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playstationWhy PS Vita Collecting Starts With the Memory CardEvery Vita collector has the same origin story: the console arrives, a copy of Persona 4 Golden clicks into the card slot — and the screen asks for a memory card you don't own, that hasn't been manufactured in years, and that costs silly money for the storage it offers. Welcome aboard. The PlayStation Vita is the strangest collecting proposition Sony ever shipped: a commercial disappointment with a fanbase that treats it like a first love. The western physical library is small enough to feel fi
GamesHow to Tell a Genuinely Rare Retro Game From a Merely Expensive One"Rare" is the most abused word in a game listing. Here's how to tell genuine scarcity from a common game wearing an expensive word — before you pay the premium.
Condition & GradingBuying a Game Gear or Lynx? Check These Failure Points FirstPop the battery covers off a Sega Game Gear and sniff. That faint fishy smell is leaked electrolyte from failing capacitors — an amine odour every Game Gear tech knows — and it means the console in your hands is running on borrowed time, if it runs at all. Cartridge collecting is mostly about cosmetics. Classic handheld collecting is about the hardware itself, because on a Game Gear, an Atari Lynx or an early PSP, the shell can be showroom-clean while the inside is quietly dying. Here's how to