Sealed game collectors beware!

**Yakumo** · 01-19-2008

I recently came across a crate of sealed games for the Saturn and Dreamcast via a good friend. The games all came from various game stores that were getting rid of over stocks.

Now being the type of guy who likes to see games in motion I proceeded to open them to see what they were like. True enough most were crap as expected but what I didn't find to expect was white mold spots on three of the discs. 1 Dreamcast game and 2 Saturn games were effected out of 60 odd discs. Luckily the mold cleaned off with glasses cleaning fluid I use to clean all my discs. The worrying thing is has the mold effected the discs so much that it will re-appear? Then I though about all those collectors who keep everything sealed. It's possible that some of your games may contain mold as well!

I guess CD printing factories are not as sterile as I though.

Yakumo

**karsten** · 01-19-2008

if the mold is on the surface of the disc, no problem yak!

**ave** · 01-19-2008

And I believe nobody would ever care if the disc of a sealed akiyama jin is molded to death or clean like mr proper as no sealed collector will ever open his purchases!

Not very nice to think about though.

**Yakumo** · 01-19-2008

Originally Posted by karsten

if the mold is on the surface of the disc, no problem yak!

Phew, that's good to hear. Yes, the mold was on the disc surface. The Dreamcast disc looked as if it had cracks on it but again these wipped away after a rubdown withthe cleaning fluid.

Yakumo

**kendrick** · 01-19-2008

Mold and fungus is pretty common on older stocks of music CDs as well. I'm sure you've read that this is a problem with CDR disks, as it will eat away at the printed surface and cause data loss. Fortunately, this isn't generally an issue with minted disks and GD-ROMs.

I've taken to getting some packets of that silica gel dessicant and putting it in with the boxes where I store certain important media. You can generally order these from numismatist suppliers. Coin collectors, I should say.

**Bert Hardy** · 01-20-2008

I used silica gel when I left the UK to live in US (I left stuff in storage in UK and threw a few sachets into every box).

Best place to buy it is in storage places, it's cheap there.

You can buy off ebay but you never know if its used or not.

Apparently there's some gel you can buy which changes colour and hence you know how good it is.

**kendrick** · 01-20-2008

The stuff you get from coin collector suppliers is reusable. It changes color when it absorbs enough moisture, and then you can throw it in the oven for an hour and dry it out again. Handy stuff, but wash your hands after you handle it. I use a little toaster oven so I don't accidentally get this into any food.

**Yakumo** · 01-20-2008

I think I'll get a few packs of them silica balls. In Japan we have really nasty humidity in summer so I normally use these big container things that have silica in the top with an empty space in the bottom to collect the water. It's amazing just how much water these things can collect in a week. The problem with these things is that they are far too big to fit in a games draw jam packed with discs.

Yakumo

**retro** · 01-26-2008

Good idea, Yakumo! If it's moist, get yer balls out! :lol:

I take it you mean silica gel? Damn, those balls get everywhere if the bag splits!

It is one of those things, really. As mentioned, people want to keep these games sealed and would never open them. It's like wine - there's an awful lot of wine out there worth an awful lot of money. If you were stupid enough to open it, it would become worthless, and taste like shit! Probably just vinegar now.

As for CDs in general, it would matter if the mould attacked the surface, or particularly if it got between the layers of the disc... hence CD-Rs being particularly susceptible.

Most photographers will recognise the spores growing in a lens, known as fungus. It can be cleaned, but this is costly as it involves stripping the lens (obviously, you couldn't do this to a CD!). It can eat into the glass if left to develop.