Pro tip: Stop stacking game boxes sideways unless you want warped boards

Last weekend I pulled out my copy of Scythe and noticed the board had this weird curve to it. I've been stacking my games sideways like books for like 3 years because it looked cleaner on my shelf. Then my buddy Joe at game night pointed out that the weight of boxes on top pushes the cardboard out of shape over time. Now I'm wondering how many of my other games might be damaged, has anyone else dealt with warped boards from storing them wrong?

2 comments

2 Comments

oscar3901mo ago

Wait, THREE YEARS of sideways stacking and nobody told you sooner? Dude, that hurts. I feel your pain though, I once did the same thing with my Terraforming Mars box and the player boards looked like they were trying to become taco shells. The weight distribution thing is real. Think about it - those big box games (looking at you, Gloomhaven) can be like 10 pounds, and all that pressure pushes down on the side of the box below it instead of the top. I actually had to rebuy a copy of Viticulture because the board had a permanent bump in the middle from this exact setup.

richard_ramirez1mo ago

$40 worth of damaged board games before I caught on. My Twilight Imperium box got crushed on the corner and I had to throw out the whole insert. Took me forever to figure out why some of my boxes looked like a stack of pancakes that fell over. @oscar390 you nailed it with the Gloomhaven thing, that box is a monster. I had mine stacked sideways on a shelf for maybe a year and the lid started bowing outward like it was trying to escape. Now I stand everything flat or I put them in a horizontal stack with the biggest ones on bottom. Learned my lesson the hard way just like you did with Viticulture.