Hey there,
I had a tech talk about retrogaming on OG Hardware. We ended up with the point that discs, some GBA,(3ds) and Switch games just die and cannot be used anymore.
So i question what is the use in collecting then. Its basically dead money. Its not really a cheap Hobby.
What do you think about it?
Cartridges tend to be reliable in the long run as long as you avoid physical damage. Leaking save state batteries can be a problem there.
Optical discs do go bad just by aging in the box.
There’s another angle to this. A while back, Metal Jesus Rocks had a video about a Switch game that had an incorrect cover, and it was going to be corrected after the first production run was sold through. Which means it would be a collectors item.
He bought it, but had a “wtf am I doing?” moment afterwards. He didn’t care about the game beforehand. Its only value to him is that a manufacturer mistake would make it valuable to other collectors. Which is somewhat circular logic.
Makes sense. But what are the odds getting such?
I added this in an edit, but I don’t think it’s just about rare things. Having a collection of games that just sit on your shelf is silly. Which goes for a lot of other types of collecting, too.