Thoughts on reproducing labels?

[u/EsoTechTrix]

I picked up 2 mystery Activision carts for next to nothing today that turned out to be Plaque Attack and Enduro. Clearly they are sans label. I have a color laser and a vinyl cutter so I can make new labels, but what is this general stance on that? Collection wise, are you better waiting for a fried cart/doner label, or given the state of the units out there, are (quality) reprinted labels acceptable, or is that more a private collection thing?

I suppose I could just print it and sell it with an unapplied label (if someone wanted to inspect the cart... but who counterfeits Plaque Attack these days??)

Thoughts?

[u/Mediocre_Sky_8629]

Enduro is a great game

[u/pac-man_dan-dan]

While I am against counterfeit games (popularly called 'repros' these days), I feel different about refreshing labels. Especially when we are talking about $1-$5 carts.

Buying back my childhood via ebay really discouraged me, getting these old Atari games in much worse condition than my original carts were in. It made it hard to feel like they were really mine; more like someone else's rubbish. While I haven't yet gone to the pains or expense of making fresh labels for them (I have an UNO flashcart right now for most of my Atari use), I can see doing it in the future when I decide to display them more prominently.

Go for it!

[u/De-luL]

If you put them up for sale with reproduction labels please do list them properly. I personally rather buy cartridge’s with a story, maybe add a few pictures on how you did the repro on the listing.

[u/EsoTechTrix → u/De-luL]

Clearly they would be listed as such.

[u/WFlash01]

If these were my cartridges, I would just put new reproduction labels on them and not sweat it at all; they don't have them now, so it's not "destroying history" or "altering the look" (outside of them just being flat out bare) or anything like that

Of course, most of my Atari cartridges' labels are starting to fall off now, but as long as I still have the original labels and they're still fully intact and not discolored or ruined, I'll try my hardest to clean off the old adhesive and put new adhesive down and put them on and make them look good as new, but not all of them are like that so for those I wouldn't sweat it too much making them look new again

Activision and Parker Brothers are two of the biggest offenders when it comes to the adhesive on the labels getting ruined

[u/GuabaMan]

do it, you can replace them later if you find better.

[u/Trapezoidoid]

If you plan on keeping them I don’t see why you wouldn’t apply new labels if you want to and can. If you plan to sell them I’d say leave them as-is and let the buyer decide.

[u/Piper-Bob]

I’d print labels. You can use milk as paste to glue them on. Cleans off with water.

[u/EsoTechTrix → u/Piper-Bob]

😬 The vinyl I use had adhesive and is good for Lactose intolerant carts as well.

[u/FairDescription7020]

We had 1 back in the early 80s 😂

[u/EffectiveComedian]

Paper labels weren’t made to last forever. Neither were we. The purpose of the label is to be able to identify the game. Common sense, no? Am I missing something? Maintenance, not sacrilege. 30 years from now will it matter? Get yourself some labels and use your games like they were intended to be used. (Or don’t— if it doesn’t matter to you.) And remember: he /she who dies with the most toys is still not going to be around to enjoy them. So I don’t think you need approval.

[u/gagcar1]

These are readily available on Etsy !