Related buyer guides
GlossaryWhat CIB, Loose and Sealed Really Mean on a Game ListingSet two copies of Rayman for the original PlayStation side by side. The early North American printing lives in a tall cardboard long box, roughly the proportions of a VHS tape. The PAL copy sits in a standard CD jewel case. Both sellers can honestly describe theirs as “complete” — and they'd be promising you entirely different stacks of cardboard and paper. That's the trouble with collector shorthand. CIB, loose, sealed, NIB — the words sound precise, but what they actually cover shifts with pl
GamesHow to Tell a Genuinely Rare Retro Game From a Merely Expensive One"Rare" is the most abused word in a game listing. Here's how to tell genuine scarcity from a common game wearing an expensive word — before you pay the premium.
Condition & GradingBuying a Game Gear or Lynx? Check These Failure Points FirstPop the battery covers off a Sega Game Gear and sniff. That faint fishy smell is leaked electrolyte from failing capacitors — an amine odour every Game Gear tech knows — and it means the console in your hands is running on borrowed time, if it runs at all. Cartridge collecting is mostly about cosmetics. Classic handheld collecting is about the hardware itself, because on a Game Gear, an Atari Lynx or an early PSP, the shell can be showroom-clean while the inside is quietly dying. Here's how to