Fake/Repro Venezuelan 2600 carts on Ebay

[MyPawnsEatPpl]

I bought some of these sealed Atari 2600 games (some from Venezuela) after reading on the forum that they're legit. A sealed Phoenix, Kangaroo, Jr. Pac-man, and Road Runner.

 

Looking at the carts myself I can tell you that these are not original Atari carts.

 

These guys are selling some cheap repro garbage that won't fit correctly into an Atari slot. The Jr. Pac-man was the worst of the bunch. It's not even correctly aligned for the slot. There is also the dust cover. There is none. Well there is something in the bottom that looks like one but it doesn't retract like a real Atari cart.

 

Avoid any sellers from Venezuela. These are not new old stock. These are fake/repro carts. The worst part is that I actually bought a couple of these from other sellers on Ebay. Other sellers are buying these things and reselling them probably thinking they're real.

[Albert]

Can you take photos of the carts?

 

Can you provide the eBay user IDs of the sellers on eBay? I'd like to see the auctions.

 

Thanks,

 

..Al

[+save2600]

Never heard of repros of those particular games. Pics please...

 

I'm guessing poor quality control toward the end of the production of some of these is all. South America got a lot of the last shipments from Atari toward the end. And the very late release 2600 games did not have a retractable dust cover as they were using 7800 style shells by then. 7800 carts are also slightly fatter and have different cartridge guides too. So guessing that's all that's going on here.

[CPUWIZ]

Jr. Pac-Man shouldn't have a dust cover, it is a late release SARA cart.

[atari181]

I find that very hard to believe that anyone would make "fake" common carts. I am assuming they are late release Ataricorp carts.

[Shawn]

Kinda sounds like these might be the polyvox or whatever other 3rd party company doing 1st party game releases and the OP just isn't familiar with the form factor of these games from down south? This might be giving more credit than is deserved. Photos will tell the whole tale.

[MyPawnsEatPpl]

This is a normal grey/red label Phoenix. Why doesn't it have a normal dust cover? Why do none of these fit into a normal Atari slot? Why is the Jr. Pac-man so poorly made that it won't even fit into the slot?

 

I've been collecting Atari games my entire life and I've never seen anything like this kind of poor quality cartridge.

[jaybird3rd]

As others have said, some of the later Atari cartridges (the ones that turned up in South America) were pretty janky. If you're wondering about specific cartridges, some good pictures would be very helpful. Several of us have opened hundreds of these cartridges and should be able to tell on sight whether they're real or fake.

[atari181]

This is a normal grey/red label Phoenix. Why doesn't it have a normal dust cover? Why do none of these fit into a normal Atari slot? Why is the Jr. Pac-man so poorly made that it won't even fit into the slot?

 

I've been collecting Atari games my entire life and I've never seen anything like this kind of poor quality cartridge.

after Ataricorp took over they used a universal cart for 2600 and 7800. The cart has no dust cover and looks and feels cheaper than earlier carts. Not fake, just different.

[MyPawnsEatPpl]

Maybe it's just the South American carts like you guys are saying. They seem very "janky".

 

I mean they just look like normal carts without dust covers.

 

I was a bit suspicious because some of the manuals had water stains when these things were supposedly sealed. Maybe they just re-shrink wrapped them?

[MyPawnsEatPpl]

Was there a Phoenix cart with a 1988 date on the label without a dust cover?

 

Should I delete this post? You guys are convincing me that these are legitimate.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Without links to the auction items or at least naming the seller even if the carts were fake your warning is useless beyond the common sense of "buyer beware" which is something buyers should always do regardless.

[atari181]

Was there a Phoenix cart with a 1988 date on the label without a dust cover?

 

Should I delete this post? You guys are convincing me that these are legitimate.

Yes there was. These carts weren't made for South America. The carts were part of unsold stock here in the US that was liquidated to buyers in South America where the 2600 had legs. Edited March 26, 2018 by atari181

[CPUWIZ]

A.) You can't delete this post.

B.) You should post some pictures, or at least a link to the auction(s).

 

I could tell you the sky is red, if you can't see it.

[MyPawnsEatPpl]

I don't think it's a good idea to smear any sellers when it could be me who's in the wrong. It looks like that may be the case.

Edited March 26, 2018 by MyPawnsEatPpl

[CPUWIZ]

No smartphone? I am interested and I am sure a couple other people are too.

