Topic of the Week: It‘s in shrink!

Boardgames
1

This or the last one was TotW #100 big shout to @Acacia who introduced them :fire::fire::fire:

I am writing on my tablet so I will keep it short. Inspired by @lalunaverde telling us about someone who has their copy of Glory to Rome (coveted game of legend or so I hear) still in shrink…

Does this happen?
Do you keep games in shrink?
Right now?
Why?
What is the longest you have kept a game in shrink?

8 Likes
2

Right now I think I only have Stephenson’s Rocket, and Pandemic Legacy Seasons 2 and 0 in shrink. Normally I just really want to read the rules and punch out tokens and such so the shrink comes off right away. Since I haven’t finished PanLeg 1 yet, I’ve felt no need to poke around in those boxes. SR, on the other hand, just got set down in the garage and was quickly absorbed by all the other crap in there (actually, I know exactly where it is, I just haven’t bothered for no particular reason).

Dark Souls: the card game was in shrink until just a couple weeks ago when I decided to give it a whirl as part of my 2026 challenge. Again, no particular reason it wasn’t opened, I was likely busy with other stuff when it arrived, it got set in the garage, and was left there until I got to it.

3 Likes
3

Funny enough, I had initially claimed I did not leave anything in shrink but my copy of Pandemic Legacy 0 has been sitting there for years. We finished 1 and 2 but have other on going legacy campaigns… so it remains as is.

I also have a tendency to keep expansions in shrink for a while. I tend to buy all expansions for games but when I don’t play the game right then… they don’t always get unpacked: Viticulture, Dune and all those scenarios for Unsettled have or had expansions kept separated from the games for quite a while.

But normally new games, I am way too curious not to immediately open up everything, punch it and have a look at all the materials.

4 Likes
4

There is always a tug of war. I might buy something I can’t play if the price or availability means the present makes sense. I obviously have to want to play this game and have a reasonable future scenario in which I could.

Then - keep it in shrink, keep it safe, keep the market value up? Or unwrap and make sure that it’s not missing anything?

I think I’ve been burned once when I opened a game much later and something was damaged or missing. I recall I did eventually get a replacement, but it was a bit of a scare and a bit of an effort.

I’m also struggling to think of a time when I resold a game without ever opening it - I’m sure this has happened. It may be about to happen with Keyper (which I can play on Yucata).

The oldest games I have in shrink are likely Forbidden Stars and Twilight Imperium. They wait…

4 Likes
5

Nothing’s in shrink. Everything gets unwrapped, punched and sorted the minute I get home from the store.

Gotta make sure everything’s in there, after all.

8 Likes
6

Same here.

The only games I have in shrink are those that I got as givaways on BGG Cruise and don’t really care about.

4 Likes
7

I open and punch my games as soon as I get them. My husband leaves his in the shrink until he plans to play them. Currently in shrink are:

  • Speakeasy
  • Vinhos
  • Lords of Ragnarok
  • Nunatak
  • Mytikas
  • Terminus
  • Yucatan
  • The Battles of Rhode Island and Newport
  • Napoleon’s Imperium

(He likes to buy games, but not to read rules :grin: Some of them have been untouched for multiple years)

5 Likes
8

Nah. I’ll open them like a kid on Xmas day!

I think Pan Leg season 2 and 0 were the notable exceptions because I dont want to look inside without a group. I want that to be a colective experience

4 Likes
9

Even with legacy games, I’d still open it to verify all the pieces, boxes, envelopes, etc. are there.

4 Likes
10

Nope, never.

2 Likes
11

Nothing stays in shrink!

But quite a lot gets punched out from the frames and then sits on a shelf for months.

5 Likes
12

Typically, I immediately remove the shrink in order to do an inventory on the game because:

  1. Sorting, inventorying, and otherwise fiddling with components is one of the great joys of this hobby
  2. I stand a much higher chance of getting publisher/retailer support on missing/defective components the earlier it is noticed
  3. Plastic is ugly

However, there are a few items in my collection that remain in shrink… let’s explore!

