Air kills cartridges?

A bit extreme don't you think? Packing them in their original container and making sure a small bag of fresh silica gel is in there should be enough. The rubber will degrade with age just like we do. How long are you planning on keeping these carts?

If anyone was advocating a storage medium, it would probably be sealed in a gas-tight container filled with an inert gas like nitrogen. This could most easily be done at home using one of those wine preservative aerosol sprays that are likely mostly nitrogen. I have no idea how effective this is, but if you are planning on storing a cart for a long time it couldn't hurt and would be pretty cheap.

Sic transit gloria mundi! No matter if humans, nations, planets, cartridges.....

Appropriate ending for this thread.