From loose to complete and beyond. What's your practice?

[Necromancer]

It's all about the price.  Ideally they'd all be bought new/sealed, but I won't pay big bucks for cellophane and instead settle for varying levels of less completeness:

Turbobs:  they generally have to the game, case, and manual.  Stuff like spine cards and boxes are nice but not required, and I'd settle for even a loosey if it's prohibitively expensive to get a more complete copy.

PC-FX:  ditto, though you rarely see 'em as loose anyway.

PSP:  it's not OBEY, so I give less of a shit.  They all need a home, but I'm okay if they don't have the manual or are in replacement cases (made by me); the Ys games were an exception, though, as those had to be complete and the fancy versions for the three from xseed.

[xelement5x]

Anything that originally came in cardboard I am normally pretty happy with it loose.  That means pretty much any Nintendo cart stuff. 

If it came in a nice plastic case though I like to have them, which might be one reason I have such a hardon for Sega stuff. 

In general I'm fine with loosies as long as it works, but prefer complete if possible.

[GoldenWheels]

Definitely prefer the CIC for TG16. I don't actually CARE about the case itself that much, it just makes storage and identification so much easier.

Cartridge systems, I am fine with just a loose cart with a nice end label. I actually wish some systems weren't most commonly found with hard cases (looking mostly at you SMS) because I don't actually want to pay more in that case.

[pulstar]

Generally when I get a game I'd prefer it to be with a case and manual. The cardboard outer sleeves are a nice addition, but not something I'd seek out to be honest. Everything else is the same, even the crap with cardboard only outer boxes (I'm looking at you Nintendo consoles).

I do have some loose games, but these have all (as far as I remember) come from job lots and bundles.

[galam]

i like bob to be CIC.  except later releases that came in tray...i only want hu.
nes and sms/genny i only want cart.

[Desh]

My requirments

Nintendo Carts - Loose is fine
Sega Carts - COMPLETE!  Who the hell throws away the nice plastic clam shells?
TG16/PCE - I prefer CIC but I have a bunch of loose ones in modified CD cases with Sparky labels
Anything disc based I prefer complete but I have a few Cube titles that are missing the manual.

[reson8er]

What I really try to go for is Case, Instructions, and Game in good or better quality. I personally try to avoid loosies since I tend to misplace them or forget about em.

For the case: I  keep types together so having the games case is needed/wanted for organizing and storing and I like how they look and generally love game cover art.

Instructions: Back when instructions in games were actually necessary, its almost a must to have the instructions. Sure you can find reprints of em online and what not, but If at all possible I try to get the original instructions. Make for great toilet reading as well.

Turbo-Boxes: I've never kept any turbo boxes except the Y's I&II box since I repurchased that much later from TTI and used it to store the map.  To me Turbo boxes were always meant to be discarded since the game cases were designed as CD Clamshells and meant to be stored as such. I always thought of the box as a way to secure shelf space at retail.

[HailingTheThings]

I'm all in for loose cards.

No.

Buy these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/25-Pack-HuCard-Sleeves-for-TurboGrafx-16-TurboDuo-PC-Engine-Games-/320958180523?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4aba992cab

Loose HuCARDs deserve better.

[Phase]

+1 get some sleeves dude 

Since I've been making custom cases I've gotten use to trying to find good condition manuals + games. So will probably stick with that now.
Here is a shot of 90% of my TG games on a shelf so far http://www.ektophase.com/TG16/TG16Shelf_02.jpg

My original game boxes (about 15 games) from the early 90s I cut up and put the covers on my wall for some reason, still have most of the cut outs... wish I would have kept them nice and complete now obviously.

[Medic_wheat]

+1 get some sleeves dude 

Since I've been making custom cases I've gotten use to trying to find good condition manuals + games. So will probably stick with that now.
Here is a shot of 90% of my TG games on a shelf so far http://www.ektophase.com/TG16/TG16Shelf_02.jpg

My original game boxes (about 15 games) from the early 90s I cut up and put the covers on my wall for some reason, still have most of the cut outs... wish I would have kept them nice and complete now obviously.

What do you use for those plastic cases for the hu cards?

[Phase]

If you go to page three of the tcp thread http://www.thecoverproject.net/forums/index.php?topic=5101.0
I show some of the options for holding the hucards, there is plenty of room for other options but I've been just keeping them in the stock cd sleeve http://www.ektophase.com/TG16/turbografx_8dp_09.jpg and thats been working really slick imo.

Because the default cd sleeves are too tight imo for discs and manuals I did buy some better sleeves that work fine since then, but I've never been a fan of putting cds in sleeves so I will probably get some clam shells for cds in the future. Other ideas I've thought about are some of those nickel size Velcro patches or adhesive clips which one guy was using in the dvd cases for his hucards.

[esteban]

This is how you store loose HuCARDs:

 

 

Images recycled: 58 times

[Bake]

I prefer cic, although when I was a kid (been playing turbo since '89) I took all my hucards out of the jewel cases. I guess I liked that it took up less space. Today, I have no idea where the cases went- probably the dump. I know- it actually still bugs me today, years later. So I recently made custom cases out of cd jewel cases. I broke the center teeth out, used small velcro dimes to keep the hucards in place. Using a photoshop template, I printed out rear inserts, which also have end labels on each side. The end labels even look like the later spine stickers (not the orange ones). For games without manuals, I printed out image of the manual and placed it in the front slot of the case. It was a bit of work considering all of my hucards were loose. But now they all have cases. This is my long winded way of saying I try to buy games in cases now- it's easier to keep track of them and looks nicer. I don't care about the boxes all that much.

[SuperGrafx]

Brand new/sealed whenever possible.

IF not, then Complete and mint.

[johnnykonami]

I try for sealed if possible to get for a reasonable price still, but I just like to have the manual and case and everything in good condition.  I will never bother collecting outer boxes or spine cards.