Something Fishy to be on the lookout for when buying Coleco on ebay!

[stupus]

I have been watching this ebay seller over the last few months doing some buying and reselling and I think I have come to find them doing some shady business to lookout for when your buying pricey coleco games.

 

They buy some of the games that are very rare for the coleco, but more common for other systems. These games have what look to be the exact same boxes only differenciated by stickers applied at the factory to label them by system i.e. coleco, Atari/commodore/etc.

They buy the games for the more common systems and then remove the system stickers. Then they buy the coleco carts loose and pair them with these bogus boxes sometimes with or without a manual and charge top dollar for them as genuine coleco cib games.

 

Here you can see their current dubious offering, with obvious sticker removal:

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5574883395&toolid=10001&campid=5336500554&customid=&mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fitm%2FRARE-colecovision-Sammy-Lightfoot-BOXED-and-Aquattack-cart-Sierravision-nes-%2F131003592117%3Fpt%3DVideo_Games_Games%26hash%3Ditem1e806c2db5%23ht_38wt_1399

 

And here a couple of there current purchases that will likely soon be victim to this process:

 

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5574883395&toolid=10001&campid=5336500554&customid=&mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fitm%2FOils-Well-Atari-400-800-by-Sierra-On-Line-cartridge-CIB-%2F161068148317%3Fnma%3Dtrue%26si%3DXqJDX091JLQV6NEmfuljriD9GIU%25253D%26orig_cvip%3Dtrue%26rt%3Dnc%26_trksid%3Dp2047675.l2557%23ht_526wt_1399

 

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?ff3=4&pub=5574883395&toolid=10001&campid=5336500554&customid=&mpre=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fitm%2FThreshold-with-Instructions-for-Colecovision-%2F171129451853%3Fnma%3Dtrue%26si%3DXqJDX091JLQV6NEmfuljriD9GIU%25253D%26orig_cvip%3Dtrue%26rt%3Dnc%26_trksid%3Dp2047675.l2557%23ht_225wt_1399

 

Just something to watch for as I certainly would not want to be the one who slaps down my hard earned money for these unknowingly

 

She is very likely not the only one who may do this too, but I think she has been doing it awhile.

[nanochess]

I never had thought about that. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

 

Of course it would be very useful to know the list of game boxes that have a Colecovision sticker.

[stupus]

Yeah I actually noticed this when I had been doing some looking around and considered making some temporary boxes for myself for some of my coleco games that I knew would be hard for me to get for awhile.

I was also already aware of this seller as I often buy or am after the same things they are, and I notice them reselling a lot of what they buy.

 

I hope this will save some people here from spending money on a possible fake.

 

I don't think there are a whole lot of them that have the sticker but the sierra games and fisher price games come to mind offhand.

[NIAD]

Thanks for the heads-up and indeed, eBay seller "school girl in a short dress" has a reputation amongst some in the AtariAge community. It's really impossible to tell on some of these games were the manufacturer used the same box across multiple platforms especially if they shrinkwrapped the box and then applied the sticker to the shrinkwrap... and the shrinkwrap has been removed. If they applied the sticker that states "For Coleco" directly to the box, then it's obviously a lot easier to tell.

 

The other boxes were this practice happens are the Activision boxes that have the interchangable bottom slip on piece that states what system it is for. There are four that I can recall (Decathlon, HERO, Pitfall II and Zenji) that have this slip on cardboard piece and all the others are standard boxes with "For ColecoVision" printed on them.

[Tempest]

That's horrible and dishonest, but it's also kind of brilliant if you think about it. I'm not endorsing this in any way shape or form, but if the only difference between a $50 and a $500 game is the generic system sticker on the box you have to wonder why people didn't start doing this earlier (maybe they did?)?

 

The price we pay for a simple sticker...

[stupus]

hehe-yeah it does suck only a sticker makes that big a difference. I actually held off on posting about this for a bit because I wasn't sure how I should go about it...the last thing I wanted to do was give lots of people the idea to do this...then after some thought I decided letting people know this was being done outweighed that cost. I guess if everyone is aware of it that is the best way to keep people from getting away with ripping people off this way.

And yeah I am sure people have done this before...like I said I think school girl has done it for quite some time, so if anybody has bought any games from her in the past, you might want to check them

Possible she does this for other systems too, I just don't know all the other systems well enough to know how certain games could be taken advantage of in this way.

