This is the reason I plunked down the bucks on the VKB Gunfighter stick. This will never happen. It's so well built (mostly metal) I can't imagine anything on it, other than maybe some wiring, EVER breaking. I think you'd have to drive over it or something! The wiring is easily repaired. They stand by their stuff and if anything does screw up they'll send you new parts. Even a whole PCB if need be. I once had something that was mis-wired. They walked me right thru troubleshooting the problem and correcting it. Pricey tho, for sure. The idea was to buy one stick that would likely last me the rest of my internet flying days. I'm a tools guy and I hate buying crappy tools that break after using them a couple of times(looking at you Harbor Freight!). Always kick myself for not getting the better tool. Tools are expensive. Don't want to go broke replacing them all the time either. Same thing.
I had two CH sticks over the years. One was a gameport model that was still working but had to be replaced with a USB model when gameport went the way of the dinosaur. The USB one was starting to have the buttons and hats give out. Had a lot of miles on them for sure but also had to tear them down to clean or replace the pots (which are semi-hard to come by) and also re-seat the wires fairly often to avoid the jitters. I never actually broke anything on them. Good stuff in it's day and affordable but QC, as I understand, it has fallen off dramatically so it might be a crap shoot buying a CH these days. Never had a Logitech stick but from what I gather from the forums around the net, they're fairly fragile/disposable/entry level stuff. Something breaking on them is almost to be expected.
