Is it still worth buying sealed Steelbooks?

[sinanspd]

I am curious about steelbook collectors' thoughts on this. 2020 has been the year that I bought the most steelbooks, a number of them sealed through various stores and eBay, a number of them used through eBay and a few members here.

Unfortunately every single brand new steelbook I purchased this year had some imperfection. Now sure, you can say that it is very easy to reseal steelbooks, even in certain EU countries where there is the PS4 security line. Mind that most of the damaged ones came from major retailers. One particular steelbook I had to purchase 4 times (all brand new through different major retailers) to find it in a passable state. 2 of them was dented and bent, one had major scratches. Another steelbook I purchased through Gamestop had a circular area that wasn't printed at all. One steelbook out of a sealed CE came scratched. Today I have received my order of 16 steelbooks from Gamesonly.au and thanks to their packaging, only 3 was in good condition (even though I have specifically requested that they properly wrap them).

After all this, it seems to me like the quality at Scanavo has gone down significantly and combined with the steelbooks damaged during shipping and careless retailers (*cough cough* Best Buy *cough*), majority of the steelbooks can hardly even be considered "like new", let alone brand new.

In many cases the price of a sealed steelbook is considerably higher than a used one and with the exception of a few very rare steelbooks, the older PS3 steelbooks and a number of GEO ones, you can find them in near perfect condition for less than the original MSPR price. And when I buy a used one, I know almost exactly what I am getting, and can elect to request better packaging by communicating with the seller.

Tl;dr In my experience buying a sealed steelbooks gets you an item that at best in as good of a condition as what we would rate as "like new". So I am at a point where I question buying sealed steelbooks (unless you specifically want to keep them sealed, which I respect)


Maybe I am very unlucky or maybe I look at my steelbooks more detailed than most (Although I have met various members here who are as diligent as me).

What do you think?