 

Niad, do you know if some games did get that sticker on the cellophane? I seem to always see it on the box itself...but I don't know if this is always the case. You can obviously see where she removed the sticker from the Sammy box though in the top left corner, and I remember when she bought that box a few months back for another system anyway. She also seems to always be sure to wait till feedback for her purchases goes stale so you cant link to them before she lists her new sales...its a thought out process.

[Andre81]

Simple solution: 5 people buy something from her, all open an item not as described claim and return some junk to her. Then leave negative feedback and her eBay and PayPal account will be suspended and she will be left with no money and no items.

 

[Bartsfam]

http://rover.ebay.co...7#ht_225wt_1399

 

Hey! I bid on this Threshold, but lost....What is the problem? Is it a 2600 cartridge with Colecovision instructions???

[ColecoDan]

http://rover.ebay.co...7#ht_225wt_1399

 

Hey! I bid on this Threshold, but lost....What is the problem? Is it a 2600 cartridge with Colecovision instructions???

No he is just saying that someone may be preparing to sell another expensive CIB since they got the game and instructions and that box is another one where you can buy and remove the sticker and sell it as colecovision CIB.

[NIAD]

Niad, do you know if some games did get that sticker on the cellophane? I seem to always see it on the box itself...but I don't know if this is always the case. You can obviously see where she removed the sticker from the Sammy box though in the top left corner, and I remember when she bought that box a few months back for another system anyway. She also seems to always be sure to wait till feedback for her purchases goes stale so you cant link to them before she lists her new sales...its a thought out process.

Not exactly sure as all my games are opened / no shrinkwrap, but I will have to take a look at the boxes to be sure.

[coleconut]

Touchy subject. If its deliberate and thought-out, it is suspect.

Then there are the oddities.

Like look at this Decathlon. I dont see this box documented anywhere. No one deliberately tried to fake a Decathlon to reap a reward, but here it is.

Fake or oddity? I think the latter.

That Venture is something else again, eh?

[NIAD]

That Decathlon box with Coleco & ADAM sticker may have been put together by one of the ADAM Mail-Order firms in the later 80's. The generic white boxed Venture is just what Coleco (Canada) Limitee did to sell off remaining stock at the cheapest possible cost to them in assembling the packaging.

[Rik]

I noticed this a long time ago since i started noticing games with absolutely mint fresh boxes. It seemed fishy that brand new condition boxes were offered at eBay around the same time the newer printers that had the capability of printing factory quality CV boxes started coming out. Not long BEFORE that, it was pretty rare find to find CV games at eBay with decent condition boxes, if any at all. Yes it is possible that some CV games still were mint CIB, but not at the volume they were at, too many mint boxes to be true. Sellers at eBay very well know CIB games with nice boxes command a higher price, which means more $$$ for them, and we all know lots of sellers at eBay have NIL moral standards . Reproduction boxes are okay IMO, BUT, only if YOU the BUYER are told so with a disclaimer posted by the seller, AND with the disclaimer printed on the box would be the ideal right way, IMO.

Edited October 6, 2013 by Rik

[+Psionic]

That's horrible and dishonest, but it's also kind of brilliant if you think about it. I'm not endorsing this in any way shape or form, but if the only difference between a $50 and a $500 game is the generic system sticker on the box you have to wonder why people didn't start doing this earlier (maybe they did?)?

 

The price we pay for a simple sticker...

 

I'm sure stuff like this goes on from time to time (Tournament Tennis by Imagic for C64/CV comes to mind), but I never thought of it as being an epidemic problem. I guess it only takes a few bad apples. It's hard to say if there's really any serious wrongdoing going on though. It really is just a sticker, and from what I've seen, not all Sierra boxes had them in the first place.

 

Theoretically, there can be other ways to tell the difference however. While Sierra boxes don't have a bar code per se, if you look closely at the bottom flap you'll usually see a series of numbers printed or stamped there. On the games I have, these numbers are different on the individual releases for different platforms, although whether they specifically identify the platform I do not know.

 

As an example, my ColecoVision Threshold box has the numbers 20485301 03194 printed on the bottom, whereas my Commodore 64 Threshold box has the numbers 25485301 01064. The CV box also has a small white sticker on the top flap with the numbers 204853. Both of these games were purchased new (and the boxes have the appropriate silver stickers on the front), so I know they're originals. The problem is, just like the stickers, not all Sierra boxes have these numbers on the bottom.

 

So the question is...if a box doesn't have a sticker on the front or numbers on the bottom, does it really matter where it came from?