Reproduction, counterfiet and illegal sales of videogames.

[videogamenerd13]

Hi there,

As a lifelong collector of video games, comic books and other oddities I am getting severely angered at the amount of illegal counterfeit goods being sold on eBay. We all know where the majority of these are manufactured, good old China, and there are tons of American sellers selling illegal products. It's pretty huge as they're using intellectual properties from Marvel, Nintendo, Sega and Capcom and it goes down the list. 

I see listings for pretty much every rare game that exist and scary part is they're starting to look almost spot on and it seems like fakes are being harder to tell from the real deal, especially when discs are concerned. I think Sega CD are probably the easiest to counterfeit from what I have researched and  I am so scared that I've ended up with a FAKE $800 copy of Snatcher, truly close to "like new" that was purchased many years ago........Recently I came across an ebay listing of a snatcher disc that had the manufacturing etching on it!!!!! I believe it came from sellers on etsy that sell high quality fakes all day!!! This is beyond crazy because typically that's the only way you can tell a fake from a real is the manufacturing etching!

So what's my $800 game worth now? Is there any  way to prove its even real? As a lifelong collector who started working in a video game store I actually have no answer because I couldn't find any information online to distinguish the difference between the two, the high grade fake vs real.... Look the same, almost exactly. I consider myself expert level in identifying authentic video games and I am duped on this. 

I am terrified how much monetary loss I will have within my collection due to counterfeits tanking the market if counterfeiters are allowed to perfect their art.

Quick example (I reported all the fakes of Marvel versus Capcom for Dreamcast that I could find so may have been taken down 1/9/2021) but still look it up as an example to see how many counterfeits are being sold.

I personally believe intellectual property rip off should never be tolerated in the first place (you are ripping off starving artist or the corporation that bought them) and unless a seller can provide proof that they have a contract with Marvel or Sega or Capcom to distribute Marvel versus Capcom for Sega Dreamcast they shouldn't be allowed to put up mass listings (selling 100s of copies) of illegal listings.

eBay should put like a check at the end before listing is finalized specifying is this authentic? And it should be followed with: if it is not, this is illegal and you could fall to US law and intellectual property rights. BAM!!!! problem solved and actually have the FBI follow up with any sales. 

I understand the need of the video game community wanting to archive games for their own personal sake, I truly get it.... the internet's going to disappear and how are you going to have all the information if you don't have it somewhere readily available, well knock it off and stop selling illegal and reproducing, just keep your illegal ROMs on your PC and keep them away from us!!!! Stop selling reproductions pretending to be saviour to the community.

Get lost, it's illegal. 

I am trying to build a coalition of authentic game collectors who don't want to stand for this. I only really look at comic books, video games and statues on eBay and understand they have a large service to monitor and I've been told over and over the only way is to report items. Well I figure between the FBI and if I can get enough people working together we can probably put a stop to this by just reporting them daily. Anyone interested in helping me monitor all of the illegal videogame goods on eBay??? 

I honestly believe that people selling them should be tracked down and the people they sold them to should be tracked down and those should be taken away from those people and removed from the market since they are highly illegal. And furthermore any individual practicing illegal activities that fall under the American law should face the severest penalties possible for doing this.

A very concerned collector, 

Tre 

[nocoolnamejane]

As much as I love eBay for a lot of other purchases, sometimes, some items just “outgrow” the platform.

A similar thing happened with records. When I started eBaying back in 99, the vinyl revival hadn’t started yet. I believe it was in part propelled by eBay/Internet selling because all of a sudden you could search one place and have access to hundreds of listings for older records that usually were disperse among thousands of classified in the back of music magazines.

One very sought after record at the time, Nirvana’s first ever single Love Buzz/Big Cheese was actually accessible back then. But as many collectors got on the internet buying bandwagon, prices went up and fakes started to appear. Information on how to spot the real thing was scarce and the market was flooded by copies.

But at the time, eBay was one of the only places an individual could post an item for sale and get worldwide exposure. Nowadays, I doubt anyone would think of purchasing it on eBay as many websites specialized in records have become better alternatives.

While eBay may still be a good source to sell common games you aren’t interested in anymore and not get puny GameStop prices, maybe it isn’t the best place for rare/old collectible games anymore?

