I need some important advice from the community!

I have always loved Doom way more then I probably should fallowing the moment I played the shareware demo all these years ago. I have tried to play Doom in as many ways as possible, even after obtaining a (digital only) copy of the Doom Collectors edition on the PC I still paid about a hundred bucks for a copy of both Final Doom and PSX Doom for the PS1 so that I could enjoy and own those versions as well.

Yes....a hundred bucks, because living on a remote island (Iceland) means that obtaining a copy via amazon isn't easy or cheap :(

In addition, I also have both the PC version and the Xbox version of both Doom 3 and RE. So basically I love Doom (understatement of the year).

Recently I decided that I also wanted a real copy of the Doom collectors edition, and that I should try to find and buy a copy while it was still actually possible. It was hard, but I found a seller on amazon which could ship a copy to my country which claimed to have only 1 copy left, so I grabbed the chance and bought it!

It just arrived in the mail, and being very well aware of the fact that a real physical, still new copies of this thing aren't easily obtained anymore (or at least not for me, see what I said above about living on a remote god damn island) I decided (though I had technically decided to do this in advance before even buying the copy) to protect the original packaging that the item came in by wrapping it in some additional wrapping/plastic (the plastic I used is intended to be use as wrapping plastic or whatever its called, so it was ideal) so that the original packaging won't get damaged over time.

So, here is what I have in front of me right now:



And here is the advice I need from YOU! The Doom community....

see, since Doom means a lot to me I am planning on finding some safe place to keep the item and just sort of keep it as a permanent trophy so that I will never forget all of the good memories I have had about Doom.

However, there is also one other thing I think I should consider.....

When I bought the PSX Doom versions like a couple of years ago I think, they costed me more money then I thought they would, and last time I checked (which albeit, was ages ago) they now cost even more, and have in fact become very expensive. In fact, all physical copies of Doom games in general appear to be both hard to find and costly these days.

So I was wandering, since what I have here is a real physical and an unopened copy of the Doom Collectors edition how rare and valuable do you think it will be in the future? Even now I can see unused copies on sites like amazon easily go for 100+ dollars, how much will it be worth in like say, 5-10 years? Or if we are going to look even further far in time, 20-30 years? Will the game be like super valuable by then, or will it be useless since nobody will remember Doom anymore by that time?

Considering all of those things, should I:

A: Keep the copy forever unopened and be happy that I have all of these good memories about the game.

Or

B: Keep it until (and if) it becomes very valuable and rare thus making it possible to sell it for loads of money.

Thoughts?

Loads of money? Man, lets be realistic here. It sounds to me like Doom means more to you than a few hundred bucks and even then I doubt anyone would buy a copy of Doom for a few hundred. Go with option A and someday when you are 90 years old you can hand it off to your grandson and you will have gotten more out of it than a "load" of money ever could.

If it means as much to you as you say, then I say keep it forever. If you ever sell it, you may regret doing so.

I'm waiting for 2018 when there will undoubtedly be a 25th anniversary Doom collection.

NiuHaka said:

Loads of money? Man, lets be realistic here. It sounds to me like Doom means more to you than a few hundred bucks and even then I doubt anyone would buy a copy of Doom for a few hundred.

Well its not just that, money isn't just something that is nice to have. Owning it is kind of a needed for live to be good, so as much as I love Doom I doubt I would pass on a chance to improve my finance by a considerable margin.

As for people not being willing to pay many hundreds of dollars for it, that may be true now but that may not be the case in the future.

Think about it, in the future buying games would not be considered a stupid thing for an adult to do so the social taboo would no longer exist. And who knows, perhaps somewhere out there is another massive Doom fan and collector who would be more then willing to spend some considerable amounts of cash for an unopened real physical copy of this highly historical (at that time in the future) nearly impossible to find game.

