Purchase: NES & SNES Manuals

So I just had a purchase arrive today and it made me think of this blog.  If I am going to write about collecting, I should show my purchases and give some information about them.  My first arrival since starting this blog is a bubble mailer full of manuals for NES and SNES games.  So let's delve a bit:

  First thing, a bubble mailer is a very nice way to send manuals and/or games.  This is particularly true of manuals, since a lot of people sending them think that it is a needless extra expense.  For a collector, at least a serious collector, protecting the parcel is half the battle.  No collector wants their package to arrive with something torn or damaged in some way.  While bubble mailers are good they are not always the perfect choice.  There is a shop on Ebay that sends me games in bubble mailers all the time, however quite often the envelope is too big for the games being sent.  What this means is, if the shop didn't take extra measures to protect the games (wrapping them individually in bubble wrap, which they didn't), and the envelope is too big, the games are rattling around inside the envelope in transit.  I have a picture of a game before it left the shop arrive on my doorstep in much worse condition.  But for manuals, the current items of discussion, it is an excellent choice.
 Second thing, keep track of your collection.  I had two trades with people in transit to myself at the same time.  Because of this, between the two trades, I have ended up with a couple of the manuals being repeats (i.e. I now have two Castlevania manuals, two Burgertime Manuals and two Tetris manuals.  I do keep track of my collection very closely now to avoid this kind of problem, but I also don't catalog items until they arrive and because of that I still run the risk of collecting more than one of a cheap item like manuals.
 Third thing, the more confidence you can have in what you are buying, and who you are buying from, the better.  I bought these manuals from someone I don't know.  However, I bought them from him based on his exemplary feedback on gametz.  If he had received bad reviews or had very little feedback I would have made sure he sent the items first (something you can't do on Ebay), but since I can trust him (based on other gametz community individual comments), I paid for them first before he sent.
  Needless to say I am very happy with this purchase.  The individual packed the items well, he was accurate with the description of the manuals and he didn't overcharge me for them.
  Some of you less devoted of the devotees might ask "Why on earth do you care about the manuals anyways?  You can't play the manual!"  That may be true, but the manuals & the boxes of the games have their own amazing features to them.  Since we are discussing manuals we'll stick to them for now.
 The transliteration from Japanese to English is incredibly funny in some of these manuals.  Here is an example from the manual for Spy Hunter:

YOUR MISSION

Pilot your vehicle through the track.  Seek and destroy enemy agents who will use every means to wipe     you out.  You must avoid the road hazards and protect the friendly pedestrian vehicles.  There's terror at every turn - tire slashers, torpedoes, bomb dropping helicopters - standing in your way of the most diabolical collection of enemy agents ever to hit a video screen.  You have your skill and reflexes along with Smoke screens, Oil slicks, and Heat seeking missiles to outmaneuver your opponents.  One mistake and it's all over.  So strap yourself in, no need to check your ammo.  You've got more than enough; and take the challenge.
Be: SPY HUNTERtm

This transliteration is not half bad actually, but I wanted to use an example from the manuals I just received.  Pilot your vehicle through the track? Friendly pedestrian vehicle?  And the capitalization on Smoke, Oil and Heat? I love little details like this.  These are the fun little tidbits in the manuals.

  Beyond that there are some games that having the manual becomes necessary for game play.  I mentioned this issue in my review of Destiny of an Emperor, where the 'magic' you use in that game, without the manual, there is no way to decipher what it does except trial and error.  From the bunch I just received there is an amazing amount of information in the Metroid manual that I would only be able to guess at by playing the game without it.

  Another important reason for collecting the manual, at least from a collector stand point, is that the manual (and/or the box) quite often mentions other items that would be included with the game when it first came out.  This is one method for collectors to determine what items make a game CIB.  CIB means one of two things; it means Cart, Instructions, Box for some, but the second interpretation is more apt for collectors, it means Complete in Box.  Most of the time, the game came with more, and sometimes much more, than just the game, the manual and the box.  Thus I say Cart, Instruction, Box doesn't cut it.  I'll give you some examples:

Both Orb 3D and 3D Worldrunner both came with 3D glasses included in the box.

Air Fortress, if purchased from the publisher HAL america, came with an Air Fortress T-Shirt.

Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego came with a small encyclopedia in the original oversized box.

  These are just a few examples of extras that came with NES games back in the day.  While there are databases out there detailing everything that was included in the game, I like to find out through the info on the boxes and manuals the other items hidden for me to find.

  I`ll leave you devotees with that information for now.  Perhaps I have convinced a few collectors who never game the manuals a passing glance before to consider them as an important element to a collection.