/vr/ - Retro Games

As I get older I see the cost of living and the cost of luxuries both rising in a way my salary sure as hell doesn't.
With everything about video games blowing up in price, from "I know what I have!" types demanding $50 for their copy of Super Mario Bros + Duckhunt on the NES, to Sony trying to charge more for PS+ while raising the RRP on new copies of PS5 games, its getting bleak.

If you want to collect stuff that can't be emulated or reproduced, what type of things should one be looking for? Because games are just data (not that we shouldn't be archiving them too with Nintendo and Sony being the anti-conservation crusaders they are) but that differs from a controller which is a physical object you need if no one makes a half decent clone (eg. N64), or a console with a bunch of esoteric chips inside (also N64).
I don't care about missing out on Metal Warriors or Hagane, I worry about missing out on carts like Warioware Twisted or Kirby Pinball. This might just be my FOMO, but what important artifacts are uncommon enough today that they're going to become unobtainable tomorrow?

Is there a half-decent alternative to the Hori GameBoy Player pad for GameCube?
Those things are like $200 on eBay.

The only other thing available seems to be those raphnet SNES pad adapters, which apparently add a frame of lag.