Notes

Promo Inserts

I've opened a reasonable amount of new-old-stock releases but I've never found one that included the little promotional flyer. On the other hand, I have opened a lot of used games that did come with it. Presumably they were only included in select releases.

I own Versions 1-4, I'm not sure if there is any beyond that, but if there is, hopefully I'll get my hands on them eventually. The first version of the leaflet doesnt seem to have a version marking, but the subsequent versions have a tiny little "V#" in the corner.

PCGamer Presents

Opened a new old stock 'John Woo Presents Stranglehold,' and it contains discs with the 'PCGamer Presents' branding. It has a 2007 copyright date on the box, so kind of late in Sold Out's history.

I don't know if it's a common thing, but it seems like a few of the later releases have the PCGamer branding on them. Possibly just trying to get rid of old stock?

Spine Version Numbers

The spine of the cover typically has a marking at the bottom of most games, such as 'sov. 2.1' or 'sov. 3.7' or such, i'd take a guess it stands for 'Sold Out Version 3.7'. One of my goals is to document not just the contents of the disc, but the different 'launcher' versions.

I havent checked yet, but i wonder if the 'PCGamer Presents' marked discs even have the Sold Out launcher included? It seems a little silly to release a Sold Out branded version of the game, with the PCGamer disc art, but different disc contents.

XP Compatibility Note

I've spotted a few games with "Not Compatible with Windows XP" markings on the cover, but what i found interesting was most of the games with the marking seem to be compatible with XP according to the internet, so i assume these releases were before the an XP patch was available?

Brian Lara Cricket Regional Marking

Brian Lara Cricket has "For sale in the UK only" printed on the disc, but not on the box. Which seems like an odd design choice.

Shogun Total War Barcode

Turns out that 'Shogun Total War Gold Edition' and 'Shogun Total War Warlord Edition' both have the same barcode. I haven't checked the contents of the discs yet but the box art is different, and I'm pretty sure one contains more content than the other.

I'm not sure if there are any more duplicate barcodes used, but it strikes me as odd. I wonder if it's common in retail or just something that slipped through the cracks. The cutting room floor mentions the 'Gold Edition' was a re-release of the 'Warlord Edition' but without the opening cinematics.

eBay Search

It's odd that you can spend hours searching eBay for games and nothing new will show up. But then you click on a random game somewhere, and the "Explore related items" will be full of titles I wasnt even aware existed.

I guess it's just the way there 'algorithm' works?

Mastertronic / PC Gamer Presents

If for some reason you're thinking of going on this little adventure of collecting 'Sold Out' games, please don't, I don't want any competition 😭. Also, if a game is released under the 'PC Gamer Presents' or 'Mastertronic' brands, it's pretty likely to have a 'Sold Out' release.

I have found a good few (unknown to me) games by seeing what Mastertronic has previously released, and searching for that + 'pc' on ebay.

CeX

So I don't mean this as an attack on CeX, but if you're collecting games and looking for a specific version, be careful when getting buying from them, unless it's in a store. I've ordered a few games from via the website that I can't find elsewhere for a reasonable price, and more often than not, they will arrive in different release packaging than is listed / mentioned on their site. Now I'm sure for most people, receiving the original version of a game is the ideal situation, but for me, I actually want the 'budget' version I thought I was ordering 😭

Another thing, wtf is going on with the shipping setup at CeX? I know that the games are shipped from individual stores vs from a single warehouse, but Christ, the shipping costs are crazy. Thing biggest annoyance is that they don't combine shipping costs for items ordered from the same store. So if I buy 3 games from Bradford store, I pay 3 shipping charges, despite them being shipped from the same location. Most probably in the same package.

I'll give an example, I just added 10 random games to my basket, they are 50p each, so £5 for the cost of games, The shipping costs? £29.50?!?!?, I know shipping costs money, but Jesus Christ, thats taking the piss a bit.

I know CeX do internal transfers of games between stores so no store is overstocked on a single item whilst the other stores are starved of it. If they had a way to say "If you dont mind waiting x amount of time, we can do an internal transfer of the games and then ship from one location to save on shipping costs" But its probably not worth the hassle for them in the long run. Especially if the number of orders it would actually benefit would be low.

I miss the days when if you're order was over a certain amount, you would get free shipping. Our 'local' store (40 minutes away), is kinda crap with older titles, they just focus on post PS3 releases, which I can understand, but it's not much use to me :(

Like I said, this isn't an attack, for Pete's sake, use them when you can, phsyical stores seem to be becoming a bit of a rare sight nowadays, So we should probably support them (maybe just not online 😂)

The Postie

Just had the postie show up with 15 parcels, I feel genuinely bad when I'm standing there and they are just scanning and handing over parcels. I apologized, but she's always super nice so just said "It's my job, don't worry about it," but I still feel bad.

New & Sealed

I was just going though the packages I mentioned above, one of them 'Zool 2' was listed as "New and Sealed", Is it bollocks, It has one of those old square security tags that are a nightmare to peel off, already peeled off, but inside the shrink wrap, along with a few surface scratches on the disk, so either someone is lying, or whatever retailer this originally came from was test driving the games and resealing them 😂

Im sure that would annoy most people, but all the games are getting opened anyway, so it doesn't bother me.

