Spent 3 hours organizing my game shelf only to realize one box was empty

Went through my whole collection Saturday night, sorting by weight and complexity. Got to the bottom of the stack and pulled out a copy of Starfarers of Catan that I bought used at a garage sale last year. Opened it up and the box was just full of packing peanuts and a single rulebook. No board, no pieces, no cards. So I spent another hour checking all my other boxes to see if anything got mixed in there. Has anyone else bought a used game that was basically a hollow shell? How do you even check for that ahead of time?

2 comments

2 Comments

terryrobinson13d ago

That "single rulebook and packing peanuts" thing got me thinking. I bet some people buy empty game boxes just to display them on shelves and never even open the game. For checking ahead of time, I always ask the seller to lift the box and feel for weight before buying at garage sales now.

patricia_lee13d ago

Oh man, @terryrobinson, I totally get that weight trick! Last summer I bought a "complete" copy of HeroQuest at a flea market for $20, got it home and it was literally just the box with a folded rulebook and some packing peanuts stuffed in there. No minis, no tiles, no cards. I was so mad at myself for not doing exactly what you described. Now I always shake the box gently too, you can hear if cards and pieces are actually sliding around in there.