Condition grades and how to store your video game collection

Every seller uses their own wording. For your inventory you want a fixed scale, applied the same way to everything:

Alongside the condition, note what the copy includes (loose, boxed, complete) and any detail that sets it apart: a name written in the manual, a price sticker, a replaced battery. On the blog we explain what to check on each item when describing it.

Ultraviolet radiation from the sun fades inks and yellows plastics. The first thing to go is the spines, which is exactly what is on show on a shelf. Indirect light does damage too: it just takes longer.

• Put your shelves away from windows, or protect the room with blackout curtains when the sun is on it.
• Display cabinets with the lights on all day rack up hours of exposure. If you use one, switch it on when you are looking at it, and preferably with LEDs, which give off hardly any ultraviolet.
• Anything you do not look at often is better off in closed boxes.

Paper and card absorb moisture: they warp, stick together and can develop stains. Heat softens plastics and warps boxes. What does the most damage is sudden change.

• Keep your games in a room in the house, not in a storage room, garage or loft that turns into an oven in summer.
• Aim for stable, moderate humidity, with no extremes. If you live somewhere damp, a cheap hygrometer and a few silica gel sachets inside your storage boxes help a lot; replace or regenerate them when they are saturated.
• Never directly on the floor or against an outside wall, which is where condensation forms.

Clear protectors prevent dented corners, scuffs and dust, and for cardboard boxes they are close to essential.

• Material. Look for PET (polyester) or polypropylene protectors. Avoid PVC for long-term storage: over time it can release substances that damage paper and inks.
• Thickness. For Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64 or Game Boy cardboard boxes, a rigid protector stops them getting crushed. For plastic cases, a thinner one against scuffs is enough.
• Size. It should fit snugly without squeezing. A protector that is too tight warps the box; one that is too big lets it move around and get knocked inside.
• Sealed games. A protector is the best defence for the original shrink-wrap, which splits when knocked and, once torn, no longer counts as sealed.

• Upright, like books. Stacked flat, the ones at the bottom carry the weight of all the others and end up crushed.
• Neither crammed in nor loose. A bookend at the end of each row stops them leaning without having to force them in.
• Manuals inside their box, but without folding them to make them fit. With cardboard boxes, nothing on top pressing down on them.
• No rubber bands or stickers. Rubber bands perish and leave marks; new stickers leave residue. When removing old price labels, go carefully: rubbing or using solvents can take the ink off the box.

Cartridges

• Many cartridges store saves in memory powered by a coin cell battery. Those batteries run down over the years and take the saves with them. Replacing one means opening the cartridge and soldering; if you do not know how, have it done for you.
• Clean the contacts with a cotton bud and isopropyl alcohol, letting it dry before inserting the cartridge. Blowing into a cartridge leaves moisture behind and, in the long run, encourages corrosion.

Discs

• Keep them in their case, hold them by the edge and the centre hole, and do not leave them face down on the table.
• To clean them, use a microfibre cloth in straight lines from the centre outwards, never in circles.
• Discs also degrade over time, especially with heat and humidity. Checking them now and then lets you catch problems early.

If you want a more hands-on rundown, the blog has how to store physical games step by step.