Assholes and bootleg GBA games on eBay

You all know how eBay is instantly strict on bootlegs and region free consoles right?

Well, it appears many of eBay sellers have been selling bootleg GBA games for a long, long time.

Just, how come nothing ever get's done?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Metroid-...t=AU_PC_Video_Games_Games&hash=item4624a62fbb

 

Some well made fakes can pass off as a real thing to all but the most untrained eye.

That, on the other hand, is a terrible fake.

 

I've reported a bunch of fake gba cartridges pointing out the obviousness to ebay. .. they are never taken down. Make sure you look very closely on somewhat expensive games. And if a seller is selling multiple copies of a somewhat rare game, stay away

 

Exactly, I reported a whole bunch too. Seems eBay are turning a blind eye. However modchips is like selling a weapon of mass destruction...

 

Ebay!=Logic
it's a bit like LeBonCoin, the french equivalent of Craiglist
sometime they don't accept your console/game for whatever reason and some other time you see people selling consoles with pirated games no problem :/

 

That gba bootleg seller even has the cart pictured in a yellowed case to make it look old. Terrible.

I wonder if bootleg carts are more prevalent in certain regions. That seller is based out of austrailia.

 

There have been a bunch of mother 3 english bootlegs on ebay recently ,but I don't see a problem with that(the maker of the patch might).

 

I've seen counterfeit GBA Doom 2 on ebay since forever.

 

I actually own a DOOM II GBA cart. That strikes me as an odd choice for counterfeiting. Am I missing something?

EDIT: Upon searching for a DOOM II GBA cart, this was the first result...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/301267519896?lpid=82

Especially since Google Shopping shows the CORRECT cart two results down, you'd think that would cause a red flag to arise. Also I had no idea a REAL cart by itself was selling for like $50. I didn't think it was that rare/sought after.

 

I don't know what it is about GBA games but there have been counterfeits on eBay for years. A friend of mine bought some thinking they were real and those were pretty damn convincing until you had them in your hands.

I remember having legit boxed copies of Windows 7 removed from auction because when it came out they gave it away for that "house party" offer. Someone assumed my copies were from that (not for resale) and eBay didn't question it. Relisted with more pictures of the packaging and the same thing happened within a day.

Don't know what it is about GBA carts specifically..

I can't remember how much retail GBA games cost here but the bootlegs were a lot cheaper so I imagine a lot of Aussies have them sitting around.

 

A friend of mine got taken for a ride too. The Pokemon games are a classic giveaway. They come in a complete series, all "new without boxes", there's a lot of sellers within Australia doing the same scam.
The fact is, the listings don't state they are reproductions either "just the sticker is different".

I usually don't see bootlegs say in a pawn shop, I sometimes see them but not as commonly as eBay. Quite a few people are switched on, but considering someone who buys games all the time got jabbed, I can't see why someone who doesn't would.

Oh and you should see the soldering work in these carts, they're so baaaad.

 

I've seen videos of a few opened up, and sometimes they're like glop tops, or have a ton of wires (I think that was an original GB cart though)

 

I wouldn't worry too much.

If you end up buying a counterfeit (which is against eBay rules), just file a claim w/eBay because you got sold pirated/bootleg items.

eBay will refund your $$$ and the seller will get a strike.

 

Because Ebay is selectively stupid

 

There are so many fakes out there its not really worth buying games from ebay unless there is a good quality image of the cart and you can see a 2-digit code pressed into the sticker. That seems to be the easiest way to tell.

A bunch of fakes I've received over the years from ebay (DK3 is a real cart): http://imgur.com/a/KBS4r

 

This has been going on for at least 10 years now... Listings for stuff like Pokemon Chaos Black had me scratching my head back in the Gamecube era.

Still, I must give proper credit to grey line eBay listings. Back in say, 2002, I was amazed that people were selling used Dreamcasts with discs that supposedly played NES and Sega Genesis games. Of course, these were just money-grubbing bastards making $$$ off of other people's work, but still.. It swayed me into learning about things like the homebrew/demo scene, mods, prototypes, game development, etc.

If I looked for a used Dreamcast on eBay -now- without any prior knowledge of anything, I would have ended up with a Dreamcast and nothing more.

 

I'm quite aware it has been going on a for a long time, I'm not making this out as a news flash.

It's just makes me so irate to see sellers like this getting aware with robbery basically. When people sell systems with modchips or region-free switches, not even with games or anything get their accounts taken away, paypal banned, the lot. However these twats can just keep selling and selling, scamming more and more people every day. They clearly turn a blind eye to sellers like this, just like how powersellers instantly win disputes...

 

Probably the easiest way to refrain from buying a counterfeit copy is to focus on EUR an JPN releases, since the majority of fakes have the US ESRB logo's on them.

 

A year or two ago I started actually paying attention to GBA stuff in local shops. I live in an extremely small rural town and every place had at least 1 bootleg. Flea market sellers, Goodwill, yard sales... I was honestly surprised how prevalent they were.

I agree 100% that anyone knowingly selling a counterfeit item and passing it off as genuine is a dick. However being that pirates are everywhere a lot of people probably honestly don't realize what they're selling. A guy selling 15 loose copies of Metroid Fusion is a dick, Grandma who owns a thrift store and sells porcelain angels and old lamps probably doesn't.

However, to play devil's advocate.... this is eBay we're talking about. The vast majority of buyers rarely even look at pictures and wouldn't read auction descriptions if their lives depended on it. I guarantee you if you put a pirate Pokemon cart on there and your description consisted of THIS IS A BOOTLEG in bold size 68 font some idiot would buy it then file a case against your ass. I can't tell you the number of times I've sold Japanese Mega Drive carts and when they arrive people are puzzled why they don't fit in their Genesis. I finally had to write multiple times in the description that it wouldn't work in a US Genesis. Now they prove their ignorance by sending me a message asking, "Will this game work in my US Genesis?".

It's not enough just to be clear and precise, you have to protect buyers from their own idiocy.

 

Ha, This reminds me... I found a Genesis Game Genie not too long ago, so I was finally able to try out that pirate multicart with Sonic 2 Beta on it that I bought from you around 3 years ago.

Safe to say it was worth the wait.