[MyPawnsEatPpl]

There isn't much to see. They're just normal carts without a dust cover besides the water stains on the manuals and some damage inside the boxes that were supposedly sealed. I feel safe to admit that they're probably legit carts that were re-shrink wrapped.

Edited March 27, 2018 by MyPawnsEatPpl

[jaybird3rd]

The cartridge may not even have been re-shrinkwrapped. What you see as "water stains" on the manuals could be a combination of moisture, temperature extremes, and the normal effects of aging on paper that's been sitting in a box for over 25 years. A shrinkwrapped cardboard box is not a time capsule or a suspended animation chamber; its contents are as vulnerable to aging as anything else. In fact, I've seen cartridges from shrinkwrapped boxes that are actually in worse condition than cartridges of the same age that have been opened and used.

 

And yes, it's true that Atari got especially lax in their quality control standards toward the end of the 2600/7800 lifespan. I've personally opened hundreds of shrinkwrapped 2600 and 7800 cartridges manufactured during that period (1988-1991, approximately), and I've seen just about everything that can go wrong with an Atari cartridge, from crooked and misapplied labels, to cheap 2600/7800 cartridge shells that weren't molded properly and don't snap together like they should, to screws that are missing or not inserted properly, to every kind of manufacturing error on the cartridge boards. Pretty sad, especially when you compare them to the clean, glossy, smooth silver-labeled cartridges of the late Warner era.

[Andromeda Stardust]

There isn't much to see. They're just normal carts without a dust cover besides the water stains on the manuals and some damage inside the boxes that were supposedly sealed. I feel safe to admit that they're probably legit carts that were re-shrink wrapped.

Does your Jr Pacman look like this?

[CPUWIZ]

The cartridge may not even have been re-shrinkwrapped. What you see as "water stains" on the manuals could be a combination of moisture, temperature extremes, and the normal effects of aging on paper that's been sitting in a box for over 25 years. A shrinkwrapped cardboard box is not a time capsule or a suspended animation chamber; its contents are as vulnerable to aging as anything else. In fact, I've seen cartridges from shrinkwrapped boxes that are actually in worse condition than cartridges of the same age that have been opened and used.

 

And yes, it's true that Atari got especially lax in their quality control standards toward the end of the 2600/7800 lifespan. I've personally opened hundreds of shrinkwrapped 2600 and 7800 cartridges manufactured during that period (1988-1991, approximately), and I've seen just about everything that can go wrong with an Atari cartridge, from crooked and misapplied labels, to cheap 2600/7800 cartridge shells that weren't molded properly and don't snap together like they should, to screws that are missing or not inserted properly, to every kind of manufacturing error on the cartridge boards. Pretty sad, especially when you compare them to the clean, glossy, smooth silver-labeled cartridges of the late Warner era.

 

Reminds me of when you sold 100 Ballblazer boards for a song.

[Shawn]

 

Reminds me of when you sold 100 Ballblazer boards for a song.

 

Hindsight is always 20\20. Imagine how many POKEY's got smelted down when O'shea's did the gold scraping at like 10 cents a pop to the recovery company? Makes me ill just thinking about it.

[MyPawnsEatPpl]

The thing that got me going was that some of them had these odd lines inside of the cartridge like a 3D printer leaves and some small scratches. Am I just being paranoid here?

 

Edited March 27, 2018 by MyPawnsEatPpl

[CPUWIZ]

Looks very real to me.

[Shawn]

The thing that got me going was that some of them had these odd lines inside of the cartridge like a 3D printer leaves and some small scratches. Am I just being paranoid here?

 

2018-03-26 18.06.17.jpg

 

That is 100 percent normal from injection molding. You freaked out for no reason. These are 100 percent legit Atari made cartridges and not some fake repro garbage whatever you thought they where.

[jaybird3rd]

Reminds me of when you sold 100 Ballblazer boards for a song.

Yeah, I probably could have gotten more money for those, but that wasn't my primary goal: I just wanted to save them from the scrap heap, and to get them into the hands of people who could use them. Same with the cartridge shells, most of which were reused for homebrew games. So in the end, nothing was wasted and I came out of it slightly ahead, so it's all good. In retrospect, I just wish I could have ordered more.

 

(Yes, the cartridge shown in the picture looks totally real to me, too.)