Analog angst

Being 40 years old, I've amassed a sizable collection of cassette tapes. In an ongoing process of digitally converting my old tunes, I've noticed something mortally depressing.
With many tapes in my collection at least - gulp - 25 years of age, I'm frequently finding that I open a cassette case to discover that the felt square in the cassette mechanism, where the tape meets the playback head of the cassette player, has disappeared, as if it somehow disintegrated. If it had just fallen off, I could glue it back in place. But nope, it's gone. Is it faulty manufacturing, leaving them in a hot/cold car, or the tape deck on my '01 Chevy Cavalier eating them (after 2003, cars with a tapedeck were dead as dinosaurs!)? I don't get it.
Call me old school, but I'm not a fan of having to buy an album (another antiquated notion) a second time. Digital downloads are OK, but it's not the same thing as holding the music - be it vinyl, cassette or CD - in my hands.
I'm the same way with newspapers - put it in my hand, so that it's tangible and real.