Buyer Beware- 2600 & CV carts look alike

[Tubular Gearhead]

Ok, so this has happened more than once on ebay and it is starting to bother me. I see a rarity 5, 6, 7, etc. game and the seller is listing it as a "tested rare Atari 2600 game" and you look carfully at the picture and it is a Colecovision cartridge. I send an email to the seller just to double check and alert them that there is a difference, I explain how to tell, and I get no response. Here is a recent example i.d.# 320618517627. If you look at the picture it sure does look like Q*bert's Qubes for the Colecovision, right? Unfortunately I am very familiar with what the Colecovision one looks like because I bought it as a "tested rare Atari 2600 game" a few months back (congratulating myself on the great deal I got). In that case the seller was very cool and when I told him what I received he refunded half my money (I kept the game) . I am seeing this all the time on ebay. Has anyone else ever purchased a "rare 2600 game" only to get a Colecovision cart?

[Algus]

I always look at the pictures very carefully and avoid listings that don't have pictures of the actual item. Fortunately Coleco carts are clearly marked and look a bit different from Coleco titles that were published on the 2600 itself.

 

 

vs

 

 

Still, I could see where the novice would get confused, especially if they weren't that familiar with the Colecovision. Which wouldn't be entirely unsurprising to be honest.

[jhd]

I don't buy on Ebay (for reasons like this), but many year ago I bought a huge lot of 2600 titles at a garage sale for about $20. Mixed in with the 2600 cartridges was an Xonox Robin Hoot-Sir Lancelot for the CV. I was initially disappointed until I traded it online for several 2600 titles I badly wanted.

 

I suspect that this happens very often.

[OldAtarian]

Q'Berts Qubes is still not common even for Colecovision. The seller also may not have realized it was not a 2600 game. For people who don't know, the games all look alike. I've seen listings for Intellivision carts described as Atari carts already.

[Rik]

Yeah i see this all the time on Ebay.There was one seller advertising several 2600 Coleco games as "Colecovision" games.I sent an email explaining the mistake, and sent me back a thank you.Not all sellers have been appreciative of me sending an email notifying them of their mistakes, some take me as a know it all, I'm doing them a huge favor IMO.Us guys know the difference, but the novices out there don't, so i do feel a certain obligation to tell them.

[Galeforcerm]

Lots of people sell mnetwork games as intellivision on ebay. Anytime I have let the seller know they thanked me and changed it.

[Tubular Gearhead]

@ Algus: Agreed, Atari and Coleco did do a good job of making the cartridges they produced for the same game look different, as in the Donkey Kong example. Another example would be Galaxian by Atarisoft. With some of the 3rd party games however, sometimes you need to be an expert on every detail of the label, direction of text, etc. when the seller has only one picture or so. I am refering specifically to some of the more rare games by Parker Brothers, Xonox, Spectravision, etc. This is all part of the hobby, and I think most of us enjoy the details.

 

The real problem I have is with sellers saying the game has been "tested" as a 2600 cart. How did they test it???? Don't they remember which machine it was so they don't list "Rare Star Wars the Arcade Game for Atari 2600" and you receive the Colecovision version? And like Rik, I have also alerted the seller, but in many cases they leave the description as is (many are thankful and change it).

 

In a nutshell- Yes, only buy from Ebay if there is a good picture and the seller confirms it is of the actual item and you know the differences (the point of my post).

 

Rant over.

Edited November 24, 2010 by Tubular Gearhead

[BassGuitari]

Don't they remember which machine it was so they don't list "Rare Star Wars the Arcade Game for Atari 2600" and you receive the Colecovision version?

 

 

This happened to me once, many moons ago. It was actually in a game store, though. I was pretty new to 2600 collecting and didn't really know anything about Colecovision (I'm guessing the storekeepers didn't, either), and they had "Star Wars: The Arcade Game for Atari 2600" in their glass display case (next to their $300 Chase The Chuckwagon...again, this was in 2000 or 2001). I pop down my $30 for Star Wars, take it 2 hours home (I was visiting the town -Madison, WI- that this shop was in), load it up in my Atari, and...what...what the hell? Why won't it fit???

 

Of course I know better now. I think I must have had my grandfather return it for me the next weekend (the Badgers were playing a home game at Camp Randall, and he had season tickets...has for years), or I sold or traded it. Either way, I don't have anymore...now that I actually have Colecovision, can identify third-party Colecovision cartridges, and am looking for Star Wars: The Arcade Game (I have it for 2600, 5200, C64)...go figure!