[angwjea]

the funny thing about baseball cards they where worthless 30 years ago before the fakes 

[coolections]

I feel for you but it happens in most rare collectable categories. All you can do is feel good knowing that you are selling the real deal and your buyers will be happy. Those fake sellers will eventually be booted from Ebay with several snads and unhappy buyers. It will also show in their feedback. If they are from China and other scam countries most buyers already know it is too good to be true and will stay away.

[Anonymous]

I know this is a semi old post but I'm going to slap this out anyway. I recently ordered a game online hoping against all odds it was real, alas it was not. It also fell apart with a little bit of a tug. And the seller

1. Told me that they didn't know it was fake. (Sure yeah I'll def believe that *not)

2. Told me they removed it from eBay listings

3. asked me to remove my review which stated all of the points of a fake ds game, because and I quote, "they don't want the negative review to affect them in a negative way" 

Uh naw man, you're stuck with that review. The fact that they didn't post the actual image of the game but instead a standard image taken from the internet tells me otherwise. 

[toysaver]

The only thing worth collecting is money.

[simba6]

That is a common problem will most mass produced "collectables".   Used to be people got them for free off ROM sites.

[videogamenerd13]

Most listing I see are blatant reproductions and listed as so. The people making those illegal copies do not own the rights and therefore shouldn't be ripping off other people's intellectual properties.

Pretty sure when people say what they're selling is fake at least something could be done about that? Sheeesh. 

[videogamenerd13]

Totally agree with you. The most I ever get is some lip service from an ebay concierge and even if I report a listing that states it's a reproduction, nothing is done about it.

I love how some of the people that responded to me on here even think it's okay to sell fakes because that's part of what a collectibles are!?!  lol..... I get it but as a site that sells many collectibles they should stand behind some source/standing of credibility.

[videogamenerd13]

That's a bummer! Hearing other people's responses about how many other collectibles and other items are faked on top of military items?!? This is crazy to me that this is allowed on such a large scale. 

I do know a lot about collectibles and I do know how to spot a fake and I always do ask questions but some of them are getting so close to the real thing it's really hard to tell. Unfortunately when asking: a lot of humans do what humans do; lie/cheat/steal/want something for nothing and only tell you what you want to hear. 

Unfortunately a lot of these items are getting hard to find anywhere else other than eBay or at auctions for unbelievable prices but I do try to look elsewhere. I really do! I've actually cut back on buying from eBay probably over 85% from what I used to.

[videogamenerd13]

Yeah most of what you say is probably true. Harsh but true. I actually did file a couple reports of the FBI because that's who you're supposed to contact in these situations and I also contacted Nintendo and I think Nintendo does do something but FBI does nothing...... I understand the FBI is quite busy nowadays and probably don't have time to spend on video games. 

And I should be in charge of tracking these people down on some kind of TV show like dog the bounty Hunter, lol, I joke I joke. 

[videogamenerd13]

I really wish there'd be some penalty for companies who allow this. Amazon and eBay are horrid at for allowing this.

[videogamenerd13]

For some reason I was just notified that many people responded to my post, lol, but like you said I think there are many other places to sell rare games now. Since collectibles have blown up over the last year due to covid seems many people are seeking legitimate high-grade collectibles and on top of that many authentication/grading services have been made available as well as places to auction off and sell games. 

Totally agree with you!

[videogamenerd13]

Such a bummer that it does happen on such a large scale but since I've stopped buying so much product it really doesn't burn me near as much anymore and I think you're exactly right. I should just be happy and proud knowing that I'm selling legitimate stuff and who cares what other people are doing, even though they are lame people and they suck for being fakers, haha. 

[videogamenerd13]

Good for you! I applaud you did not taking your review down. I have also been asked to modify and change my reviews and I have not in the past. 

Ended up getting into some pretty good arguments with some people as well.

It's such a bummer and such a waste of time when you're a real person buying from someone fake. 

[nuclearomen]

I don't (or rarely) sell video games disks anymore, too easy to claim INAD, I do sell mostly steelbooks only, but not the reproduction "custom" ones, but the official/original ones provided with special editions. I'm not totally up on bootlegged video games from china/japan... but there are a lot of non-official steels I see on ebay and people making a lot off them.