Since My collection is growing again and I have a few rarer games coming in again (including a US Mario Tennis Box with NO STICKERS!) I decided to break down and Buy some of those Box Protectors that crazy collectors buy.
Now the only reason they “make” these for the Virtual Boy is because the boxes just HAPPEN to be the size of the original Game Boy and Game Boy Color boxes. I seriously doubt these would be available if VB games came in a uniquely sized box. For those of you not aware you can get them here:
http://www.videogameboxprotectors.com/#/store/4569532134
As I expected they’re made of thin, flexy, clear plastic that is shipped flat, but since they usually cost around $0.75 each (after shipping, that’s important) I’d say the pricing makes sense. Its like the clam shell plastic SD cards and other electronics come in these days (The ones you frickin’ HATE having to open.) They provide some crush protection once together and will definitely keep yer boxes from scratching up but that is about it. I doubt they would provide any UV protection and unless they’re packed right they can still be damaged by heavier objects.
If your the kind of collector who has Virtual Bowling or Gundam these thin plastic covers, while better then nothing, pale in comparison to what you can get over at the Video Game Authority (The Grading folks who started out by grading Comics, moved onto Star Wars toys and now grade EVERYTHING). And chances are, if you have Virtual Bowling money you’ll have the money to shop with them.
Obviously you could shell out a ton (and wait like, six weeks; no joke) to get your game graded, then encased forever with that little Bar-code at the top; but then you can’t play it. Then again, If I had Bowling or Virtual Lab (again) I’d probably clam them up and just rely on the flash boy… But ANYWAYS what I really wanted to get at is that they also have an nice sturdy Acrylic option that is great for protection and display:
http://www.cgagrading.com/OnlineStore/NintendoGameBoyGameCartridgeHighQualityAcrylicCase.html
Pretty Slick huh? But at $14.99 a pop and $22.99 for the UV resistant ones (I’m all for the UV option, but for over %150 the cost, just ouch) they are a tad price prohibitive. Of course, there are only a few games you could justify spending that much on so maybe it balances out?
Anyways, this was about the cheap, thin, box protectors. If you buy from the site after shipping its a bit under $20 for 25 of the suckers, enough for any real Virtual Boy collector; i.e. your not going to stop at the 12 affordable US games and maybe V-tetris, no, your searching for Virtual Fishing even though you hate fishing and counting down the days until Tusk has Faceball Boxes for sale! Highly recommended.
BTW, since I brought up the Acrylic cases; does anyone out there have part of they’re VB collection in any? I have some MOC Ghostbusters Action figures in some, and they’re nice, but Video Game boxes are sort of a different creature.
