But isn't the shrink-wrap going to deteriorate fairly quickly. It wasn't produced to be an archival material, so I would assume that it contains various chemicals that will over time become brittle and yellow, and possibly damage the box too. What do you think?
Well, to be fair, I'm no chemist. But shrinkwrap is a type of polymer, therefore plastic, and there is no plastic yet invented that is totally inert. Shrinkwrap is designed as a reactive material :apply some heat, it shrinks. Now given that as a starting point, many different grades of polymers are available on an industrial level, from expensive (durable) to crap (cheap). Most consumer goods are sold to be , well consumed. So if a manufacturer sells a product sealed in a plastic bubble, and expects the buyer to "consume" it once they buy it, it stands to reason that they would naturally use the crummiest material possible, since it (the shrinkwrap) will only be needed to protect the goods for a short while from manufacture to consumption. But like I said, I have no science to offer, only these thoughts. For example, the paper of choice for comicbooks (for about 80 years) was newsprint. It is still in wide use today in other fields (newpapers, ect.) It contains various acids that over time turn the paper yellow. Why? Because no one expected anyone to care about future preservation of those products The only other two examples I could find online that support this theory, were the Post office advising stamp collectors to unwrap their stamps from the non-archival shrinkwrap they are sold in. www.upss.org/tables/2006%20Postal%20Issues.pdf+"+non-archival+shrink+wrap"&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us And the art supply company Dick Blick advising their customers from wrapping any paper artwork in shrinkwrap of any kind. http://www.dickblick.com/categories/shrinkwrapping/ Any chemistry wizards out there who could weigh in on this?
Interesting thoughts, 3rdman. The last link mentions plasticizers, i.e. chemicals used to "soften" plastic and other materials which react with other materials such as paper.
I don't think that there is a big spectrum of different shrinkwrap qualities. I think if the sun doesn't shine directly 24 hours 356 days on your sealed game the chance that the shrinkwrap is destroyed is around 0% ...
The most commonly used shrink wrap is polyofin. A polyolefin is a polymer produced from a simple olefin (also called an alkene with the general formula CnH2n) as a monomer. For example, polyethylene is the polyolefin produced by polymerizing the olefin ethylene. An equivalent term is polyalkene; this is a more modern term, although polyolefin is still used in the petrochemical industry. Polypropylene is another common polyolefin which is made from the olefin propylene.
Geez, digging up a waay old topic there! ;-) I have a fair few sealed games, mostly Saturn, which I collect, and some other things I've picked up over the years for one reason or another. Mostly things I know will hold their value.
My only sealed games are Gran Turismo HD and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Since i don't have a PS3 (yet), i though it would be better to keep them factory sealed.
hm you could buy a cheap used copy on ebay and a new one ... of course you have to wait a little bid and can not buy the game on the release date (because than you can not save enough money with a used copy...). btw.: the people who don't want to waste there money on high ebay fees can check: http://www.sealedgameauctions.com (includes used, unsealed copies too of course). There you can sell, buy, trade and search games for free without an hidden fees.
new forum on our own server at http://forum.sealedgameheaven.com and brand new sealed game database on http://guides.sealedgameheaven.com ! Check it out!
Nothing to be ashamed of. Even I have a handful of Army Men games sealed amongst my collection, simply because I was bored and they were cheap so I thought i'd buy them! Lol. (When I say cheap, I mean less than £1 and even with P&P it's cheaper than a pint of lager down the pub!) Sometimes it's interesting to see some of the games people buy, why they buy them, and other games that compliment the collection also
Yeah i dont think that Army Men have a big fanbase ... But if someone really love those Army Men games and for example want to collect them ... why not ... its always important to have a collection aim. btw.: check out our newest SGH feature where you can present your video game collections like they deserve it ... http://collections.sealedgameheaven.com
for anyone who wants to join the VGA discussion: http://www.sealedgameheaven.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=427
This seems to be quite a political topic around various forums on the internet right now, with it being discussed in at least one topic on nearly every major gaming forum / website I have visited recently
This is what worries me and why always end up opening my sealed games, just to check is actually in there.
Apart from that I wouldn't even mind if there's a disc in my sealed game. It'll always stay sealed anyway so nobody would ever notice. If someone opens it someday and the disc is missing, he can't blame the seller as it was sealed and nobody could know.
