I'm sorry, but "much" of the CD and DVD media purchased from the 90s on is cracking? That's not even close to accurate. I have many CDs from the dawn of audio compact discs in the 80s and none of them are brittle and cracking as you describe. While there are certainly examples of CDs and other optical media that go bad over the years (and there are plenty of sites that list the well known culprit discs as they tended to be from particular print runs or batches), there are also plenty of cartridges that have gone bad. My point was that none of this stuff was designed to last for decades and certainly with many game cartridges now pushing 40 years old, it's unlikely that sticking them in a plastic shell (which has air holes by the way if you're talking about a VGA case) is going to somehow preserve them forever. Air pollution, moisture and humidity, light, odor, mold, vermin and all manner of other factors destroy plastic, paper and cardboard over time. Similarly, very few people are having loose cartridges graded. In fact, I don't even think VGA will do that unless the game was originally sold that way.

I could care less about the argument regarding games being just for playing. People are free to collect games in whatever way they want. Some people derive enjoyment and nostalgia from owning sealed games. That's cool. Some people want to play their games and have no interest in boxes or instructions. That's cool too. None of that changes the fact that every one of these cartridges and discs will fail at some point regardless of whether you stick them in a plastic case or not.

Quote Originally Posted by stardust4ever View Post
I beg to differ with you about the longevity of cartridges. The original NES and SNES carts will still be around long after the Wii/GC/Xbox/PS discs are old and so brittle that you cannot remove it from the case without cracking the disc. Atari 2600 carts from the 1977 launch still work, and the gray plastic of NES caes are just as robust. PCB boards are known to last even longer. Some of the earliest PCB components and logic chips ever manufactured still work. Same with transistor radios. Much of the CD and DVD media purchased even from as late as the 90s are already developing cracks around the spindle. these hairline cracks will slowly grow over time, even without handling, and once they reach the silver data layer, the disc will be rendered unreadable. So it is quite likely that the original game cartridges will outlast your latest Xbox360, Wii, and PS3 games. In 2050, all current gen games will be yellowed, cracked, cloudy plastic and entirely unplayable, yet retail NES carts (not protos) will continue work. Ever seen 30-year-old plexiglass? It's so yellow and cloudy you can't see through it. CDs, DVDs will be the same way.

What I don't agree with about the VGA philosophy is sealing off the carts so that they cannot be played, and collecting for display or preservation only. Yes, opening and playing will devalue a sealed game, but not loose carts. While one could argue that action figures, etc are meant to be played with as well, with video games, it's all about the data on the cart; the box, manual, and cart label are just the icing on the cake. As an interactive media, it just doesn't make sense not to play them. It makes me wonder if video game collecting is at a similar state as baseball cards were in 1990. People used to pay huge amounts of money for trading cards, but now the hobby is mostly bust, and all but the rarest and oldest of cards have deflated in value the past ten years.

I'm surprize with the economy the way it is, more people aren't selling off their collections. Most vintage collectables have devalued with the failing economy, yet NES collecting seems to be the one genre that has bucked the trend and gone up instead of down.

EDIT: Nobody bought it. Go figure. Do it he right way and re-list it with a 99 cent minimum, and let the bid wars commence. For a BIN, $17,000 is a fair price, NOT $27,000!