My Recent Thoughts On Collector's Editions

[Mandingo]

I've been mulling over this for awhile as someone that has collected the various "collector's" or "limited" editions over the years. Back in the 90s companies like Westwood would do limited runs on CEs with the actual print number bound to each copy. You know, like 3958/25000. Now CE copies seem to have little to no collector value in the long run due to what seems to be overproduction.

Just like anything else that's supposed to be valuable for a collector, these items should at the least retain their original value, and gain value over time. It seems that too often, a lot of buzz is generated about having to pre-order certain CE's, but before you know it, you see them on Amazon in stock again just like many other CEs that we've seen over recent years. Halo 3 was probably the worst culprit of all, completely oversaturating online and in-store stock to the point that most stores had mounds of them available for years. Activision also implied that the MW2 Prestige Edition would be extremely rare, but even today stores still sell it.

I'm beginning to think that it's time to evaluate this hobby seriously because I'm tired of buying these games, keeping them sealed, only to see them sit on shelves and show availability online for months to years to come. Typically it's even the norm to see these CEs sell for half price a few months later. I'm not complaining as someone looking to resell, but as a collector. What the heck happened to creating true collector items?

It just smells like a greedy money grab to me, and now instead of having limited production batches we've got overproduction with NO communication to consumers hinting at what to expect. Instead the collectors out there scramble to get a copy or two only to watch their investment crumble over time while others usually get the same limited item for much less.

What do you all think? Now I'm actually worried because I've even read reports about missing items in some CEs (Splinter Cell USB's). I usually prefer to keep "rare" stuff sealed, but I have no way of knowing if anything is missing unless I open them up.