Does eBay Care About Fakes?

[Tulpa | 3,506]

9 hours ago, Scubahustle said:

You make some great points about buyers being protected. The problem is, it goes beyond just harming the buyer and harms the hobby as a whole.

There's no shortage of things that harm the hobby as a whole. All those clickbait "UR MARIOZELDA GAMEZ WORTH MONIES!" articles cause people to think some beat up cartridge is worth the Mona Lisa and they throw it on the Bay with an insane BIN. Among other idiotic things.

We just have to educate people who are new to the hobby and hope for the best.

[fcgamer | 4,725]

5 hours ago, MrWunderful said:

Same as when they sell a game like an NES title for example, as “untested”, and they’re also selling multiple other video games and working Nintendo consoles. That one cracks me up. You know its a broken game. 

Oh? Is that so?

I can think of a million reasons why a scenario like the one you outlined above might exist, and none of them involve broken games. 

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

8 hours ago, fcgamer said:

Oh? Is that so?

I can think of a million reasons why a scenario like the one you outlined above might exist, and none of them involve broken games. 

Awesome man! You are number one best video game buyer!!!

[fcgamer | 4,725]

Just now, MrWunderful said:

Awesome man! You are number one best video game buyer!!!

I know! And you are number one unfortunate got scammed buyer? Or perhaps you weren't talking from experience, hahaha. Oh well.

[AirVillain | 490]

Used to report these all of the times. 

Still do but not looking around eBay as much.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

1 hour ago, fcgamer said:

I know! And you are number one unfortunate got scammed buyer? Or perhaps you weren't talking from experience, hahaha. Oh well.

Troll attempt unsuccessful!

 

[fcgamer | 4,725]

3 minutes ago, MrWunderful said:

Troll attempt unsuccessful!

 

Not a troll attempt, rather just different lifestyles I guess. 

I think I was scammed only once in 25 years of collecting, and that time had nothing to do with an item being sold as "untested" whilst other "tested" items of a similar kind were being sold, and I've bought tons of untested stuff over the years in similar circumstances and haven't had issues. 

Then again, it's probably a life perspective thing, I try to give people the benefit of the doubt.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

2 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

Not a troll attempt, rather just different lifestyles I guess. 

I think I was scammed only once in 25 years of collecting, and that time had nothing to do with an item being sold as "untested" whilst other "tested" items of a similar kind were being sold, and I've bought tons of untested stuff over the years in similar circumstances and haven't had issues. 

Then again, it's probably a life perspective thing, I try to give people the benefit of the doubt.

Im smart enough to not get scammed the first time   Plus I only buy high end now so not worried.

Appreciate you helping out the untested sellers though. Always looking out for the little guy!

[a3quit4s | 4,102]

1 minute ago, MrWunderful said:

Im smart enough to not get scammed the first time   Plus I only buy high end now so not worried.

Appreciate you helping out the untested sellers though. Always looking out for the little guy!

I’ve been scammed a couple times. I mean I buy a lot of shit on eBay. Or I was anyways. Buyer Protection hasn’t let me down yet. Just make sure you read the description because if it literally says the game is fake or a repro, you ain’t getting your money back

[SNESNESCUBE64 | 541]

I've had a lot less issues with untested video games. It is a little frustrating when the seller has, for example, plenty of "tested" nes games and "untested" ones also. It doesn't take a whole lot of time to hook up a console and turn it on. Granted I haven't been buying actual cartridges in quite some time now.

It also depends on which part of the hobby. For example, with arcade boards I treat untested as not working based on my experience. On top of that, there is a lot that can go wrong.

*ANYWAY*

Regarding whether or not ebay cares, I don't know if they COULD care. I severely doubt they have the expertise at their customer service. I'm also sure that one single report won't do much, you can't just take down someone's listing because one person says so, that leaves the opportunity for false positives. The best thing you can do is be smart about your purchases and do the research. There is no shortage of info.

[spacepup | 2,404]

Regarding the tested thing - I have run into the situation before where someone just had a ton of items and didn't want to spend the time testing, so sold as is.  And the prices reflected that.  

I'm sure there are others who intentionally sell broken stuff and say "untested" but I guess it just depends on the situation.

As for reporting to ebay, it's a noble endeavor but it certainly *feels* like wasted effort, because nothing seems to be done about it.  I think it's pretty clear by now based on the responses here, but feel free to report stuff, just don't expect much action to occur from it.

[fcgamer | 4,725]

12 minutes ago, spacepup said:

Regarding the tested thing - I have run into the situation before where someone just had a ton of items and didn't want to spend the time testing, so sold as is.  And the prices reflected that.  

This.

