Cardboard Sleves - why?

[Wildeybeast]

You all know what I'm talking about, they are becoming ever more prevalent on games and DVD cases. And I am utterly baffled as to why. They serve no functional purpose, in fact they just get in the way as you have to take them off before you can open the box to get the disc out. And they serve no aesthetic purpose as they are usually exactly the same thing as on the plastic case itself. Which leads me to conclude that they are simply a waste of money and another small stab in the heart of Gaia. So why in the name of god are companies using them in ever increasing numbers? Anyone have any ideas at all?

[Mr Mystery]

It's a cheap and effective way of making them harder to steal?

And I'm not kidding. Rather than slitting the cellophane and yoinking the disc, it adds another hurdle.

[Wildeybeast]

Hmm, a good suggestion. Though surely it's quicker and easier to pocket the whole case? The security tags are the cellophane anyway, so once you've got that off, away you go.

[Mr Mystery]

Round my way they have inserts which need to be magnetically released. Then you have the sleeve, then cellophane.

[Wildeybeast]

Oh yeah, I've seen those magnetic things, they are an absolute ***** to get off if they haven't been released in store. I don't buy anything in stores any more (except food and clothes), so the online cases don't have those. I would have thought with them in the cardboard sleeve would be a bit redundant.

[Mr Mystery]

To make the cost effective, it's likely an all or none affair.

[Wildeybeast]

So then why am I getting cardboard sleeves on my internet bought ones? I'm not getting the magnetic dohicky and there is no concern about people stealing my DVD.

[Mr Mystery]

They're pretty?

[Psychosplodge]

The magnetic dohickey is added by the shop though, but the cardboard sleeve isn't...

TBH I quite like them.

[Wolfshade]

... And they serve no aesthetic purpose as they are usually exactly the same thing as on the plastic case itself.
This is quite clearly what they do do. They are an aesthetic tool, a device. They also offer a larger surface area that is flat and not behind plastic so the overall effect is nicer. What bugs me is when a TV series changes their sleve designradically, so that they are not all identical on my shelf. This might be more a thing with my issues, like books from a series all have to be identical, so no hardbacks if I started collecting paper backs, no individual novels if I started collected omnibus

[Psychosplodge]

you mean like the greedy people putting the new HH out in HB so they look odd on my shelf?
I mean ffs just finish how it started.

[Wolfshade]

Exactly, or how you have to wait 3 years for the next arc to be bound together, I mean I want to know what happens next to the 1st and Only,