Doom Mail Order questions

[eycel]

I bought this listing today on ebay, I have been researching listings on ebay now for quite a few years and well actually started a PC Preservation and grading company with my acrylic protective case making business.  Im also a collector so once I get my Grade on it and my UV resistant Acrylic wrapped around it, and find the actual disks that came with this box I will hold on to it for 10-20 years or something.  Also I didnt pay much for it.  The way I see it, its been a long time since this came out in the 90s, at some point the owner must have had a shareware copy that those disks must have been put in here for a variety of reasons, mainly the original disks could have simply got thrown away.  The box seems to be in like B+ type condition with the artwork and surfaces near perfect but there are tears and scuffing on the corners comparable to whats on the market currently. 

 

I guess what I want to know the most is, is this an original mail order doom/box/papers and which country was it for, im assuming USA?  I want to get a full disk set for it that came with a box like this as well.

 

Can anyone give me any factual insight as to what exactly is in this lot?  From my research that box seams to be one of the original mail order boxes for Doom but the disks Gold Medallion is from a shareware copy.  The listings are all out of wack on ebay as any listing with this specific box are all in the 1200-10,000 $$ range.  There are a ton of listings of ORIGINAL disks for DOOM all over ebay, can an expert chime in on which disks came with this box specifically? Im assuming the authenticity of the box is authentic but I was thinking of finding a print expert on Fiver to help me for a few hours going over some of the details of it with me to have a better understanding. 

 

 

Here are the photos of the listing I bought.  

Edited January 29, 2024 by eycel
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[eycel]

Would something like these v1.2 have come with a mail order box like this? or even the 1,1 blue label ones?

 

Edited January 29, 2024 by eycel
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[eycel]

anyone have any ideas please share...Appreciate it. 

Edited January 29, 2024 by eycel

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

Maybe you can find some help here:

 

 

DOOM was never known for being consistent in terms of packaging, so I don't know if you'll be able to determine with any degree of accuracy what was in the box originally. Based on a YT comment, it could have either been 1.1 or 1.2.

Edited February 1, 2024 by TheMagicMushroomMan

[Murdoch]

You are quite correct, the discs shown are clearly the shareware version not just by the label but the count. There would be four discs total for a full version installation, two proves it's shareware. The box and everything, however, look legitimate. So someone's taken a full version box and manual, chucked in valueless shareware discs, and tried to flick it off for a profit. Might not be this seller specifically, they could be onselling something they original bought in good faith.

 

Identifying which discs came originally came with that specific box will be nearly impossible. Unless you can somehow prove they came directly from id, it might be the blue 1.1s, the red 1.2s, or random discs that were run off by any number of distributors around the world that used labels they knocked together themselves. id gave numerous distributors clearance to make their own copies. They were sent labels, boxes and manuals, but many printed their own labels for unknown reasons; perhaps due to running out and not being able to get more in quick enough. Some used a mix of id supplied labels and their own. Some had official labels but with disc numbers in a different font than the more common ones; this is perhaps the best indicator a given disc didn't come directly from id.

 

@Doomkid, drag your lucious locks in here and grace us with your wisdom if you would be so kind, you might spot a detail I missed.

Edited February 1, 2024 by Murdoch

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

On 1/31/2024 at 7:52 PM, Murdoch said:

 

@Doomkid, drag your lucious locks in here and grace us with your wisdom if you would be so kind, you might spot a detail I missed.

He's not online as much as he used to be, I think OP might want to message him instead. I don't think there's any definitive answer, though.

[Doomkid]

Hey, just saw this! Looks like you covered everything Murdoch, right down to the differences in labels and why.

 

Definitely looks to me like a case of someone, somewhere along the line chucking $5 shareware discs in with the mail order box and manual to make money. Without discs, that box and manual are worth maybe 100-200 bucks, depending on who wants them. The discs may fetch a little more, and this box could have contained 1.1 or 1.2, red or blue label, or in some cases other labels that aren't as cool but are still ""official"" in that they were being sold by distributors with an actual connection to/deal with id.
 

The thread MagicMushroomMan linked is full of useful examples. I've seen official mail order floppies in black, baby blue, regular blue, and red so far. It's a real hodgepodge on the mail order front. (Ultimate Doom and Doom 2 were much more uniform!)

[Buckshot]

A mail order box, manual and addenum in good  condition but with shareware disks. My first thought was whoever sold this may have withheld the (4) mail order disks to sell them separately, though that wouldn't make much sense as the complete mail order box with disks, manual and addendum (and sometimes the packing slip) would have fetched more as whole rather than being parted out.

There's also the possibility of a franken-build set; composed of various pieces from different mail orders. Box from one place, manual from another, addendum from another, disks from some place else. But thats probably not the case here because everything seems to look the same as far as wear/deterioration goes (aside from the shareware floppies of course).

I'd say you have a box/manual/addendum all from the original packaging, and either the seller long ago lost the (4) registered version disks long ago and padded it with the (2) shareware disks in a attempt to make it feel complete, or they bought the set without the (4) registered version disks, padded it with some shareware floppies they had laying around and sold it either to make it feel complete or hope the buyer didn't know the difference.

Good find, though! Box and manual in better condition than most these days!
 

Edited February 3, 2024 by Buckshot

[TheUltimateDoomer666]

Additionally, that DWANGO slip with the code on it for five free hours is actually from a retail Ultimate DOOM box.

 

6 hours ago, Buckshot said:

I'd say you have a box/manual/addendum all from the original packaging, and either the seller long ago lost the (4) registered version disks long ago and padded it with the (2) shareware disks in a attempt to make it feel complete, or they bought the set without the (4) registered version disks, padded it with some shareware floppies they had laying around and sold it either to make it feel complete or hope the buyer didn't know the difference.

I saw the listing on eBay. The seller claimed they thought it was possibly a complete v1.666 release, clearly not understanding that the disks were from a shareware release.

Edited February 3, 2024 by TheUltimateDoomer666