Do you keep game boxes?

[Rob Beschizza]

I have that spring cleaning urge, but I'm finding myself slightly nervous about whether to dispose of these clunky cardboard boxes. What do you all do?

[Dave Long]

I used to. Then it got ridiculous so I started pitching everything but the ones for games I really love. Who knows how long those will last? :(

I'm having a very real problem with storing games and manuals now though. Either this house is too small or my collection is getting way too damn big. I honestly hope that PC game makers finally buckle and go with DVD cases of some kind. I'd take every game in one like Battlefield 2 comes in.

--Dave

[Moggraider]

Keep them. Keep them all!

[Justin Fletcher]

I've finally started throwing them away as I get them, but I still have a large box full of ones from the past in my closet. As a compromise, I broke each one down so that it can lay flat in the box, but this is only a stop gap solution. The day of the trashing is nigh.

[BDGE]

I used to. Then it got ridiculous so I started pitching everything but the ones for games I really love. Who knows how long those will last? :(

I'm having a very real problem with storing games and manuals now though. Either this house is too small or my collection is getting way too damn big. I honestly hope that PC game makers finally buckle and go with DVD cases of some kind. I'd take every game in one like Battlefield 2 comes in.

--Dave

Same deal. It wasn't long ago I even still had boxes to such classics as Lands of Lore, Leisure Suit Larry 5, and even that weird DoTT triangular cardboard thing.

It was a sad day tossing them all, and I now have a shoebox full of 3.5" diskettes that will never see the light of day again. My BG2 box is chock full of nearly two decades worth of manuals, which saves a massive amount of space.

I'm also all for the wide amaray DVD cases that BF2 arrived in. They catalogue nicely on a desk, and are roomy enough to hold most manual sizes.

[BooTx]

I keep the boxes.

[Rob Beschizza]

I think I'm somehow cheating myself into thinking these things are somehow collectibles - that they have some kind of instrinsic value in an emotional or financial sense.

The former is understandable, and, while it tugs at my geekstrings, it is the easiest to deal with. To the trashcan with you.

The latter appears to be ludicrious, given the competition from beanie babies, first edition Harry Potter hardbacks and the like. But I recently sold Freespace II for about $100, which makes me wonder if I really should be crumpling up the original edition of The Longest Journey.

[drdoalots]

I used to keep the game boxes, until they all started using a standard size and shape format. At this time it got very uininteresting.

I still have a Descent box though.

[krayzkrok]

Doing the same thing right now - going through closets cleaning out boxes.

I'm only keeping boxes for games that bring a nostalgic tear to my eye. I view them as "scrapbook memories", just like old photos. Some of the "limited edition" boxes I consider keeping purely for possible future financial gain (yeah, right).

The rest get trashed (well, recycled). There are more important things in life to hang onto.

[Mark Crump]

Once I make sure the game runs, I toss the box unless its one like the BF2 set.

the manual gets tossed into a gallon-sized Zippy and tossed into a bin under my desk.

[JAGuarinc]

They'll have to pry my Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy box (with all the goodies) out of my cold dead hands.

[Alan Au]

I also use the compromise solution of throwing out the cardboard insert and keeping the flattened boxes. This is far more space efficient than keeping the assembled boxes around.

- Alan

[mtkafka]

I also use the compromise solution of throwing out the cardboard insert and keeping the flattened boxes. This is far more space efficient than keeping the assembled boxes around.

- Alan

I do the same thing. I'm too much of a packrat..

etc

[Wholly Schmidt]

I used to keep them all, then I started throwing them all away, now that they're smaller I keep them again.

[Moore]

I keep really really good ones and really really bad ones.

[Hump]

They were literally taking over my basement. I had the idea of building a dedicated game room and I was going to mount them en masse on the walls but I just never got around to it.

anyone need a mint copy of the "Uprising" box?

[DeepT]

I used to keep them all, then one day I had to move and had boxes of boxes. I couldn't figure out why I kept them. The manuals suck, the artwork is decent, but not worth the space. I took them all to the dumpster and now I throw the boxes out after a week or two (incase I need to return the game).

It is no longer like the good old days where the game manuals were actually useful. So since I really do no need to keep the tech-tree from AoE II or the manual explaining how to play Rome TW, they just end up in the trash now.

[Brian Rucker]

I tend to keep them all but sometimes I'll cram similar and sequel titles (and manuals, charts, etc.) into one box to save space. I'm so anal that I'll even burn patches, sometimes mods and whatnot too, onto CDs and stuff those individually into the boxes. These end up in a huge bookshelf which, along with my most used and loved books, also has a few shelves just for classic games.

However the bulk of my PC games end up being something less than classics and these I periodically bring to work and just give away.

[ElGuapo]

Ok, I can see throwing away "Battlefield 1942: Road to Rome", but I
l'll never get rid of my Planescape: Torment box. I mean come on, The Unmaed One, scarred and blue is just a masterpiece.

I took an exacto knife to the front covers of the boxes and put them all in a cheap ($5) poster frame, mounted with a bit of plasti-tak to the cardboard back. The plastic cover slips over them and faster than you can say "Why don't you drive"? in a middle eastern accent, you have a nice poster of game boxes hanging on the wall.

Takes about 10 minutes, I'd say, then you can pitch the rest of the box to save space.

