- Would you fix a damaged box (say with a magic marker or even meticulous work with paper and adhesive) and regain its value? Even if the materials were from another original box?
If you mean literally cutting and pasting, no. But it is very common to make a complete package with items from different incomplete packages.
- For the 'still in original shrink' fans, is a perfect game that's reshrunk still as valuable? Even if it was reshrunk w/the identical wrap and identical machine?
It is impossible to re-shrink a game with identical wrap and machine, so this question is moot.
- If Richard Garriot had original disks, original labels, (ok, just original everything) and pieced together another dozen original Akalbeth's, are they as valuable as the first set? (Discount the fact that additional copies devalue the existing ones as there are now more of them.)
No, because the item is valuable because of it's original age and publishing run. Anything he releases nowadays should be considered a reprint/repress, and treated accordingly. It may be difficult to determine which items were reprints and which weren't, but that doesn't mean the reprints should carry the same value.
Value is primarily determined by how hard something is to get. Garriot's reprints would have a high value, since there would be only 12, but they shouldn't have as high a value as the original ones.
- If you piece a truly rare game together from multiple copies (manual from here, lid from there, disk from somewhere else, etc.) is it as good as a complete set from the factory? (This is a tough one.)
It's not tough at all -- it's indistinguishable from a complete factory set if you use materials from other factory sets. I'd say yes, it is as good.
Games enjoy a particular virtue in that their data is digital and can be copied exactly 'till the end of time (to a point, but that's another story about nibble counts and the like). So even if you made an exact copy of the game, using the same data on the same media, has it retained its original value?
Since it is indistinguishable from the original item, yes.
My opinion: Nope, even though the disk will eventually fade into chaos. Always do your data restoration projects on copies. That way you can have your cake and eat it too.
Since a rewritten disk is indistinguishable from a factory-perfect one, why do you have this opinion? Who could tell?
--
Jim Leonard ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.oldskool.org/
Want to help an ambitious games project? http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
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