Does a cartridge that has been in storage for an extended period need play time…

I regularly wake up my cartridges by playing bands 2a,b, and c, of the original Cardas test LP. (The latest version does this at 45 rpm on side 1.) if that doesn’t help, you may have a problem with suspension. On the other hand, I own many 30+ year old cartridges and all but one have had no problem.

recommended overhang is determind by your tonearm ,

when I was using my sonata and master I had to raise the tonearm 

to keep the correct VTA .

The cartridge cantilever suspension is subject to perishing over time and it makes no difference if stored or played. Sometimes it gets harder and less flexible, sometimes it turns to a soft goo and the cantilever all but collapses.

Different materials are used by various manufacturers and some last considerably longer than others.

I've had pretty good luck with the wood body cartridges from Grado- I've had them last about 5 years so far. 

Atmasphere, Your experience runs counter to mine. One can never know if a cartridge we like in the present might have sounded even better when it was fresh out of manufacture, so I certainly would not claim that suspensions do not degrade over time. But nearly all but one or two of my cartridges is at least 5 years old, typically more like 20-30 years old, and only once have I found that the sound quality seriously degraded over time. This was for a Grado TLZ that I purchased new back in the 80s and used to like quite a bit. It was my only cartridge for a few years back then. These days it no longer sounds even "good"; I don’t use it. Otherwise, I’ve had no issues that I can knowingly ascribe to suspension degradation, given the point I made above, that we can’t know how any "old" cartridge sounded when truly new.

“recommended overhang is determind by your tonearm”

Thanks, I learn something new everyday.  I have overhang dialed in now and it altered/improved the sound.

Thanks again.