segaThe Sega Saturn Rewards Knowledge, Not Deep PocketsPick up a Japanese Saturn game in a second-hand shop and watch what the collector next to you checks first. Not the disc. Not the manual. The spine card — the slim paper strip hugging the left edge of the jewel case. If it's gone, the price conversation changes on the spot.
No other console trains habits like that, because no other console's collecting culture runs so completely through Japan. The Saturn sold well at home and stumbled everywhere else, and three decades on, that split defines th