in it, like when I found a boxed Doom II that had been bought at Best Buy in 1996.
I mean, aren't we all just a bit weird by default? ;p I think its a cool time stamp in what is a rather short history of commercially available video games. Easy way to pinpoint exactly when certain a video game was a certain price. Also cool to document stores that have since been either bought out or went defunct, such as Babbage's, FuncoLand, EBGames, etc. You're lucky you kept the receipt away from the elements, though. Receipts tend to fade out rather quickly. To curb this I usually take 2 pieces of clear packing tape and carefully put them over the face of the receipt. Preserves them rather well.
I found a receipt in a box of California Games for Lynx. California Games was originally pack in game for Lynx and was later available when Atari released a smaller Lynx II model.
I recently purchased a great condition final fantasy chronicles for PS1 and the original sale receipt from Electronic boutique in Regina Saskatchewan was still in there. 68$ back in 2001 ! Well, that is Canadian money but still pretty expensive
Nah not weird, I have receipts with most of games I have. It can also stop confusion in the future of just how much you paid. Too bad now they fade in a week.
I've got items still with receipts in them. Like my Saturn. When I worked in a games shop, we'd often find receipts left in second hand games.
There's two receipts I can recall having among my stuff, that aren't from when I bought the items in question. One's for Dino Crisis for Dreamcast from 2001 or thereabouts, IIRC bought at a toy store in a nearby city. The other one's for the Pong clone my family bought long before I was even born, a "MBO tele-ball VII" bought on July 4th 1978 for 69 DM at Carrefour, who have long since vanished from the German retail landscape. Those two aside, I tend to keep the receipts of games and systems I buy... Some of the older ones I can think of being that for my first two GameCube games, right after Christmas 2003 from a small independant game store, as well as one from 2006 or so for Mega Man Battle Network 5 DS, from a since closed Karstadt department store.
I keep receipts for stuff I buy tucked in with the game, but I enjoy finding receipts from the past much more. Much more nostalgia for finding something like a Media Play receipt in something than yet another Gamestop receipt. Oh, and older receipts hold up longer since they were actually printed on paper, not thermal printed ones like pretty much every store uses now. Most thermal receipts have a very short life since it's basically just using heat to put the image on the paper. Gradual temp changes and it just fades away into so much nothingness...
Since 2012 I have been keeping track of all my videogame purchases in a spreadsheet, for future references. If only I started doing so in the early 90's. It's very interesting to see original pricing for certain items. Every now and then I look into old videogame magazines, which results me being in awe especially when seeing certain N64 games being advertised for ridiculous amounts of money.
Yeah, your point about out-of-business stores is a good point. I remember that I had a copy of an xbox game (forget which one) that my friend bought from Blockbusters long before they went bankrupt, which is a good example. Is a damn shame modern receipts don't last long at all.
Speaking of modern receipts, I gave one local Walmart a very hard time. The receipt I had still showed the date and time clearly which was well inside their 90 days return but most of the area including the bar code and the transaction number were not scanable or readable so they were having trouble getting return processed. It seems the item I tried to return had dropped nearly half on clearance sale and the computer system was refusing to give full refund without original receipt. They did eventually get the store director (manager was doing #2 and couldn't get out) and some 10 minutes wrangling with computer system to get me refund.
There's nothing weird about that, I keep electronic and gaming receipts myself. Also, I've been scanning them since 1998 because everyone uses dreaded thermal paper now. :/
I used to save my ps1 ones in the jewel cases slotted on top of the manual. What I find interesting is how the mind plays tricks, such as thinking you bought a particular game before another when in fact it was after. Like some kind of reverse nostalgia.
The problem with receipts now is that they don't actually use any ink. The paper is pressure sensitive. So instead of conventionally "printing," they just apply pressure to the receipt in the right places to make a sort-of imprint. Naturally, the elements remove the outer layer of the paper that makes this possible. Even just leaving them out in the open will cause them to become blank. Also putting them in your wallet is the kiss of death. The friction that happens when it rubs against itself will either smear it or remove the writing altogether. Just laminate them with some clear tape.
