Good news everyone!
I received captainscott's Super Mario RPG cartridge today, gave it a once over and it boots up each and every time. Pop it out, pop it in, flip the switch and she lives. Played it through past the point where my old Super Mario RPG cart would freeze and it kept on going. Seems part of the problem is a solder joint somewhere, I didn't take the time to test each individual point out of the 100 or so that are on these PCBs.
Us: 1
Landfill: 0