Really bad fake CIB Little Samson on Ebay

[Ninja Warriors | 95]

Already has 36 bids.  Terrible fake.

 

Little Samson (Nintendo Entertainment System, 1992) Complete CIB 451034560396 | eBay

[Ninja Warriors | 95]

It must be the rare “Litlle Samson” spelling on the top label.  Unbelievable!!

[DefaultGen | 5,967]

Uhhh, is this a store in West Virginia (Gaming Paradise)?? I sure hope that's someone pretending to be that store and not the store itself. Based on the no returns disclaimer they clearly know it's fake.

[Ninja Warriors | 95]

13 minutes ago, DefaultGen said:

Uhhh, is this a store in West Virginia (Gaming Paradise)?? I sure hope that's someone pretending to be that store and not the store itself. Based on the no returns disclaimer they clearly know it's fake.

I sent them a message that it is fake.  Time will tell if they take down the item.

[DefaultGen | 5,967]

What video game store even has a no returns policy? Shouldn't the benefit of buying from a retail establishment and not XxRetroTreasures420xX be that a store has a reputation to maintain and would stand behind what they sell?

[Khromak | 837]

It's definitely a store, they list their address and info all over their Ebay page. They should be ashamed of themselves for taking in this obvious fake and certainly not trying to pass it off like this. Is the cart real? It's hard to tell because the chips in the pics are so dark, the printing isn't very clear.

[Khromak | 837]

Wow, they took it down?

[imthomas | 43]

I wanted to help the bidders, so I threw this at him and he must have taken it down.

[Ninja Warriors | 95]

He responded back to me as well claiming the board and everything else is real, when in fact everything appeared fake.  At least they took it down.  Good job everyone!

[guitarzombie | 960]

The board isn't real either.

[3rdStrongestMole | 461]

Yeah the board was the first thing I noticed.  Can't believe I didn't catch the "Litlle" on first glance

[Code Monkey | 2,242]

It's cool he went through the trouble to trademark Litlle Samson. That's dedication to your craft.

[AdamW | 714]

2 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

What video game store even has a no returns policy? Shouldn't the benefit of buying from a retail establishment and not XxRetroTreasures420xX be that a store has a reputation to maintain and would stand behind what they sell?

Hey, I'll have you know we here at XxRetroTreasures420xX Enterprises have standards! We'd be embarrassed to try and palm off such an obvious fake. All our fakes go through two rounds of spellchecking before ever making it to eBay.

[Hybrid | 450]

I was tagged on Facebook about this very cart it was taken down before I had a chance to look at it

[Sumez | 3,218]

8 hours ago, Ninja Warriors said:

He responded back to me as well claiming the board and everything else is real, when in fact everything appeared fake.  At least they took it down.  Good job everyone!

They're gonna try to sell it again elsewhere no doubt

[a3quit4s | 4,543]

VGS Fraud Department saves the day again. 

[GPX | 1,444]

I’ve checked his other eBay inventory - seems to be all comics. Perhaps a comic collector trying to cash in on the gaming craze, with shifty repro selling tactics?

[ThePhleo | 2,309]

Hey, maybe it’s a variant! Afterall, Electrobrain couldn’t be bothered to write “Elimonator” properly for Eliminator Boat Duel!

[the_wizard_666 | 1,365]

Okay, the manual looks too good to be true, and while the label is definitely fake, I can't see what's wrong with the board, other than not being able to see the print on the mask ROMs (which is not uncommon either...I have seen some where the info is almost completely worn off).  The box also is a bit tough to tell either way.  Someone want to let me know what exactly is wrong here?

[imthomas | 43]

Full disclosure - I am less than a beginner with NES boards.

But just from looking at it,

- I'd wonder why the print on the mask ROMs are completely worn (and from what you CAN see, it doesn't align with a typical print as it includes the Winbond logo/print) while the rest of the board is spotless. If he wanted to show the ROM chip ID number, he could have managed a better picture.

- I'm not sure I've ever seen that manufacturer's capacitor on these boards.

But someone else would have to jump in since I'm not familiar with authenticating NES chips.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,365]

9 minutes ago, imthomas said:

Full disclosure - I am less than a beginner with NES boards.

But just from looking at it,

- I'd wonder why the print on the mask ROMs are completely worn (and from what you CAN see, it doesn't align with a typical print as it includes the Winbond logo/print) while the rest of the board is spotless. If he wanted to show the ROM chip ID number, he could have managed a better picture.

- I'm not sure I've ever seen that manufacturer's capacitor on these boards.

But someone else would have to jump in since I'm not familiar with authenticating NES chips.

Components for the boards, including caps, diodes, resistors, and chips, would've been sourced from wherever they were cheapest at the time.  Thus even in the same print run parts could be from different manufacturers.  If the parts weren't available at the time, then yeah, that's a problem, but if they WERE something you could get at the time the cart was made, there's no way to exclude the possibility.  Even the faded print on the chips isn't unheard of.  I've seen it on otherwise mint looking boards.  I'd be more worried about them putting one board in the pic and another in the cart than I would be about the board pictured.

[GPX | 1,444]

41 minutes ago, the_wizard_666 said:

Okay, the manual looks too good to be true, and while the label is definitely fake, I can't see what's wrong with the board, other than not being able to see the print on the mask ROMs (which is not uncommon either...I have seen some where the info is almost completely worn off).  The box also is a bit tough to tell either way.  Someone want to let me know what exactly is wrong here?

Cart label dodgy with error in spelling. The box also appears to be a repro (a very good repro). I don’t collect a NTSC Nes, so cant comment on the cart’s authenticity. Overall a mint looking game with dodgy aspects that have been highlighted on this thread, and the seller claiming “no returns” make it look highly suspicious.

Finally, him taking down the listing is likely an admission that he knows it’s fake. Regardless of what components are real or fake, when selling high end items, you should allow return of items if proven fake when sold as “legit”. 

[the_wizard_666 | 1,365]

Looking a bit closer too, it seems that this board has an MMC3B mapper chip, but Little Samson uses an MMC3C on legit copies.  My guess is that it's not the board you would receive if you were dumb enough to buy it.  There's no reason this title would ever use an MMC3B chip unless it's a repro or a completely different game.

[Ninja Warriors | 95]

1 hour ago, the_wizard_666 said:

Okay, the manual looks too good to be true, and while the label is definitely fake, I can't see what's wrong with the board, other than not being able to see the print on the mask ROMs (which is not uncommon either...I have seen some where the info is almost completely worn off).  The box also is a bit tough to tell either way.  Someone want to let me know what exactly is wrong here?

The board does not match pictures of known boards and there is no visible code on the chips that compare to known authentic copies.

The cardboard on the inside of the box is white instead of off white.  Also, all authentic boxes that I have seen contain chipping along the inside of the lid.

[3rdStrongestMole | 461]

Back of the box is off a bit. That green bar along the left side looks whack.