Dealing with High Quality Counterfeits in Collecting

[noahvanderhoff | 16]

I've recently gotten back into collecting SNES games again after selling off nearly my whole collection in 2016 to help pay off our mortgage.  Naively thought 2016 was peak value for SNES, and I could just buy everything back later if I wanted to.

Well, now I have the urge to buy everything back, however, I'm looking at eBay listings and even local listings and Facebook groups.  There are high-quality counterfeits EVERYWHERE.  

The collecting community has always been a bit split on repros, but for the most part if it's clearly labelled reproduction (especially for games that were never released, or translation patches) I've always been ok with it (ex. Timewalk Games releases). However, these are full-on COUNTERFEIT games, not reproductions, and they are done extremely well.  The eBay listings don't even mention reproduction and other than the circuit board look absolutely identical.

How is everyone else dealing with this?  You can't ask every seller to open a snes shell and send a pic of the board, most casual sellers won't know how to do it.  Only buying from sellers that will do this really limits buying options.

What about local pickups?  Flea-markets, yardsales, pawnshops - you can't trust any cart you see in the wild.  Do I have to bring a security-bit with me everywhere I go?  Even then I won't have PCB pictures for each game ready to examine.

This is a much bigger hassle than it used to be and it's honestly turning me off collecting for SNES which is just really disappointing as I was excited to get back into it.

Again, this isn't a new discussion, but it seems to me it's a much worse problem than it used to be, eBay obviously doesn't care as they are still getting all those sweet transactions fees on each sale.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

If someone wont show you a board, its a fake. 
 

You absolutely CAN ask for anyone to show you clear pics, and board pics. 
 

If one is hoping to get 100$+ a game, then they should be happy to show you. 
 

if I asked for clear pics and they said no, Im 100% moving on. 
 

If its too good to be true, then it is. 

[captmorgandrinker | 1,651]

9 minutes ago, MrWunderful said:

If someone wont show you a board, its a fake. 
 

You absolutely CAN ask for anyone to show you clear pics, and board pics. 
 

If one is hoping to get 100$+ a game, then they should be happy to show you. 
 

if I asked for clear pics and they said no, Im 100% moving on. 
 

If its too good to be true, then it is. 

^^^^That.

If I'm selling a $10 game on ebay, probably not gonna bother with opening it.   Anything $20 and up, if the buyer wants to see a board I'll get the bit out and open 'er up.

[noahvanderhoff | 16]

7 minutes ago, captmorgandrinker said:

^^^^That.

If I'm selling a $10 game on ebay, probably not gonna bother with opening it.   Anything $20 and up, if the buyer wants to see a board I'll get the bit out and open 'er up.

Yea, fair point.  I agree with this for higher value games.  It makes it really hard to find a "deal" anywhere though.  You're going to have to build out the entire collection paying full market prices.  Takes a bit of the fun out of it to never snag a deal in the wild or on eBay.  I don't mean it has to be a 'steal', but I've always found most of my below-market value eBay finds are from "general" sellers that don't specialize specifically in video games.

Locally, say there's a $20 Super Metroid listed on craigslist/kijiji.  If you message them saying "show me a pic of the board" they're going to ignore you and sell it to the next person.  If you take the risk and just buy it, it might be a counterfeit.  It's just a risk I guess that you have to take.  But with so many counterfeits out there now, at least compared to what I used to see, the risk is a lot higher.  Probably lots of you have a few of them in your collections right now without even knowing it.

[Tulpa | 3,556]

Whenever something has the potential to make a lot of money for comparatively little effort, you're going to get shitheads taking advantage of the situation. It is what it is.

Do what you can to avoid getting ripped off. If you can't get a board pic, walk away. Try out forums like this one or social media, where people will oblige with a picture.

 

Hey, no one forced you into game collecting, right?

[noahvanderhoff | 16]

12 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

Whenever something has the potential to make a lot of money for comparatively little effort, you're going to get shitheads taking advantage of the situation. It is what it is.

