My mom's old pizza stone cracked last winter and I grabbed a plain unglazed tile from Lowe's for about $4 to get through the holidays. What made the real difference for me was flipping the oven rack upside down so the tile sits right on the metal, no gaps, and letting it heat a full 45 minutes past the preheat beep. The tile holds heat like crazy once it's fully soaked and my loaves stopped coming out pale on the bottom. I also stopped opening the oven to peek for the first 20 minutes, which kept the steam in and gave me a way better crust. Cheap tile honestly beat every fancy stone I've owned, and when it finally cracks I just drive down the road and buy another one. You are 100 percent right that price has nothing to do with how good the bake turns out.

Oh man, I feel this one in my bones. I bought a box of 100 sleeves for my SNES boxes two years ago and then just... never used them, so now I have a shelf of sad saggy boxes AND a box of sleeves judging me every time I open the closet. The plastic degrading in low light thing got me too, I always thought dark and cool was the safe zone for everything. My one real fail was a cardboard box that got damp in a basement, and now I lean toward sleeves and flattening just because water and bugs are the bigger threat where I live. Keeping cases original is nice for the art, but saving half the shelf space is hard to argue with once you run out of room.