The Serial Number Stickers

During the little time i have been collecting these games, I've noticed that the ones that do have serial numbers, the little stickers on the inside of the case can be a real pain in the ass to remove.

After removing a fair few of them, ive kinda got it down to an art. Start by peeling up the edge of the entire short side of the sticker first, this will probably cause the most damage, but the slower you go the better it will turn out. Then, once you have the entire short edge lifted, just hold the case steady and keep your fingers really close to the surface, then SLOWLY, peel the short edge along the length of the long edge, if it starts to tear, go to the other side of the label and try again from there, but if you are REALLY SLOW, it will come off almost always with no issue. When I say slow, I really mean it, like, 2 minutes to peel the entire sticker slow.

Dont yank on the sticker, barely use any pressure at all.

Something else i noticed about the serial numbers is that most of the games dont actually have one, I'm not sure if thats because they didnt come with one at retail, or if people have swapped the cases over the years and the serials have got lost along the way, I figured more games would have them 🤷‍♂️

How Many Games Are There In The Sold Out Software Library?

The short answer is: I have no idea.
The long answer is: I have no idea, but I'm trying to find out 😂

From the research I did a while back, it seems the total number is somewhere between 300 and 400, but I have no idea how accurate that is. I currently have 316 known games as I write this, so it's definitely more than 300 lol.

How Do You Know When You Have Found Them All?

I don't know, probably when I can't find any more games to add to the list 😅

Like I said above, the total number (presumably) is somewhere between 300-400, and I'm at 316 right now, so I think I'm getting pretty close 🤷‍♂️

Where Do You Find / Buy Them?

Finding the games is the hard part, trying to buy them is even harder 😭

To find games I'm not aware of, I usually just browse the internet, usually eBay, CeX, Cash Converters, sometimes Amazon (not particularly good for finding older titles). Sometimes the inside cover of a game has one or two I don't recognize, but that's pretty rare. I'm getting to the point now where finding new games to add to the list is getting pretty difficult, so eventually I might have to start trawling through old magazines on the Internet Archive.

Finding them for sale is purely luck most of the time. It can be difficult finding them at a good price. Maybe it's just a me thing, but I have a hard time justifying spending more on a game than it sold for at retail.
The postage costs can be a bit of a killer, on eBay now your looking at shipping costs between £1.50 to £3 for shipping per item from 'normal' sellers. Maybe I'm just a cheap bastard 😂

Some of the releases are demanding way higher prices than you'd assume for something that sold for less than a fiver when new. For instance, the Championship Manager series, for some reason, they're really expensive. One of them, Championship Manager 01/02 (I think), I have seen listed on eBay for £30+, which is crazy in my opinion, but I'm not a football fan, so maybe they have some significance to football fans? I dunno.

What eBay Sellers Do You Use?

Whilst doing this whole collecting thing, I've used a reasonable number of different sellers on eBay, most were just one-time purchases. But there are a few that I regularly ended up using.

I would say, generally, if you're buying from a 'normal' seller, you'll probably receive what you ordered. But if you're buying from a second-hand business seller, there's a risk they will send you a version that differs from what you was expecting. For instance, you might think you're getting the Sold Out version, but end up with the original release or some other 'budget' edition.

I've listed a few sellers below that I've used and would happily use again.

Second-Hand Business Sellers:
Perfectly OK, the condition listed is generally accurate & postage is usually free.
Music Magpie - No issues.
We Buy Games - I think I've had 3 games that were different than what was ordered. They offered a partial refund.
Green Hand - No Issues.
Goldstone Books - One issue with the version of the game sent, but I was offered a full refund or replacement.
brit_books_xp - No issues.

Other Sellers:
These are all good sellers I've had no issues with, but postage costs can add up pretty fast.
Altar of Gaming
replayvideogames
glam_neil
piecesofporretta
scaddingk
QA Games
HRAC SHOP SLOVAKIA - The combine postage option didnt work & since shipping was almost €10 each item I messaged them, they offered €17 for 5 items, which seemed fair, especially since the games were cheap and either impossible to find locally or super expensive.

How Are You Storing The Games?

I have virtually no space in the house, so the games are getting de-cased and put in one of those plastic sleeve case things (a somewhat fancy one with space for the case inlay, not the el cheapo ones that stick to the disc), I'm not a fan of it, but I don't have much choice.

The big box games, should i ever get any, will remain in their boxes. I cant cram those into the sleeves lol

What About Multiple Versions?

I'm aiming to collect the DVD case releases of the games. If I can't find a game in a DVD case, I'll go for the CD jewel case version instead. And if that's not available either, I'll settle for the big box version.

I'm not completely sure what the big box versions include. I have two copies of Fields of Glory, one in a cardboard sleeve and one in a jewel case. I'm guessing the cardboard sleeve version came from a big box release, since it doesn't have a barcode, whereas the jewel case version does 🤷‍♂️