I mean, look at what some Amazon sellers is charging for it right now:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0002IBEJQ/sr=/qid=/ref=olp_tab_collectible?ie=UTF8&coliid=&me=&qid=&sr=&seller=&colid=&condition=collectible

On that page, there are no new copies except for 1 collectible, and it costs over 250 bucks.

It costs a lot because its a famous game and because finding real physical unopened copies is hard. I don't consider it to be beyond the realm of the possible that in the future it will be worth even more.

DoomHero85 said:

I'm waiting for 2018 when there will undoubtedly be a 25th anniversary Doom collection.

I doubt Doom will get a Super Mario All Stars style re-release. At best Doom 4 will have some kind of a special edition that has the old Doom's on it just like Doom 3 did.

I would think it would be worth more in the future too. Would it be worth you selling it though?

250 bucks is a good chunk of change, but it's not going to affect your financial situation unless you're literally scraping by and using every last penny so that you don't starve. Since you seem to have a computer and internet access, I'm guessing that's not the case :P

It would have to be worth thousands for it to have much effect, and even then, when you have to pay rent, bills, insurance, and so on and so forth, it'll most likey only give you a bigger margin of spending money for a few months.

What I'm saying is, keep it (unless it sells for 3 mil)

Yeah... I don't think it would actually be worth a mountain of cash to anyone but lets just entertain the notion that it will be. I would never sell something that had that kind of value to people unless my need for the money exceeded my need to have it. I was just going off the vibe you were sending which made me think it was worth a lot to you. If I had the very first superman comic book ever printed I would most definitely not sell it. I would display that thing and guard it with a full-auto riot shotgun (does something like that exist?) 24-7. Selling it would only make me depressed and wish that I hadn't.

magicsofa said:

250 bucks is a good chunk of change, but it's not going to affect your financial situation

My point was that if it is already selling for 250 bucks right now then there is a chance that it might sell for even more in the future.

And besides, its not like I have to take any chances. I suppose it is possible to just keep the copy while also keeping an eye on for how valuable it is on the net, in case it were ever to become valuable enough to sell for lots of money.

What makes me believe the game would be very valuable in the future is the special nature of Doom. Its not just some famous game, its possibly the very game that kicked start the FPS generation. This give it a lot of historical value which could be make extra valuable and special in the far future.

A.

I would keep it if I were you, and not because its valuable.

So go for option A.

Years in the future, a collector is going to most likely be seeking the earliest release of the game(s), like the floppy versions (or perhaps UDoom which was released on CD around 95 or 96?).

The "Collector's Edition" is just a repackaging which contains nothing notable, and there will be more as the years go on, just like how Publishing Company X releases Rock Band Y Best Hits Album Z every couple years. Collectors want the vinyl, or the casette tape, or whatever it was during the actual time of the song.

Then again, there's always a collector out ther hellbent on getting every edition that ever existed, so I may be underestimating the power of the obsessed.

Agreed, as collectibles go I doubt the Collector's Edition will ever match the original releases. While being shrink-wrapped is a point in it's favour I doubt it'll fetch the $250 that Amazon seller's hoping to get (they're obviously living in La La Land) for at least a few years.

Keep it, at least until you've lost interest in Doom (and maybe video games in general), by which time you might have a valuable collectible on your hands.

IMO keep it for yourself + make an iso of the disk just in case. Not worth holding onto as a collectors item (at least this copy).

Lots of speculation here. Then again, it may well hold its value better than fiat currency. Doubt you'll get rich from it though.

While I do always keep my Doom CD's handy, I don't necessarily find a need to keep them enclosed in some kind of protective packaging. I don't think I'll need a trophy to remember my experiences with Doom. I've recorded demos and videos that I keep in a folder, also backed up on a USB drive, I have all the maps I've ever made saved on that thing as well as my unfinished maps, Also the /idgames folder stores many of my maps as well. I don't ever plan on abandoning Doom at any point in my life either. I hold the game in such high regard that I wouldn't be who I am without it.