Well I guess I should say it's not necessarily the hobby that's getting bad (except in terms of higher prices) but more the way that many newer folks in the community are acting. To me it's always about getting to play/replay fun games when I can. The goal is not always collecting, but having a library of titles that I want to play and enjoy.
Obviously I could just use CDRs and Everdrives for the whole thing and never need to "collect" anything but I suppose there's a fun aspect to being able to look through what I've got and decide on what to play for the evening and go from there instead of just scrolling through a ROM list. I can't say I'm not a collector (or collectard) as well either, who else out there has a complete Pico collection. But seeing the "professional collector" makes me envision a profiteer with no desire to even enjoy the games, just collect them and put them on shelves.
Also, picture from FB
Yeah, fair enough. As you know, I'm all about having original stuff. I love fondling boxes, reading manuals, etc.
I guess I mostly feel that way about TG16 stuff though, so I'm not too upset if I'll never afford all the SNES (or whatever) games I wish I had. I feel like, to me, the larger enjoyment is stuff I listed above. Those Atari games for the TG16 someone posted youtube vids of a few weeks ago far outweighs my inability to find Contra III for a reasonable price.
As for the pic, someone get that man a phone charger quick!