[game_preservation] Authenticating factory sealed games

[Jim Leonard]

Stuart Feldhamer wrote:

> We had a discussion about this on the Software Collectors’ mailing list 

> some time back. I think Jim Leonard, who’s on this list also, could tell 

> you some stories about how retailers used to reshrink stuff all the time.


I certainly could, as I worked for Babbage's and Egghead in the 1980s 
and early 1990s.  If anyone has questions, feel free to ask, but the 
short answer is that it was common policy for reshrinking to happen all 
the time.  However, the reshrink was of noticably lower quality (rough 
edges, harsher and more brittle plastic, etc.).  It is pretty easy to 
spot.  We had a metal frame with a "sleeve" of shrinkwrap material going 
through it; box was inserted into the sleeve, a hot wire was pressed 
down to cut and seal one end, then the other end, then the entire thing 
was heated slowly by hand with a blower that looked like an 
industrial-strength hair dryer.

"Real" shrinkwrap is still slightly flexible, has clean edges, sometimes 
has a hole-punch-sized hole in the center.

I briefly mention shrinkwrap and how opened games got back onto the 
shelf in this blog post: 
http://trixter.wordpress.com/2008/07/21/from-courier-to-supplier/
-- 
Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org)            http://www.oldskool.org/
Help our electronic games project:           http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at     http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
A child borne of the home computer wars: http://trixter.wordpress.com/