This. I love collector's editions of games, and in particular Blizzard's take on the CE. Sure, they are more expensive than most (with an asking price of $99.99 for the WOW CEs here in Norway), but they're also packed with content, in a big and elaborate collectible cardboard box.
The art book alone is worth most of the asking price of the CE.
What I don't enjoy are "CEs" who just pack on a "making-of" DVD and a couple of pamphlets and call it collector's items. I also don't like "CEs" who focus very heavily on providing extra in-game items (as many tend to do these days). The Civilization V "CE" for example, contains a bonus civ and a bonus campaign. Or should I say bogus. It should come in a big box, with a historic world map in cloth, maybe a card game based on the civilization franchise, art book, perhaps the original Civilization I and II on a thumb-drive. I'd gladly pay $100 for that.
More elaborate CEs please. Don't just put together a few videos from development, hassle the artists to get prints of some of their sketches, then staple it together and charge $25 extra for the "Collector's Edition".

I'll buy a special edition if i'm excited about the game and the box looks good. I dont really care about artbooks or making of's or whatever. I still havnt watched the ME2 or fallout 3 making of.

Is there Star Control 2 collector edition coming... Every time I read SC2 I instantly think that.
I usually don't bother with colletors edition cause it's just something that is used to get more of my money. And something that was given before big companies started this publishing business and cut costs...
Sins of a solar Empire is best colletors edition which I have.

My opinion? Very simple: for the few games worth of my money I get the best version (special/limited/etc.) I can put my hands on.

Good Special Edition:
Metal Gear Solid 3 SE: Extra Mini game, the two precedessors in HD graphics, and more goody goodies
Devil May Cry 3 SE: Additional Boss, another playable character, more costumes, ported for PC, guranteed patch, open source hack
God of War Pandora's Box: well...you get the picture
Bad Special Edition:
Prince of Persia Trilogy SE: SoT,WW and T2T, unrendered, unpatched, no additional content, T2T still star forced and censored, just the same T2T- cover with blue colour.
I only buy SEs only if they are really worth the trouble, and companies should really consider to win the fans' favour.
It's always the matter where the SEs come from.
Sony and Capcom are really fan depended companies and always try to live with the main base's expections while Ubisoft, the CEOs full of Koticks, gives less than a fuck

You DO know 32 cards is a standard piquet deck, which is usually sold alongside typical 52 cards set, at least here in Czech Republic? Actually, in here, we use more the 32 deck than 52 :D

I'd rather they make special editions available after we know we like the game, not before. For example, if I had known that Alan Wake was going to be so amazingly awesome, I would've picked up the Special Edition for that. I think they should make packages available for people who already own a certain game but want to upgrade their copy.

Well, yeah, it's basically the same price as the standard edition which makes it a pretty sweet deal.

Instead of charging $30+ more for a box full of junk that will only take up space and collect dust. Just sell me a game in a jewel case and tell me where I can download a pdf manual for $20 less. That way I can buy two games instead of one.

This. Too often the "Special Edition" means "interviews with developers." Very few times have I even watched those, and the ones I have watched recently would be the Naughty Dog movies after the Uncharted games, and they didn't ask you to pay a premium for a special edition in order to see them.
95% of the time I just want the most inexpensive version I can get of the full game. I don't need extras. I used to by special editions all the time until I realized that I was finding it pointless. I think the last special editions I bought of any games were Perfect Dark Zero (pointless) and Halo 3 (the big packaging just annoyed me).
Scratch that... I bought the Mass Effect 2 special edition and proceeded to not use the armor that it came with.

Yeah, i still need to find a special edition upgrade for Dragon Age Origins :)

I like certain Special Editions, but I like it more when games just come with the stuff. Example, bought Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey for 10 bucks new and got the soundtrack. I was overjoyed since the games in the series have great music.

I think hands down my favorite Special Edition was the World in Conflict Collector's Edition which contained a piece of the Berlin Wall.
Other ones I enjoyed were the Jedi Outcast and Street Fighter IV.

I'm looking forward to Fallout New Vegas's special edition. The deck of cards is looking especially sweet.