Sealed game collectors hoarding all the cool toys

You know what pisses us off? People who collect toys but keep them sealed in the box instead of playing with them. Or people who buy comics but never dare read them for fear they'll harm the all-important grading condition. So you can imagine how we feel about Sealed Game Heaven, a new international forum community for collectors of factory-sealed copies of video games.

You might think this obsession with keeping games encased in a thin sheet of cellophane is all about preserving their value as collectibles, but you'd be wrong. As forum administrator Pascal explains, "I think sealed collecting is more than an investment. A game which you played more than 40 hours for example is a part of your life. ... If you get a sealed copy of this game you can remember those days every time you pass it." Well, sure, but with an unsealed copy you could relive those days by actually, er, playing the game, right?

To be fair, there is something appealing about the idea of having a game preserved for all time exactly how it once existed on the store shelves. But we can't help but think Oscar Wilde's famous description of cynics also applies to these sealed collectors -- people who "know the price of everything and the value of nothing."