[help] Castlevania Double Pack GBA Fake?

[Hobie-wan]

Hmm hadn't thought that deeply into it. I just thought of the old description from ST TNG where if you have the schematic on file it just replicates junk out of nothing because the pattern emitter just made tangible stuff out of a molecular schematic basically. If you actually had to feed the replicator something to get something then yes cash would be involved there to get that stuff one way or another.

Well even if we go with it being some technology being able to reorganize atoms or atomic particles into stuff, you'd still need the atoms to use. You can't create matter from nothing. So whether that means it would take raw carbon and make you a diamond, or if it could take protons, electrons, and neutrons from a pile of paper and food trash and make that diamond, it would still require the bits to do so. So matter would still have value, perhaps at the element content of your stuff, perhaps the partical content. In both cases things made of densely packed molecules or heavy elements would be worth more.

/nerd

Anyway, fake carts!

[Tanooki]

HAH any fake carts indeed. Good discussion though. I don't remember the whole deal behind the nerd trek science on that. Perhaps it just used the most common of elements I have no idea.

You know on the whole fake GBA carts, I've actually run into a case where stuff is but isn't a fake. It comes down to unlicensed and unauthorized stuff using what should be pirate parts to make a legit project. I own one of the only 300 made copies of QWAK! for the GBA. That thing is as pirate as they come, yet it is legit and it's organized by the original maker of Amiga/Atari ST Qwak who converted it to GBA. It has a label over a label and I think I can make out some chinese print under it.

See for yourself, click for a big image.

[Beak]

So here's the update.

I opened a counterfeit case with eBay. They told me to return it and pay shipping. I called eBay and they said I could elevate the case on the 8th online. They lied and I could not elevate it. I then called and they said I need to return the item to get a refund. So basically, I'm out the cost of shipping it and the time spent (probably 2-3 hours messing with it). As I told the eBay rep, this guy can knowingly sell fake items on eBay with little or no recourse. Because I guarantee as soon as he gets this cart he's going to resell it.

F*** eBay. Seriously. Buyer Protection my a**.

[ninjainspandex]

Well that is fucked. Its sad seeing all that guys feedback, so many people not knowing they are buying fakes. Make sure to leave him a steaming one.

[ExedExes]

Well that is fucked. Its sad seeing all that guys feedback, so many people not knowing they are buying fakes. Make sure to leave him a steaming one.

^^ THIS ^^

Thanks for the update, even if it isn't the right way to deal with it.

[DeM0nFiRe]

I believe I've received a fake copy of the castlevania double pack, and since this seemed to be the most comprehensive discussion I could find on it and since it's less than 2 weeks old, I decided to try posting here.

My question is what should I do about it? Is there a reason why I shouldn't keep it? I know that sometimes there can be problems, like saves getting deleted, but that is usually due to battery powered backup, right? The board in mine looks like the board in the OP's, no battery. Other than the possibility that it might malfunction, is there any other reason I should return it?

I just want to play the game, and don't want to go through the hassle that the OP described, and if I am going to have to pay return shipping it's not even worth it as far as money goes.

The other part of the question is if anyone knows if there's any way other than going through their normal dispute resolution (I expect the seller would do the same as the OP described, say "sure, I'll accept a return, pay the return shipping") to alert ebay to the matter? I saw they had a couple reviews saying the game was fake, but clearly that hasn't stopped them. They have 6 other games currently listed that have at least one of the signs that made me believe the one I have is fake.

I will also describe here what makes me believe it's fake and what had me initially convinced it wasn't fake before I found this thread, as I think it's significantly more convincing than any of the other fakes I've read about:

Why I think it's fake:

• The font where it says "Gameboy advance" at the top of the front is a little bit thinner and more raised than on all my other GBA carts.
• The ESRB rating is slightly different from the rating on another T rated GBA game I have. The T is thinner and takes up less of the white space, plus there's some sort of mark next to the T that isn't on my other T rated game.
• The cart is a bit thicker and a bit taller than all my other games. Just enough so that it's a noticable tighter fit in the slot, and it's barely not flush with the edge of the gba sp (this is the first thing I noticed and why I first started looking to see if it was fake)
• The board inside matches the one in the OP of this thread
• No "3d brick" as described by hobie-wan