Do what you can to avoid getting ripped off. If you can't get a board pic, walk away. Try out forums like this one or social media, where people will oblige with a picture.

 

Hey, no one forced you into game collecting, right?

Yea, I'm just venting   Like I said, this was always a problem I'm just shocked at how many high-quality counterfeits are out there now being mass-manufactured.  Used to be an NA thread for pointing out and reporting anyone even selling repros on eBay; that would be next to impossible now.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

Ebay makes money off it, so they dont care unless its a very valuable IP like disney or something. 
 

And you might be about 10 years too late to find “deals”, especially online. Be ok with retail, or hit the garage sales, craigslist and thrift shops and hope to find something in that vast overpriced wasteland. 

[fcgamer | 4,777]

Don't buy it unless there's wear on it.

Counterfeiters generally make pristine, minty fakes. Never seen a guy make a fake and then add sun fading, or other damage to it.

Minty fresh = not good, natural wear and it's likely real.

[noahvanderhoff | 16]

7 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

Don't buy it unless there's wear on it.

Counterfeiters generally make pristine, minty fakes. Never seen a guy make a fake and then add sun fading, or other damage to it.

Minty fresh = not good, natural wear and it's likely real.

This is a really good point.

[koifish | 561]

Definitely buy and carry gamebits with you. Really, there should be a keychain sold that has a 3.8, 4.5, and triwing on it, each one just a bit with a hole drilled through the base for a keychain to go through. I know I'd buy one.

It's just not worth your time to mess around with fakes. If a seller in the wild won't let you open up a cart, and won't offer to do it for you, then why waste your money and time on them? I especially maintain tight ship rules for random sellers, as you can't just find them later to get a return/refund like you can on ebay or at a brick-and-mortar store.

 

[LeatherRebel5150 | 1,062]

3 hours ago, noahvanderhoff said:

Probably lots of you have a few of them in your collections right now without even knowing it.

Did you not open the games when you collected them? Every game that comes through my hands gets opened just to get cleaned. It’s glaringly obvious when you see a fake board. I was surprised to hear anyone didn’t immediately open games when they got them back in like 2012 let alone now

[tidaldreams | 654]

Counterfeits - yes, high quality - not sure about this one 

[tidaldreams | 654]

3 hours ago, noahvanderhoff said:

Locally, say there's a $20 Super Metroid listed on craigslist/kijiji.  If you message them saying "show me a pic of the board" they're going to ignore you and sell it to the next person.  If you take the risk and just buy it, it might be a counterfeit.  It's just a risk I guess that you have to take.  But with so many counterfeits out there now, at least compared to what I used to see, the risk is a lot higher.  Probably lots of you have a few of them in your collections right now without even knowing it.

Very doubtful.

[noahvanderhoff | 16]

18 minutes ago, tidaldreams said:

Very doubtful.

Maybe doubtful in your collection, but it is highly likely there are repros on new collector's shelves without them realizing it.

[noahvanderhoff | 16]

41 minutes ago, LeatherRebel5150 said:

Did you not open the games when you collected them? Every game that comes through my hands gets opened just to get cleaned. It’s glaringly obvious when you see a fake board. I was surprised to hear anyone didn’t immediately open games when they got them back in like 2012 let alone now

I will now for sure   Back when I was collecting before I wouldn't unless there was something suspicious about the case/label.

[YOURTURN | 1,257]

5 minutes ago, noahvanderhoff said:

Maybe doubtful in your collection, but it is highly likely there are repros on new collector's shelves without them realizing it.

 

[inasuma | 1,207]

obligatory pokemon fake post

[Brickman | 4,055]

I’ve noticed it too. I don’t collect US games but every now and then I’ll look stuff up and be surprised at how many fakes are around these days.

Some people probably are innocent and don’t even realise they’ve been scammed.

I open every SFC game I get these days just to be sure, so far so good but it really takes the fun out of collecting knowing you could be scammed at any moment because they’re getting pretty good.

