I stumbled across a niche Sega Saturn title originally made for visually‑impaired players. I really liked the concept and the price was reasonable, so I purchased it. The listing showed all accessories complete. When it arrived, however, the outer game box had obvious damage. The seller explained a family member handled the shipping and suspects the damage happened during sea freight. They offered me a partial refund.
Returning the game would be bad for both of us: the seller would cover return shipping, and there is risk of further damage in transit. Also, I might not find another copy at a decent price with acceptable condition.
I’ve come up with three options and I’m wondering what this community would do in my situation:
1. Get a PET protective sleeve to safeguard the cracked original box, preventing cracks from spreading. 2. Source a second‑hand genuine original empty long‑box from another collector. I want to understand how swapping the box affects the item’s overall condition rating and scarcity value. 3. Store only the disc inside a standard CD jewel‑case, and keep all original accessories sealed in storage bags.
Even if a future buyer wouldn’t mind these issues, disclosing the full truth might lower the resale price and make it harder to sell. Still, I want to be completely honest about its condition.
I’m curious about the community collectors’ perspective. What are the pros and cons of each option for long‑term personal collection and future resale value?
Not advice on what to do exactly, but why do you say "long box"? I know many PAL and NTSC-U Saturn games came in special, long boxes, but I can't recall ever seeing a Japanese Saturn game in anything other than quite standard CD jewel cases (special edition carboard outer boxes aside). Particularly Kaze no Regret, which is a fairly common game here (a regular jewel case copy still usually goes for under 1,000 yen, even with obi and other ephemera).
If you want to, it should be possible to pop the broken cover out of the hinge piece and replace it with the cover from almost any standard double-width CD jewel case. There are several videos on YouTube showing how to do this. Once you put in the paper insert, no-one would ever be able to tell.