Boxes from boxed sets: amount of use determines condition?

[Wycen]

This seems like a pretty obvious question and conclusion, but I put it out there for fun.

I dug out my old Cyberpunk boxed set from storage last week, the 1988 version from R. Talsorian. The box contained 3 books and was twice as deep as it needed to be to hold the contents. The books may as well be new, though they have some corner wear, but it was the box itself that surprised me. It was intact, not crush, stepped on, or broken, though the bottom had warped a bit to be concave.

I thought to myself, why isn't it in crap condition like most of the boxes from DnD or BattleTech boxed sets?

Probably because I didn't really play it that much. Loved reading it and making characters, but I don't recall playing RTG's Cyberpunk all that much. The cyberpunk genre as a whole, including Shadowrun, never got as much play time as other genres.

So, are your boxes destroyed because you liked the game or for some other reason?

 

[IronWolf]

Yeah - most of my boxes that are heavily worn, bent, etc are from the Basic D&D set days where it saw lots of use and sometimes being lugged around in a backpack or something. Even as you move up into the Expert and higher level sets those boxes tend to be in better shape as we were transitioning to AD&D and those higher level box sets saw less use.

 

[Dice4Hire]

My MV box is in perfect shape. I put the tokens I did not need in it and put it on the shelf where it has been for 6 months.

My circa 1980 blue and red boxes, however, are totally flat, though I still have them.

 

[enworldatemylogin]

I know I stepped on a box once when I forgot it was there in the middle of the night, going to the kitchen. After that I tried not to keep my gaming stuff on the floor. Also, the dog did not recognize the value of books, he walked over one after being out in the rain once, but that of course was not the box.

 

[Mark CMG]

How boxes are stored and gravity have a lot to do with condition. When not storing boxes upright on their edge or side, stacking lighter boxes on top is obviously good but stacking a smaller box on top of a larger box might seem like a good idea, however the pressure from the smaller box then is not lined up with the corners of the lower larger box so the stress gets put on points where the larger box can more easily crush downward. Something to consider.

 

[Wycen]

My CityTech box has 2 crushed corners, which I attempted to repair with duct tape. From a historical preservation perspective is using tape to repair gaming stuff akin to cleaning the patina off of antiques?

I suppose that will matter if it happens to survive another 100 years.

 

[Treebore]

Use is definitely a factor, but so are accidents and bad storage practices.