who am I to judge, I just don't get it.
And therein lies the problem. You just don't "get it", and sometimes things in life are not for everyone to "get". Collecting these games, for some of us, is actually more fun to do than to play them. I personally get my fun from both playing them, and collecting them in mint condition to preserve for my kids to enjoy and my kids kids to enjoy, so forth and so on. I want my kids to experience the same joys in life that I did as a kid, and if the games are completely fucked up, then they cannot experience what it is like to get a brand new NeoGeo cart like we did on day one when they were released. To smell that special Neo-Geo cart smell when they are brand new, to see that beautiful cart in that gorgeous huge fucking case with those awesome manuals that games no longer even have inside of them. To teach them how to handle something of worth, and to see their eyes light up when they play them for the first time as you show them how they compare to the other games of the same time and era. Collecting them in perfect condition has it's purpose, and for those that cannot "get it", I pity them. The Neo-Geo, for me at least, is something very special. It's more than just another game console, and it's more than just an arcade machine. It's an amazing piece of history that can and will never be replicated.
It is a time when Arcade machines reigned supreme, and there was but only one machine that was made to bring that experience home to play at a premium cost with all the bells and whistles that no other machine could match, and those games were outstanding, bringing full voice speech, and amazing use of colors. An incredible amount of sprites on screen, and a blazing fast 16 bit processor with two boards, each dedicated to doing different tasks at the same time. There were no loading times, and the games were talked about by everyone everywhere that played games. You could go to the Arcade and play them, save them on a memory card and take that save home and pick up where you left off. This was a time that was what I consider the greatest time in gaming history, and the only way to relive this, is through our children, giving them the same experience.
If you don't "get it", well then, do not hate on those that do. I feel we just are more enlightened than you are, and others that hate on collectors for no apparent reason. It's just not really warranted. That's my two cents anyway.
BAck on subject, does anyone here have some of these for sale that were sold by the original maker (Roger3rd), that your willing to part with? I feel his cases were the best made so far and I really love them for my AES carts.