Let's be honest here, of the tens of thousands of (cartridge) games purchased over the years, what percentage were dead? Maybe a few if they used glob tops, or the arcade boards where there's a hundred chips that could go sour whilst sitting in a cab stored in a damp environment, but generally they're good. 

Could be you can't be assed to hook up the system, in my personal situation, I rarely play anything other than Famicom so I'm not going to take my N64 out of storage to hook it up to test a $5 game that most likely (statistically) will play. If it were a $1500 Atari game, I'd feel differently, given the age and price point. Gotta weigh the risk versus time versus money factor, I personally value my time at a rate that's likely much higher than plenty of the folks here, not to be condescending or anything, rather just based on the value the average person I run into places on his/her/their time.

Regarding @SNESNESCUBE64 and the arcade stuff: I've got some arcade boards, but I have nothing to test them with, and similarly don't have the knowledge (or space at the moment) to get the equipment to try to test them. I just bid or pay appropriately, and things almost always work out fine. 

[Link | 2,713]

19 minutes ago, SNESNESCUBE64 said:

Regarding whether or not ebay cares, I don't know if they COULD care. I severely doubt they have the expertise at their customer service. I'm also sure that one single report won't do much, you can't just take down someone's listing because one person says so, that leaves the opportunity for false positives.

That's true. One Hagane seller could report every listing but his. Of course, the company should recognize that pattern, but where is the line when it cones to user-generated content commerce?

[spacepup | 2,404]

What I will say, is that it's funny when someone says something like, the game is untested "because I don't have any way to test it" and then they are also selling the console in another listing.  That one does raise an eyebrow hah.

[fcgamer | 4,725]

29 minutes ago, MrWunderful said:

Plus I only buy high end now so not worried.

Yup, and every other person over here is driving a Mercedes or a Tesla. No offense, but the "high end" crap that you're purchasing has no interest to me at all.

[spacepup | 2,404]

I'm not sure what you two are bickering about but hopefully it doesn't keep going on - I mean, it's clear the two of you don't see eye to eye on pretty much anything.

As for the topic at hand, it certainly does feel frustrating with all the scamming and fakes out there.  It's equally frustrating when it feels like there is nothing you can do much to help the situation or fix it.  While it isn't 'fair,' one practical outcome is of course to try to help educate yourself and others to minimize being scammed.  Stinks that's the way things are though.

Fortunately, we have communities like this where people can help each other out and teach what to look for.  It's a little bit more effort, but working together we can hopefully prevent people from being misled or scammed as much as possible.

[fcgamer | 4,725]

1 minute ago, spacepup said:

What I will say, is that it's funny when someone says something like, the game is untested "because I don't have any way to test it" and then they are also selling the console in another listing.  That one does raise an eyebrow hah.

If it's a rare or a scrappy-looking cart, it raises a red flag perhaps, but I've been guilty of doing this myself at times with items. Again, low value + hassle to hook the item up (in my case it's always Sega MD or SFC - Sega lines and SFC machines full stop!) and I'd rather list as untested (despite knowing that from a percentage wise only 1-2% of non glob carts carts are truly dead), than fart around to give it a proper test. 

[spacepup | 2,404]

1 minute ago, fcgamer said:

If it's a rare or a scrappy-looking cart, it raises a red flag perhaps, but I've been guilty of doing this myself at times with items. Again, low value + hassle to hook the item up (in my case it's always Sega MD or SFC - Sega lines and SFC machines full stop!) and I'd rather list as untested (despite knowing that from a percentage wise only 1-2% of non glob carts carts are truly dead), than fart around to give it a proper test. 

I don't mind if someone lists untested.  My point is when they say it's untested and take the special effort to add a description about why they "can't" test it such as not having any way to do so, while also listing a bunch of consoles.  It doesn't matter to me all that much, just sorta odd they'd add that line in there.

[fcgamer | 4,725]

1 minute ago, spacepup said:

I'm not sure what you two are bickering about but hopefully it doesn't keep going on - I mean, it's clear the two of you don't see eye to eye on pretty much anything.

As for the topic at hand, it certainly does feel frustrating with all the scamming and fakes out there.  It's equally frustrating when it feels like there is nothing you can do much to help the situation or fix it.  While it isn't 'fair,' one practical outcome is of course to try to help educate yourself and others to minimize being scammed.  Stinks that's the way things are though.

I just prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to untested - I've been on both sides of the coin and in many cases, there isn't some sort of malicious play at works. There's a similar situation with Japanese auctions and scrap items or whatever they call them, where more times than not they work just fine. Maybe Corey is just trying to make a joke or be sarcastic or something, idk, but I personally don't feel such a negative view towards sellers (and by extension humanity) is necessary, especially when from my personal experience, it hasn't been the case, in 25+ years collecting.

