I ended up buying several inexpensive 55w vamo style chips because I can live with out the tc. Nice to have but not essential to me. I've never actually modded before, but Its within my capabilities and after talking electronic storage with a few techy people I came to the conclusion chips might have a longer shelf life than the entire mod. I still think the entire mods could last a long while though. One thing I kept hearing repeatedly was protecting them from static though, it was mentioned more often than humidity even. I'm unsure of the logistics of protecting a mod from static however.
Like I said I'm an odd duck though and took a bit of a different strategy