Ritualistic Collecting

I've been looking for a portable Walkman cassette player on and off for the last few years, whenever I'm reminded that the evils of wage labor have rewarded me with the joy of eating delivery pizzas without needing to skip meals. I have an eBay search with the models I'm most enamored with bookmarked, and I've decided my budget is some $500. Cassettes were my favourite medium for music as a kid, but it's been some 25 years since I popped one into a cassette player and heard the whir of gears and belts spinning, or heard the mechanical click that would prompt me to rewind. When I was in undergrad, I collected games — mostly PlayStation 1 and 2 and Gameboy — and I occasionally add to that collection. Those games adorn my shelves and desk even now. Unfortunately, COVID ruined that. Games that sold millions of copies and could be found for $5-10 ten years ago are now considered collectors items and sell for 30 or more. My collection is still missing some of my favourites — games that I…