Regarding the topic at hand: I got berated years ago on Nintendo Age for my stance on repros and sticker replacements and the whole thing, but everyone basically was ready to put me in a straightjacket and carry me away to the loony bin.

The whole situation with fakes really does suck, but that's personally why I try to look at any item I purchase from a larger viewpoint outside of the item at hand. Context is the key, which will likely aid in determining the legitimacy of the item.

[fcgamer | 4,725]

4 minutes ago, spacepup said:

I don't mind if someone lists untested.  My point is when they say it's untested and take the special effort to add a description about why they "can't" test it such as not having any way to do so, while also listing a bunch of consoles.  It doesn't matter to me all that much, just sorta odd they'd add that line in there.

True story: When I was a child, we had a yard sale and my father was selling some electronic device, maybe a boombox or something. My dad is the type who just wants to clear out clutter, he doesn't care much about whether he earns a quarter back or a dime, especially when it comes to yard sales. Anyways, he priced the item at $5, several people looked at it, even tested it, but passed it up, fearful as it was being sold quite cheap. Towards the end of the day he raised the price to $15, someone bought it.

Perception shapes peoples minds so often, no matter if it is the actuality of the situation or not.

[fcgamer | 4,725]

Just now, fcgamer said:

Perception shapes peoples minds so often, no matter if it is the actuality of the situation or not.

Which is why I suggest everyone get out there and try to interact with people from a myriad of ethnic / social / economical / linguistical backgrounds

[spacepup | 2,404]

I mean, to be fair, I don't often put much weight into the statements they make on either side.

I've encountered tons of listings that have a generic, mass-applied statement about how they thoroughly tested and cleaned the game inside and out, which was obvious BS as the item I received was broken and visibly horribly dirty.  I'm sure some people do clean and test all their games, but there are lots of large sellers out there who put a completely false generic statement about stuff just to make it sound good.

I don't necessarily view all sellers as malicious - I just have a healthy dose of skepticism with orders and know that each time is somewhat a gamble.  Usually it works out just fine, occasionally it doesn't.

 

[SNESNESCUBE64 | 541]

19 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

Regarding @SNESNESCUBE64 and the arcade stuff: I've got some arcade boards, but I have nothing to test them with, and similarly don't have the knowledge (or space at the moment) to get the equipment to try to test them. I just bid or pay appropriately, and things almost always work out fine. 

Circumstances are everything. It's hard to test everything especially considering games made before the adoption of Jamma. That is more acceptable to me. It takes a lot of effort ans time to build these test harnesses.

That is not the scenario I am talking about though. There are plenty sellers trying to sell jamma boards as untested but have other listings that are jamma that are tested. It is incredibly easy to test it and the people have the equipment in this scenario. And with as much money as people are charging for these boards, I feel like it should be a courtesy.

The thing about circuit boards, especially in the arcade and pinball world, is that a lot can go wrong. Unlike cartridges, the boards are exposed for the most part. Making it easy to them to be damaged via static or physically because people just throw them on piles. Plus these for the most part all came out of machines that were left on for extended periods. This isn't even accounting for other failures in the cabinet. Taito power supplies from the late 70s and early 80s for example have a bad reputation for taking out boards. I'm not trying to be a pessimist here. It's just what I've seen and experienced as a technician. Seldomly do I get untested boards that just work.

All I am saying with the boards is that it's just setting you up for disappointment to expect an untested board like this to work.

That said, I have been lucky before too! My Taito F3 board with Bubble Memories was an "untested special". It's just luck of the draw at that point.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

38 minutes ago, spacepup said:

I'm not sure what you two are bickering about but hopefully it doesn't keep going on - I mean, it's clear the two of you don't see eye to eye on pretty much anything.

As for the topic at hand, it certainly does feel frustrating with all the scamming and fakes out there.  It's equally frustrating when it feels like there is nothing you can do much to help the situation or fix it.  While it isn't 'fair,' one practical outcome is of course to try to help educate yourself and others to minimize being scammed.  Stinks that's the way things are though.

Fortunately, we have communities like this where people can help each other out and teach what to look for.  It's a little bit more effort, but working together we can hopefully prevent people from being misled or scammed as much as possible.

Why dont you read and see where it started, and take steps accordingly? I made a simple statement that didnt require a response. The trolling is painfully obvious, and its become to the point that no one does anything about it. 
 

 

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

41 minutes ago, spacepup said:

I don't mind if someone lists untested.  My point is when they say it's untested and take the special effort to add a description about why they "can't" test it such as not having any way to do so, while also listing a bunch of consoles.  It doesn't matter to me all that much, just sorta odd they'd add that line in there.

Thats the exact point im trying to make. I just stay away from those listings, I just pass them up and move on.