Is the seal what ruins the boxes?

[romeoteknik]

I've been nabbing up some new sealed games from ebay, so when I receive the games, I immediately take the shrinkwrap off, test/play the game and then place the box in one of those videogame protectors.

 

It's difficult to find boxes in good shape, there is always some issue, I felt it was the seal itself, is this really the case?

Did Atari put them on too tight or something? Is it because of age, the cardboard used?

Actually the only mint boxes for the 7800 I found were the big ones from Absolute Entertainment.

 

In comparison, new, sealed 5200 games, the boxes look/are mint, could be because of the different type of boxes used.

You can tell Atari spent more money during the 5200 era (boxes, nice formatting description, color, etc) vs. the 7800.

 

 

[+DrVenkman]

According to numerous sources documented over the years, Atari never shrink-wrapped the product. That was typically done by retailers or wholesale distributors to prevent "five-fingered discounts" (e.g., warehouse theft and shoplifting). And yes, over time, the shrinkwrap often continues to slowly compress the boxes which can cause damage. My personal advice to people who want to keep "sealed" unopened games is just to use a razor blade to cut the plastic along the back, bottom edge of the box where it's least likely to be noticeable but will still release most of the accumulated strain in the material and reduce pressure on the box.The rest of the plastic will at least protect the box from scratches and sticking to other boxes but shouldn't get crushed any further.

[Mayhem]

Indeed, over time the shrinkwrap does literally shrink and squeeze the box slowly.