Mass production of FAKE Gold Famicom Cartridges?

As a Famicom collector I search for rare Famicom games, but lately I'm finding a suspicios increase of auctions with those gold carts.

I want to discuss here with other experts if they agree with me they are fake or not.

I've found several fake Rockman 4 Gold Catridges on Yahoo, lately I'm finding a lot of DB Z and DB Z II Jump Victory Festival which I think are fake too.

For example, the user pekinda9 in yahoo sold time ago this DBZ Gold:



And now is selling another one here (206.000 y at the moment I'm writing this, auction here: http://page18.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/w60949406)



I also find very suspicious colections like the one that the user Ryo shows in Famicomworld.com; he got a lot of extremely rare gold carts in a week or two (you can read the threat here: http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=1092.90)



Gold Gundam Hot Scramble? K'mon...

Probably some of you remember the guy who sold to a member of this forums a SFC Yam Yam Gold (here: http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20641&highlight=tetris+medadrive)

I'm 99% positive those are fake, because the look of the gold covering, the silver sticker, etc. What do you think?

Other Gold carts I've seen lately, by the user sasasada789 (not sure if they are legit or not):






One I think is original (from Tengokugame.free.fr)



Seems like the silver sticker is different from the ones that pekinda9 sold.


I intend to make a list of fake gold cartridge sellers, and maybe some FAQ to detect fakes, so any help will be appreciated, you know, detailed pics of legit ones, like the ones in superpotato or so, other auctions, etc.

 

I'd enjoy some repro gold carts of crazy rare carts, but "repro" should be very clearly written on it, just like repro rifles, or soft air guns.

 

Agree with you about the "repro" watermark, but those are made with the intention to seem real.

There is someone that today spent +3000$ in a fake game :/

so sad.

 

To tell if a gold cart is a repro or not it would be good to see high definition pics of the cart and label to compare them(without the baggie) and there are other factors like the light, camera flash and and and.

 

I'm no expert but surely, in order to make a 'fake' cart, you would need the original cart to copy. On top of that you would need the facilities to make the cart in question...

We're not talking about a cd (or vinyl, even) we're talking about a sturdy plastic shell that has to equal all the measurements of the original (perfectly) to fool the buyer.

Does anyone really have the time, patience, and more importantly, access to the tools to make such a thing? (and the wad of cash to buy the original!)

I remain skeptical but I'll be happy if someone can prove me wrong!

 

It's math, really. Yes, buying a $3000 cart is expensive. Yes, making a mould costs. But once that is done, it's cheap to make copies. Selling 10 carts easily breaks even.

 

You are wrong, those are fake and are easily done. You can buy the ordinary DBZ cartridge, do an electrolitic gold bath and voilà. Well maybe you have to make an sticker in some of those gold cartridges, but no big deal.

 

Yes. In fact, you don't even need an original, just a regular famicom cart. Plus high resolution photos of the original box and/or insert.

 

There's definitely a difference in the colour of the manuals between the two pictures, they have a pinkish hue that isn't on the 'original'. The same can be said of Ryo's picture, the manuals is definitely pinker than the one pictured in the tengokugame picture.

Can anyone confirm the true colour of the original manuals?

 

I think from the pictures they look real, at least for me. I think many collectors of them might have bought more than one over time, for many reasons like condition or completeness for example.

To see them many times, I think Dragon Ball Z II: Gekishin Freeza!! 91 Jump Victory Festival Memorial Version is limited 1,000 pieces. And I think the number '90 for Dragon Ball Z: Kyoushuu! Saiyajin '90 Limited Edition is of year 1990, not number of pieces like people say. Because of this to see them a few times each year I think is not suspicious.

I think the gold colour can look different from picture to picture because of lighting, reflectiveness of them and things like that.

I think also, user sasasada789 is a not-for-sale collector (S rank collector I think) and would not sell fake ones. It is my belief he would not do that.

 

Limited to 90 and 100 copies each, not 1000.

Maybe he does not know those are fake. Those carts are rarely seen, and in 4 month I've seen like 15 - 20 different on auction, sorry but I don't believe it.

 

'90 = a year, as in 1990. The apostrophe is not used in reference to how many of something in terms of quantity exist.

Beyond that I can't say.

 

Where do those numbers come from, if you are so sure? I said "I think".

Do you have a leaflet or maybe an article from the different Jump magazines from that time?

I just haven't seen a Japanese collector talk of those numbers before, just a belief it would be no more than 1,000.

And if you take them from http://tengokugame.free.fr/ like you did the only picture you said is real, well I think so many things are wrong there it would be difficult for me to accept them.

Edit: I forgot to say too the auction that ended today was from a Dragon Ball collector.

http://pekindbz.blog90.fc2.com/blog-entry-214.html

 

+1
tengokugame is full of mistake
lists flash point as the second rarest megadrive release or primal rage as the rarest US 32x release (which is funny as I clearly remember sending him the picture myself, picture coming from anagrama's auction years ago)
the site seems warped six years ago lol

 

I know he is a DB collector (and?), I did my research before because I want to buy the game by myself, so I found he sold another of those gold carts 2 month ago.

Those are fake, like a Rockman gold that was sold in 2010. BTW I dont want to turn this threat into a "how many of this exist" althought it's interesting. I want to warn and to discuss if someone agrees with the fact that those games are a fake.

I mean, any of you search for those games frecuently? If so, haven't you noticed a huge increase of those gold carts in yahoo? Do you see something wrong in the silver sticker? and in the gold itself?

 

Well, from pictures I can't agree with you. But I think if you tell us what it is exactly about the silver sticker or gold colour that makes you think this, then maybe it will help.

I think in Ryo collection picture, you can see how lighting, cassettes with bag, reflectiveness of items can give different look in gold colour I think.

I think if you research lots, it is thought a gold version of Kidou Senshi Z Gundam: Hot Scramble Final Version might exist now. I just believe not everything has been discovered or documented. I think Sega Mega Drive Vampire Killer present cassettes (limited 5 pieces) were just like that before.

Number is important because of belief in rarity of them, and maybe can help to explain how often you see things for sale or at auction.

 

I don't want to sound like a smartass but are you familiar with those gold carts and/or do you collect/have any? I do, and several times fakes has been found and proved as a fake. That happened in this forum too, you can read the link I post before, where a fake gold SFC Yam Yam was sold: http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20641&highlight=tetris+medadrive

I own a legit MD Tetris and I know there are at leat 100 fake copies made using the scans of Sega Ages for PS, and without good quality photos you cannot tell if they are fake or true.

Some people are trying to sell those Tetris as originals, I got mails every 1 or 2 month of collectors asking for help before buying a Tetris (all have been fake until today)

Neo Geo AES fakes are on market from years, like those MS, or PCE Sapphire, etc. Now there are gold FC cartridges, a lot. I just want to warn the collectors that are interested on those, because chances are those games are fake.

 

Do you have an original Tetris?
I ask as I have seen loads of pictures of so called real Tetris but never any pictures of the inside of the booklet!!

 

All of the pictures I have seen the booklets look fake to me

 

I do have it.