Well, what about a gamer who really enjoys a particular game or series?
I have to confess here, but I actually like SNES better than TurboGrafx. "Ducks."
Now, I haven't played any of the Turbo CD games yet, so that preference may change after I do, but the fact that I like SNES better doesn't lessen my liking for TurboGrafx - which is my second-favorite gaming system. It's just a part of my history and gaming experience.
That said, my favorite game of all-time is Lufia II for SNES. I have my gamer's copy that I play as often as I can find some time, but I would like to find a nice, sealed copy that I could display in some nice manner as someone might display a piece of art. Because that's what it is: Video games can be a piece of art. Notice that I said, 'can'. Many video games are simply trash and/or regurgitated pablum, but some do rise to the level of 'art'. What I would like is for this nice, sealed copy (which I do not have and probably will never have) to elicit comments/questions about it from visitors, so that I may then discuss this great game and/or actually pull it out and show them and perhaps increase their desire to acquire and play it. There are 10's of thousands of copies of Lufia II, so my 'removing' one copy from the population shouldn't hurt. I'm not a sealed game collector, but I can see a reason why some might have a couple of their favorites.
Now, for those who collect many sealed games but who don't have play copies of the games, I feel that they're probably more in it for either the investment or for the 'rush' of collecting (think: comic books, baseball cards, etc...), and I can definitely see why gamers don't approve (myself included), but I must say, this is a (relatively) free country with a (relatively) free market, and if someone wants to spend his money freely buying or selling something in a way that displeases you, then why must people be so vocal with their displeasure of the both the buyer and the seller?
Anyway, those are my thoughts about sealed game collecting.
-- waits to be shellacked --