  • Sensuikan – a game by Gregory M. Smith in the The Hunters series of games. This was a pre-order that I thought I had cancelled, but apparently not. I have 3 games in the The Hunters series and haven’t fully explored those. Honestly, I’d rather have the WWI installment, Raiders of the Deep, than the Japanese WWII version. It’s currently listed for sale, but I’m not hopeful it’ll move along soon, so I may just end up keeping it
  • Maiden’s Quest – I bought it to play with my partner as something we could do while sitting on couch, but I’m more likely to explore it solo at this point. Still in-shrink because it’s “not mine” (let’s see if this is a recurring pattern, shall we?)
  • Ticket to Ride: San Francisco – I bought it as a gift for my partner. It’s hers and we haven’t bothered to play it yet. At some point, I was trying to keep up with all of the TTR releases, but these mini-versions are just not dissimilar enough to bother. I think this is the last one I bought.
  • Mysterium Kids – One of my partner’s favorite games is Mysterium. So I bought this for family game nights. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t look as good as Mysterium or Mysterium Park, so we haven’t actually played it with our kids yet. Technically, I didn’t even gift it to her, I just found it in a box where it had been waiting for the right occasion and decided to put it on the shelf after showing it to her.
  • Ticket to Ride: Japan & Italy – For my partner. Keeping up with Ticket to Ride releases at some point, etc, etc, etc
  • Fort – I believe ostensible it was for my partner. I know now it was more of a ploy by me to show her Kyle Ferrin’s amazing art and try to coax her into a game night. Unfortunately, I bought it before Fort got some pretty ho-hum fan and critic reactions.
  • Plunder – a gift from my mother that was not on my wishlist. I had never heard of it, but somehow she got the impression it would be something I would like. The longer it sits and the ore often I see it surprisingly pop up as a fun family-weight game, the more likely I am to break the shrink.
  • Fortune – a random gift purchase from our FLGS that my partner allowed one of my daughters to pick. I guess it looks good. It’s 3-5 players, so I’ve been waiting for the daughter in-question to get old enough to play it with me. You’re not supposed to shuffle the cards, so I figured I’d just take my chances on the components being right and not risk mixing things up by trying to inventory anything.
  • Firefly Adventures + expansions – I bought this for my partner back when we only had a couple of kids and the possibility of finding time for a co-op game night wasn’t so impossible. She’s never opened and I believe she’s completely forgotten it belongs to her.
  • Legendary: Big Trouble in Little China – I bought this for my partner a few years back. Like above, she probably forgot that it “belongs” to her. She likes the movie and likes co-op games… so, eventually this is going to land.
  • Vinyl (multiple editions) – these were supposed to come with solo modes, but they did not. I bought the entire collection assuming I’d eventually play it as a family game but also enjoy a solo mode in the mean time. Since the publisher has been quiet on the missing solo mode for years now, I’ll just assume it’s not coming. Yay.
  • Innovation 3rd edition expansions – I have the complete set of Innovation expansions, but I’ve never played the base game, so I never bothered to unshrink the expansions. I bought them on a big clearance sale right before the Ultimate edition kickstarter was announced (which doesn’t make sense in any way, but I got them for less than half price)
  • Mountain Goats, Sequoia & GPS expansions box – I never played any of these base games, so I never bothered to open the expansions box (I’m not even 100% sure if it came with the original kickstarter or if I got it as a no-ship math trade sweetener)
  • Coconuts – I haven’t gifted this to my daughters yet… mostly because some of them are too young and I’m worried about losing components. Soon… soon.

The longest in-shrink may be Maiden’s Quest. I think I bought that 6 or 7 years ago.

EDIT:

Somehow missed:

  • Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 – like everyone else, it’s not on the table yet, so it must remain secret. I bought this specifically to play through with my partner. So, no hope of it getting played in the next year or so. But maybe soon enough.
5 Likes
13

It’s extremely rare for me to not unpack a game on the day it arrives, but…

(repeating my older comment from outside this thread)

I had Mansions of Madness and its expansion The Call of the Wild in shrink wrap for over a decade :). Although that’s because I tended to have parcels delivered to my office at the time, and my intention had been to play it with my work colleagues, and so it went straight into the game shelf at work, where it sat for all that time (initially just because I’d failed to put the effort into learning it, and subsequently because that games group dissipated and (until recently) I had no one to play it with even if I knew the rules!)

5 Likes
14

I like Fort! It’s neat.

I have a bunch of games in shrink, some of them for years. People I play with like to be involved with opening them and punching out the cardboard so unless it has a particularly convoluted setup I won’t usually open it until it’s time to play, I’ll just read the rules on BGG.

2 Likes
15

Let’s see what is still in shrink:

  • The Great Dalmuti - one shrinkwrapped, one completely worn out. I bought a second copy years ago to futureproof one of my favorite adolescent games.
  • Trails - same. It’s quite good and the kids like it. Kids are kids. Game is permanently oop. Futureproof.
  • Forbidden Stars - a part of me wonders if I’ll ever play it, so the shrink is to maintain market value
  • Dune (full) - same
  • Archipelago - same
  • Twilight Imperium - just didn’t get to it, and it’s the hardest game to get to under the bed. It’s something to look forward to!
  • Indonesia 3e - recent arrival, no impending play
  • Battle of Hoth - same
  • Mysterium Park - Got it on super discount. Might never play.
  • Telestrations - same. But in this case, I’m definitely playing just maybe with pencil and paper rather than whatever is in this box.
  • Keyper - evaluating on Yucata before I decide if it’s a keeper. Price / availability dictated grabbing it just in case.
  • Compile Main 2 - Main 1 is unwrapped and will be played
  • C&C Ancients - Oh man. I should open this up! Stickers! Just forgot about it while playing Memoir 44.

I’m sure there’s a handful more. There used to be a lot more, but after the missing piece scare I opened a bunch, unless I had a reason not to. C&C Ancients slipped through the cracks.

I tend to place a lot of holds and then all the games come at once (for free shipping). I’ve found that opening everything at once starts to feel like a job. So I do pace it out when a big dump arrives.

4 Likes
16

I bought a copy of Tigris & Euphrates in 2003, kept it in shrink until I moved in 2007, then took it out of the wrapping to show someone at my new games club. I still haven’t played it.

I bought an entire kickstarter box of “Dead Reckoning” with lots of expansions and nice pieces, still all unboxed.

6 Likes
17

I have no games in shrink.
I never have any games in shrink for more than a few minutes after they enter the house. Opening games is fun! (Sometimes I wonder if it’s more fun than actually playing them…)

5 Likes
18

I have a small number of games which I love so much I’ve bought a second copy (when going cheap in the sales) that I keep in a cupboard in the unlikely event that something happens to the first copy.

And then I have a very small number of games that I’d forgotten I’d bought a spare copy of. Anyway, I have three copies of Memoir 44 and two of them are in shrink. I admit it. Are you happy now?

6 Likes
19

That must means you are all set to play Overlord. Ain’t nothin’ wrong wit’ that.

3 Likes
20

Oh, that’s right. I have a copy of Batman Love Letter still in it’s clamshell case, as our original copy was getting pretty worn, so we wanted it as a backup copy. We don’t play it as often as we used to, but it will still hit the table now and then, so I’m glad we have it.

4 Likes