Collecting sealed, where batteries are concerned...

Myrddin

HI folks,

Like many of use here, I have a handful of sealed items in my collection that for whatever reason, I'd rather leave sealed. Normally, this is fine & there are no long term concerns about doing this. However, I've one or two things that have batteries in the box that got me thinking of the risks. I've a sealed Skyward Sword Ltd Edition for example, which comes with the soundtrack, the gold wiimote & game. As far as I remember, there are two AA batteries in the box as standard. Lately I'm wondering about the longevity of these batteries, & if eventually they'll leak & ruin the whole lot.

I've also a sealed 3DS that I picked up. While there is nothing inherently collectable about a 3DS, there's just no point in opening it at this stage, so I may leave it be. Again though, there are battery concerns. Is the internal battery in this 3DS likely to swell up & burst in time, as seen with some of the NoS PSP's found a while back (Atavan got one that was ready to pop if memory serves). Am I better off opening the above, & just removing the batteries? Or is there no immediate danger?

Steve X2

I'd say there is no immediate danger of anything happening. But, a battery is a battery and the chemicals will at some stage in the future(10, 20, 30 years or sooner if you are unlucky) leak out.

Andrew76

If the reason they are staying sealed is just incase you sell them on at a premium at a later date, then leave them sealed. Else open them and take out the batteries to give you peace of mind. That's my take on it anyway.

Myrddin

Andrew76 wrote: »

If the reason they are staying sealed is just incase you sell them on at a premium at a later date, then leave them sealed. Else open them and take out the batteries to give you peace of mind. That's my take on it anyway.

Well that's the whole gamble isn't it, I wouldn't be considering the resale value of the goods really, just I think it's interesting to have a handful of things still sealed in a collection. But at what point do you open them, to ensure they don't get ruined

CathalDublin

I don't think you'd be in any danger of the DS battery leaking any time soon, it's a li-ion battery, I've some of these which are well over 10 years old sitting in a drawer from old nokias/DS/etc and never leaked anything, I think the only issue with swelling would due to over charging them.
The double A's on the other hand......................

The Last Bandit

AA batteries should not be installed in new devices when shipped, they'll still leak over time but corrosive crap might hopefully only damage the packaging material.

Myrddin

CathalDublin wrote: »

I don't think you'd be in any danger of the DS battery leaking any time soon, it's a li-ion battery, I've some of these which are well over 10 years old sitting in a drawer from old nokias/DS/etc and never leaked anything, I think the only issue with swelling would due to over charging them.
The double A's on the other hand......................

Didn't the PSP have the li-ion battery too? I remember seeing picks of the new old stock from Dundrum there a while back & it looked ready to pop.

The Last Bandit wrote: »

AA batteries should not be installed in new devices when shipped, they'll still leak over time but corrosive crap might hopefully only damage the packaging material.

Yeah I think the AA's are in their own little packet, not installed in the controller or anything. I just have visions of a big acid shaped stain on the box that'll ruin the thing

CathalDublin

Myrddin wrote: »

Didn't the PSP have the li-ion battery too? I remember seeing picks of the new old stock from Dundrum there a while back & it looked ready to pop.

Oh yea I remember seeing them too:eek:, I wonder does it matter how they are stored, I guess it could be luck of the draw so.
I worked fixing phones for a good few years and always thought the only reason for swollen batteries was overcharging, I've NOS iPhone 3G batteries there which must be 6-7years old at this stage and never swelled at all.

aha found something about bulging batteries:eek: here
http://www.pukspeed.com/2014/07/replace-my-bulged-xolo-q700-battery.html

penev10

Aren't AA batteries normally sealed in plastic when they come in the box? Should be grand if that's the case.

Star Lord

The AA batteries normally have a band of plastic round them, with the sides exposed if memory serves correctly.

STG.Otaku

Sure it's sort of the same thing for software and hardware in general too.

At some stage floppy disks (of all types) will rot, demagnetise, spoil, decay and so on (good website here: http://diskpreservation.com/). Compact discs, Laserdiscs etc will rot. Tapes will demagnetise and rot. Capacitors die, IC's cease manufacture and so on...

For the few games I have left, I just store all mine in tubs and chuck in a few packs of silica gel to keep them cheeky. Best thing to do is just rip open the seals and get playing!

Myrddin

STG.Otaku wrote: »

Best thing to do is just rip open the seals and get playing!

I'd have doubles of all this stuff, so it's not as if I've a shelf of sealed games & no way to play them. Part of the appeal is having a few sealed goodies, so I'm just looking for advice on how to preserve the ones with batteries inside

CathalDublin

On the subject of batteries, did anyone read this?
Such a simple fix which I would imagine will be becoming more and more of an issue in the future
http://www.geek.com/news/toyota-dealer-wanted-4400-to-repair-hybrid-battery-fix-turned-out-to-cost-10-1616007/

o1s1n

It really all boils down to your motivations.

Do you want to keep them in your collection, sealed forever? Then technically it doesn't matter if the contents are destroyed by batteries as you'd never know. You can just assume they're safe.

Do you want to resell them sealed at a later point in the future? Similar to the above, you can assume they're fine, the buyer will too. We take that chance when buying any sealed item.

Lastly, do you want to keep them in your collection but open them at a later point? (maybe 20-30 years?) this is the one where you need to be concerned about the contents. However, nothing really lasts forever anyway, so that's a gamble you'd just have to take.

Either way, only open them up if you intend to open them up. Otherwise leave em pristine

Myrddin

o1s1n wrote: »

It really all boils down to your motivations.

Do you want to keep them in your collection, sealed forever? Then technically it doesn't matter if the contents are destroyed by batteries as you'd never know. You can just assume they're safe.

Probably this one, but you never know. Assuming they're safe is fine, but battery acid and cardboard don't really mix too well. I'd imagine, in the event of a battery leaking, there's going to be some external evidence of this. That's what would concern me most. The innards being ruined is one thing, but out of sight out of mind. In the case of the box being stained or damaged as a result of acid though, makes this an option I'm not comfortable gambling on.

Do you want to resell them sealed at a later point in the future? Similar to the above, you can assume they're fine, the buyer will too. We take that chance when buying any sealed item.

Probably not this, I don't sell stuff from my collection very often. If I do, it's usually doubles. I might secretly enjoy knowing the value of certain sealed items is high, & rises with time, but at the end of the day I couldn't envisage selling sealed items for profit. I just enjoy having them I guess. Even at that, I've only a few sealed bits & pieces, nothing major, oddities more than anything. I've a sealed Final Fantasy VIII for example, that I bought from new with the intent of playing. I never got around to it, and by now, it'd seem a shame to open it just to play it given I've another copy of the game buried somewhere.

Lastly, do you want to keep them in your collection but open them at a later point? (maybe 20-30 years?) this is the one where you need to be concerned about the contents. However, nothing really lasts forever anyway, so that's a gamble you'd just have to take.

Probably not this either. The longer something lasts as sealed, the less likely I am to open it really. Again, I've doubles of the sealed things so I'm not missing out. I've usually just managed to have sealed games by just not getting around to playing them

moonlighting

I have had 2 items damaged from batteries. 1. game boy with aa batteries left in. Caused a chemical reaction over time where the batteries connect to the game boy connectors. same with Nokia 3210. batteries can corrode overtime when connected to other metals. some batteries also might leak over time.
leakage causes white stuff and battery bulges, corrosion causes green stains.
I remove all batteries from my collection except for small 3v battery's that store game save data. they seem OK for the most part.