[AtariLeaf]

I always get disappointed when I see ads for "Atari Tapes" thinking its for Starpath games. Nope.

 

I go from to then to then then back to then after the Jack Daniels its and finally after a long night its

[BassGuitari]

I always get disappointed when I see ads for "Atari Tapes" thinking its for Starpath games. Nope.

 

I go from to then to then then back to then after the Jack Daniels its and finally after a long night its

 

Sounds like quite a trip.

[rhindlethereddragon]

Q'Berts Qubes is still not common even for Colecovision. The seller also may not have realized it was not a 2600 game. For people who don't know, the games all look alike. I've seen listings for Intellivision carts described as Atari carts already.

 

If the auction says the game is "tested", then he could hardly not have realized it was not a 2600 game. The guy is dishonest one way or the next.

[OldAtarian]

We'll find out soon enough when the feedback is posted. I'd definitely neg someone if I paid that much for a cart and it didn't even fit the system it was claimed to fit.

Edited November 24, 2010 by OldAtarian

[raskar42]

i got a starwars coleco instead of a starwars atari on ebay.

 

kept it - now i need a colecovision.

[AtariLeaf]

i got a starwars coleco instead of a starwars atari on ebay.

 

kept it - now i need a colecovision.

 

See I like that. Its taking lemons and making lemonaid.

[Algus]

Haha, sounds like something I would do. I'd like to get a Colecovision at some point but I've still got the Atari 5200 and Sega Master System higher on my list. Need to round out my game libraries on my older systems a bit more before I buy new hardware anyway.

[SlowCoder]

i got a starwars coleco instead of a starwars atari on ebay.

 

kept it - now i need a colecovision.

Are you sure you're not me? I bought a cheap CV purely for its controllers (for my ADAM). No power supply. Then I thought I'd like to sell the CV, but I don't like selling thing that don't work. So I splurged on a power supply to test it. It worked. I never sold it, and now its a prized part of my collection. I just can't ever seem to resell anything I get.

[ApolloBoy]

I've found that the color of the label is pretty important when looking at Parker Bros. games. Just remember that 2600 releases had silver labels, while CV releases had gold labels.

[+atari2600land]

Yeah, I had an experience like that. At the used video game store. Luckilly it wasn't very expensive (only about a dollar or so). It was Popeye for the Colecovision, I tried putting it in my Atari 2600 but it wouldn't fit. They got confused. I had no idea Colecovision games looked similar. I didn't (and STILL don't ) have a Colecovision. Oh sure, I'd love one, but I passed up one with a whole bunch of boxed games for $130, simply because of the facts that a.) I thought it was too much and, more importantly, b.) I didn't have $130.

[Rikkarr]

It's good to point this out, especially for new collectors. When I was just starting out a few years ago, I would frequent my local game store that would carry coleco and atari games. Apparently, they didn't know the difference either, and just lumped all the games together, making it hard to distinguish. I almost bought a coleco game, thinking it was an atari game, but another customer at the store pointed it out to me, so I guess I didn't have to learn the hard way

[Philflound]

It's tough to tell from the picture, but Atari 2600 PB games have silver labels while the Colecovision have gold labels.

 

Phil

[Rik]

I've seen sellers who have been selling games for years and still don't know the diff.

[Rik]

Lots of people sell mnetwork games as intellivision on ebay. Anytime I have let the seller know they thanked me and changed it.

Yeah i do the same.One idiot emailed me back and said something to the likes of "well thank you Mr.know-it-all, lets all bow down to you".That was the 1st time i sent a message to that seller.Some just don't like to be told they're wrong.That happened only once though.You always run into a jerk at Ebay no matter how nice you are.

Edited November 27, 2010 by Rik

[OldAtarian]

Lots of people sell mnetwork games as intellivision on ebay. Anytime I have let the seller know they thanked me and changed it.

Yeah i do the same.One idiot emailed me back and said something to the likes of "well thank you Mr.know-it-all, lets all bow down to you".That was the 1st time i sent a message to that seller.Some just don't like to be told they're wrong.That happened only once though.You always run into a jerk at Ebay no matter how nice you are.

 

You got lucky. The messages I get back usually contain expletives that I've never heard of, and I'm an old geezer.

[Seob]

I got excited a few times thinking i found colecovision games, but after inspecting the label i noticed that they where atari carts. Now i always look at the bottom lines of the label to see if it has the words atari on them.

[pinball22]

I'm always amazed how many sellers are clearly lying about the "tested" part. It's not at all uncommon to see a lot of carts that includes CV or Inty or C64 carts that were all supposedly tested in their 2600.