Policy Doesn't Allow It (Score 1)

I worked at a Gamestop for a year. Policy states that anything other than this generation that gets traded in with a box, the box and manual get tossed. The plastic sleeves that people stored their NES and SNES games in to protect them? We don't even take them in. Employees usually take them home, but sometimes they go in the rubbish bin. Even for current generation GBA games, the boxes and manuals get tossed. The employees at our store had a system so that if a game came in with a box, we'd store the box seperately and write 'box' on the sticky label we affixed to the game. Our manager was understanding (she was a collector as well) and allowed us to breach policy. When she quit and our store went impact, a new manager came in, and everything went in the trash.
If you're looking for older games in good condition with boxes and manuals, your best bet is not in a chain store. Especially once this generation is over--in order to make room for used bins of PS2, GC, and XBOX games, NES, SNES, and Genesis will be phased out of stores.

Also, try to make friends with an employee at a game store--they'll hold boxes and manuals for you if you're nicer to them than the average customer.