Why I was initially convinced it wasn't fake before I found this thread:

• Back of cart matches all the real carts I have, and doesn't have any of the common signs of fake. Has the right model no., nintendo logo looks right, says pat pend made in japan. Also has a triwing screw as real carts have
• Has the right image on the label of the cart.
• Has the right serial AGB-BXKE-USA on the front of the cart
• Has a number stamped into the label
• Has no battery. (Funny enough, while trying to find out if this was fake, I opened up my Metroid Fusion cart to compare and it did have a battery, so I thought maybe my Metroid Fusion was fake. Then I looked it up and found out it's supposed to have a battery.
• Board has white lettering similar to on the Metroid Fusion cart I looked at (as I said, it's the same board as the OP, so you can see what the lettering looked like in those pictures)

[Hobie-wan]

Well, I'd say it's fake based off the shell not quite being right with the lettering, size, no brick mark inside, and the board matching the OPs. I've never had a 1st party made Nintendo cart anything that wasn't perfectly the right size as far as the shell goes.

I'd say if it was sold to you as a real thing, then that should be addressed so they aren't sold as legitimate things. I can understand just wanting to keep it if it works and saves and avoid the hassle, but it should be on terms that you know what you're getting before purchase. If you can get some consideration like a partial refund and the seller doesn't sell others as legit (if they have more or other carts) then that might not be the ideal, but at least a somewhat acceptable resolution.

[DeM0nFiRe]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm sure it's fake just based on those few things I listed as well, I just included the other list of things that made it seem real just because it's interesting/concerning how many things were done "right".

As for the seller, the seller has over 1,400 sales and has sold a bunch of copies of the same games, so it's not like it's some random guy who bought the game, decided he didn't want it anymore, and then sold it not knowing they were fake. It seems like it's someone who knows that he is selling fake games. All of the games he currently has on sale seem to have the same lettering as the cart I have, at least. If he does know that he is selling fake games, then he probably also knows that someone will eventually find out and probably has a plan for dealing with that, so I don't want to directly message him and give him any opportunity to weasel out of it (for example, as the OP described, that seller offered the refund, and apparently that was enough for ebay to go no further with the matter).

And yeah, if I knew it was fake I wouldn't have bought it. Now that I know it's fake, I don't want to go through the hassle of returning it, plus the additional delay of waiting to play the game. The problem, though, is I am sure there are a lot of people who never even find out that they are buying fakes. If possible, the ideal solution would be for him to stop being able to sell fake games. I doubt "hey can you please stop selling fake games" is going to work.

So the question is, is there anything else I can do? Like the OP, I am unable to find any way to contact ebay directly and explain the situation. Closest thing would be to go through the dispute resolution system, which I don't want to do, because I want to avoid contact with the seller.

EDIT: I also took another look at ebay's pages on how they investigate issues, and it says "Out of fairness to our members, if a complaint can't be proven, we don't act." how could I prove that it's fake? I would think in a situation like this the only way to prove it would be for Nintendo to say it's fake. Should I perhaps report it to Nintendo, and then just leave it up to Nintendo to decide what to do?

[Hobie-wan]

Per the other member that wasn't lazy like me and provided a picture of the inside of the cart, you can see also that the right chip has the code (same as the label) of the game on it. This has always been the case back to NES games, barring the few legit glob top ones. You could point that out and refer to this thread when contacting ebay. If the seller has sold lots of copies of the same games over and over in the past, all loose carts, that leads creedence to the alert.

[DeM0nFiRe]

Yeah, mine has no game serial at all on the board itself. The problem is I don't really have a way to contact ebay. Their dispute resolution center assumes that there's an unintentional problem and gives the seller a chance to correct a problem for a single item. That wouldn't work in this case, unless all I cared about was getting a refund (which if that was all I cared about, I would just drop it as the individual situation not important enough to me). I don't understand why ebay doesn't have a way to contact them directly about a seller with counterfeit items, it surely happens often enough to warrant it.