[graller]

I keep the games that will stay on my hard drives. I do this because I may need the manual or the CD key or what have you. Later I consolidated into a few larger boxes for storage sake. No Nostalgia in the box art at all

[Bill Dungsroman]

I used to, until I realized that I'm probably never going to trade them in or get rid of them and essentially become a collector. So, to Hell with the boxes, although I keep games I just bought in them, until I install and run it (as someone mentioned).

My PC desk has a built-in CD rack, and it pisses me off. Because, you know, it only accomodates cd cases of the normal size. Your basic one CD game or clever packagers that put two CDs in that flip-out case are groovy. But, as is the case these days the thicker 4-CD cases don't fit, so they go on another shelf. My built-in rack is too chintzy to fit a cd with a cardboard outer sleeve or cardboard flip-open (like Torment). And I end up putting ones that come in those stupid fucking paper sleeves in slim-profile cases (or they'll fall into the rack), as you can get 2 to a spot with those. Except, who knows what's in them when they're on the rack.

[mono]

I throw out the box on the corner outside of my local Gamestop. As well as all the junk advertising inserts. Just make sure I have the proper keycode/cd key, and it all gets pitched 15' from the retail shop's door.

Just don't have space for all that stuff. I do wish I had kept all my old Infocom stuff, I owned almost all of them, but they got lost in a move years ago.

[Justin Fletcher]

It is no longer like the good old days where the game manuals were actually useful. So since I really do no need to keep the tech-tree from AoE II or the manual explaining how to play Rome TW, they just end up in the trash now.
While I may eventually trash the box, I will never trash the manual, no matter how useless, unless I'm also getting rid of the game.

[shift6]

I just moved and all of my game boxes are still good to go! Actually I have an entire bookshelf for them, and (since I move just about once a year) have a set of banker's boxes for crating them around wherever I go.

The nice thing is whenever I have a games giveaway, it comes with the whole damn thing. Need to do another one of those soon...

[scharmers]

Some I do and some I don't. Drek gets crammed into other boxes or stuffed in my CD binders. Games with 3,000,000 or so expansions tend to get consolidated. The keepers stay pristine. Like my System Shock. No, you can't have it.

--scharmers

[Troy S Goodfellow]

Only for old games on floppy disks. Most games today come in CD cases which do just fine for storage. And I can get cases for the paper sleeve games easily enough. Love the DVD boxes.

I can't conceive of ever selling my games, but I'm a hoarder, not a collector, so boxes mostly get in the way of my shelf space.

Troy

[mouselock]

I just moved and all of my game boxes are still good to go! Actually I have an entire bookshelf for them, and (since I move just about once a year) have a set of banker's boxes for crating them around wherever I go.

The nice thing is whenever I have a games giveaway, it comes with the whole damn thing. Need to do another one of those soon...

Shift, you're just not in the same league of game collecting if a single bookshelf (regardless of size, unless you stole one from the Library of Congress or somesuch) holds all of your game boxes.

I long ago had to get rid of game boxes. I have about two small moving boxes (16x12x12) filled with manuals alone, packed as tightly as I can. I started this process about the time I picked up The Lost Treasures of Infocom (I and II) and had to find room to accomodate those huge boxes with their huge manuals. I eventually settled on getting rid of all the boxes that weren't huge and didn't hold many, many game manuals, and using those that did to do just that.

BTW, as I discovered while moving, you know you've collected games for too long when you find your anthology collection from 10 years back. On 20 5.25" disks.

[tronnc]

I throw the boxes away. Used to keep them but it was just becomming too much trouble. Wish all pc game companies would switch over to the DVD style boxes, because those I will keep as there actually useful in storing the game and can be placed on a shelf neatly.

Actually the last three pc games I've purchased have come in a decent package worth keeping, Battlefield 2, GTA San Andreas PC, and Silent Hunter III.

That said I do think those old big pc boxes will be collectable in like 50-100 years, same way that board games and other toys from the 1930s and before are vaulable. Hell on Antiques Road Show I saw there were collectors for those free road maps gas stations used to give out from the 20s-40s due to their colorful nature and interesting artwork. I can see game boxes being the same especially the big pc ones.

[Fugitive]

I keep them and stick most of them in the little nook between the open bedroom door and the wall, and a small number of larger or oddly-shaped ones in a closet. I keep the discs and manuals on a closet shelf specifically cleared out for them though, just for easier access.

Yup, it's another case of packratitis...

[ramsies]

chuck em, take up too much room

[Bill Dungsroman]

Only for old games on floppy disks. Most games today come in CD cases which do just fine for storage. And I can get cases for the paper sleeve games easily enough. Love the DVD boxes.

I can't conceive of ever selling my games, but I'm a hoarder, not a collector, so boxes mostly get in the way of my shelf space.

Troy

Hoarder. That's the word I was looking for.

[Qenan]

So long as I keep the game, I keep the box. Now that they've stopped having decent manuals (I _HATE_ PDFs), I wish they would just go to DVD cases; the small boxes are just stupid.

[Equisilus]

I have every box, every manual, every advertising insert, etc, etc, that I ever got with a game. Yep, taking up some room. Yep, thought of cleaning them out. Nope, haven't done it yet. Don't need the room for anything else at the moment. :wink: