To me its purely the rarity that comes with the factory seal. Of course those can be faked and I do know that computer stores used to reseal games that were brought back to them.
Whats the point in any collecting if you think of it? Why collect used stamps and pay tens of thousand of one used stamp which you can never reuse, only watch? Or why pay ten or hundred millions of dollars for a original Mona Lisa when you can get a copy for few bucks? :)

I would be very interested to hear jacuzi's reply to that, or actually, anyone who shares jacuzi's view on the matter.

I don't see the attraction personally, though I can imagine myself wanting to pay a lot for rare items, that are in mint condition, that have been opened. I would like to be able to open them up every now and again, have a look at the manual and anything else that the box contains, see the box better and look at the disk/s.

So you like the thrill, having mega rare items, gives you. Cool. It's interesting to learn how different people think about things.

I do also have spare copies of each game for playing purposes, but that includes only original CD or DVD.

I imagined you would, as you collect them in factory sealed form.

You don't have copy of Gabriel Knight 1 and 2, that isn't factory sealed, that you want to sell, by any chance, do you?

Or the Gabriel Knight Mysteries box set, also not factory sealed?

Nope, but you can find tons of them on ebay.

I have been looking for ages and rarely see any.

I don't see the box set up very often, and I stupidly forgot to bid the past two times it's been up.

I have never seen a GK 1 being sold, there is one ATM, but it is a disk only item, which is not what I want.

Now Gabriel Knight 2, there is always a French version on there, also the seller I just mentioned is selling a disk only copy, but I am not interested in it if it's incomplete or a different country's version. I rarely see any English copies, however I have just had a look now and there's two up! I didn't expect that after looking Saturday and there not being any.

I'll probably get the box set of Amazon soon though, even though it'll cost more, I don't get to see a pic of the actual item and in many cases, I don't get a proper description of the item.

I don't like to get things from overseas you see, so I really try and avoid doing that.

Hmm, I see atleast 6 GK limited editions. 1 boxed GK1 and a whole bunch of boxed GK2. Maybe you should edit your search preferences :)
I always us ebay.com and then tag the worldwide on location.

You saw this right?
http://cgi.ebay.com/Gabriel-Knight-S...item19c3ef15af

Whoops, sorry for the late edit!

Yeah, I try and avoid getting things from overseas.

Edit:

Sorry jacuzi, I saw you on eBay the other day and I thought you were from the UK. I have just realised you're not.

That is like saying you wouldn't pay extra for a graded mint Mickey Mantle card. If you have the money why not get something very few have? It's an investment. I bid to the point to where I didn't think I could sell for the same amount or more in dollar value. At some point it just isn't worth it, but the next guy may have have more money than me.

That's the only way it makes sense, to sell to another insane person!:D

The problem I have with this is that it increases the prices on everything else; Example: There's no reason why an Amiga 4000 is selling for $700+ on ebay, other then people with money don't think twice in paying for it, it's an utterlly useless computer, cool? Of course! But in the end that's all it is, a completely useless cool little toy, ya know?

Sorry, I didn,t mean to come off harsh, but like I said, when I see a IMSAI listing for $23000 it's just f'ing ridiculous....

That's like resenting people for wearing a Rolex instead of an Amitron if they had the means to do so?

Ah, you're not a collector, you're a businessman.

Makes it even more remarkable that you feel "screwed" by someone posting a link to an item you want to buy in order to make a profit.

Not to mention that there are sellers that have resealed boxes that have already been opened. A sealed box means nothing.

But surely it means a lot to collectors who want sealed and sw boxes. They will never see the contents, so who cares what's inside as long as it stays sealed... :devil:

Not at all, it would be more like people buying Swatches for the price of Rolexes and leaving me watchless because I can't even afford a piece of crap :frusty:

A little of both. If I'm going to spend a lot of money I don't want to be trapped. I turn games around because it's a little niche that I know I can make out on but if I need a game for my collection it's not going anywhere.

There are ways of telling if it has been sealed by anyone other than the manufacturer. I've reversed payments through paypal and returned the games before. As long as you interact with the seller saying what you will be looking at upon receiving the game and save the conversations it will be reversed.

Like said in the previous post, there is ways to determine if the box is factory sealed or resealed. Original Lucasarts factory seal is different than the home made seals. And there is few specifics stickers which can never be under the shrinkwrap, only on it. And most of the times game has been without shrinkwrap it will leave some kind of marks under the reshrink which always tells it is not factory seal.

Just to mention couple ways :)

LucasArts Samples?
 

So are pre-release "Not For Resale" copies of LucasArts games sought also after? I have both some opened and still-sealed NFR copies of various titles from 10 years ago.