Board pics are a must for any game over $80 for me now, unless I know the seller.

[tidaldreams | 654]

I mean, there are plenty of telltale signs you can look for even without opening the cart. For example, I've yet to see a fake cartridge that has the numbers imprinted on the label.

I've seen a fake Chrono Trigger that had "Made in Mexico" on the front and "Made in Japan" on the back. I mean c'mon that's like attention to detail 101.

[Tanooki | 4,957]

These days when I buy an old game I tend to just buy from somewhere with a return policy so I really don't care.  If they don't have one, such as a flea market, the price better be so low I really don't care.  If it's a meet up say like with facebook I bring a kit with me, it's not hard taking one minute to crack something open.  I did that just recently on something I got in a cart, they didn't care in the least bit despite them knowing it was real.

I don't mind it at all there are basically 1:1 copies out there.  Keeps you on your toes and as they get more and more prolific who knows, maybe it'll damage these high cost shenanigans and drive off the investor types enough to reset the market before they fouled up things for us older players who got into it for the fun, not to buy investment property.   I mean it could happen, if their risk gets too high being drowned out by $20 copies of their $200 inflated product they can no longer move, that'll be the point.

[Naked Warrior | 288]

If you're buying games off eBay, as long as you read the listing and make sure it doesn't explicitly say "repro" or "custom" or [insert whatever nice sounding thing they are using for "fake"], you can always return them...I haven't bought a ton of SNES games off of eBay, but I bought boatloads of GBA games...and sometimes the pics were just blurry enough for me to not identify the warning signs...I'd call them out, send pics of the boards, they'd fight sometimes, but 80% of the time they either take the bootleg back or just say - "You take it."  I actually kind of miss the fight...I always would start with, "Your listing did not mention this game was a reproduction." and I had a guy once who was like, "Yeah, but I didn't say it was AUTHENTIC either!"    His defense did not hold up in eBay court...

Ebay will side with the buyer 100% of the time in a situation like this (and practically every situation)

Edited July 9, 2021 by Naked Warrior
Addition

[a3quit4s | 4,131]

If someone is selling a $20 game on eBay that can easily sell for 3x that, it's fake. If you can post an item on ebay you can surely look up how much it should cost. Also I find setting the location from default to US only takes out alot of the fakes that originate from China. 

I mirror @fcgamer as well. I'm not super high on condition so I stray from ones that look brand new. 

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,020]

Just become a *New Collector* and don't care if it's real or fake. 

 

A game is a game am I right guys? (sarcasm)

But what you really do is pay the going rate to reputable sellers or you risk getting fucked over. If you're out here trying to save a couple dollars then go for auctions or best offers on ebay. If you're trying to go through CL or FB like it's 2016, you're setting yourself up to get scammed eventually. 

My recommendation is always the same though, pay the going rate, or slightly below or get back on the side lines. The days of big local scores popping up even monthly are basically gone. The market is spread so thin and the majority of people who possess old games are collectors or enthusist that know their worth. Your best bet may be buying an entire collection if you want to rebuild your own.

The reality of the current landscape is a deal is an $80 game for $65 shipped. Or a $150 game for $120 shipped. If the deal is too good to be true, it's bc it fake or a scam. 

[Tanooki | 4,957]

Very true about that majority of the deals are gone other than like 20% off these days outside of luck, or buying a collection at such a bigger dollar amount the per-game value really makes it special but that big hit is right there up front too.

But hey sarcasm as it may be, in the end, actually a game is just a game.  People will buy, download, or whatever they want in the format they're most comfortable with for both price(or no price) vs convenience.  That'll be real deal, 1:1 copy, clearly fake copy, warezy behavior and emulators/pi box stuff.  Whining about it, getting ugly about it, just being a-holes about it is nothing but self serving and ultimately in the end, a waste of time and your life.

[Gentlegamer | 174]

The real solution: don't collect. The bootlegs are out there because butter monsters bid up all the prices which attracts the scammers.