Gamecube game cases vs carrying case?

Even though I haven't been to the Goodwill outlet store in over 19 months, the urge is still dwelling deep within to go and have a root around in the big ole blue tubs of mystery. One of the first things I remember picking up from there happened to be empty Nintendo Gamecube game cases. After I had acquired so many I actually started to tune them out, as I had too many empty cases and not enough games to fill them with.

You may remember that I spoke briefly about this phenomena before, with empty N64 boxes and Xbox 360 cases (here). I actually collected just about any empty case that I could. Playstation, PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, 3DS, Gamecube, empty cardboard game boxes; literally anything that I could either swap out an old shitty case for with a fresh new one, or one that I could someday fill with a decent condition copy of the game it once housed.

After removing the Madden and Tiger Woods paraphernalia from inside the case, they were fresh, empty cases, waiting to be swapped out with anything from a flea market, or even the outlet store, that had a torn case and needed a new home. Well, that didn't happen as often as I wished it would. The flea markets were all devoid of any Gamecube life, be it cased or loose games. The outlet store offered a bounty of empty cases, but only on exceedingly rare occasions would I find a Gamecube case in any condition.

That is until one day I happened to find a few of the small Gamecube game carrying cases. The first one was empty, but I liked it so much that I decided to keep it anyway, even though I already had a large backlog of empty Gamecube cases sitting at home. The second happened to actually have a few games inside, including Mario Kart Double Dash and bonus disc, Mario Superstar Baseball, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 and Need for Speed Carbon.

Although my OCD to have these games complete was really nagging at me, I couldn't pass these games up! Paying by the pound for these things was essentially buying gold at the price of bubble wrap! Mario Kart was rehoused in a Tiger Woods double disc case with the cover from an old (too scratched to be repaired) copy of Mario Kart I had.

Some cases were just too complete for me to really tear down and destroy for the sake of rehousing another game. As you can see below I've got a few really good cases, without the discs to house within. Most of these are complete and only 3 are without manuals. The black one on the far right is the dead copy of Mario Kart. Besides these cases, I still have a dozen or so completely empty Gamecube cases. Needless to say, I don't seem to mind where I house my Gamecube games, as long as I have plenty of them to keep me entertained!