Scammers duplicating y-fold seals

[eightbit]

I caught this on youtube recently:

 

 

This is why I am not a "sealed game collector". I really never was anyway, I always buy my games to enjoy them. But, if scammers can pull off believable sealing jobs like this it makes you wonder how many sealed games people have kept sealed that contain garbage inside instead of the actual game. This along with the bootleg PCB's in carts passing off as the real deal just stinks for collectors. I guess your only protection is (as always) to buy from legitimate sources....and maybe open your games just to make sure.

[spacecadet]

I was about to say I hate sealed game collecting and "serves 'em right!" before I realized I have about half a dozen sealed Atari 2600 games that I'll probably never open... including one from the Atari dig in Alamagordo that you couldn't pay me enough money to open. But I know where all those games came from, and none of them came from Ebay or any other third party seller.

 

I feel like it's still pretty stupid to buy a game from a third party seller as a collector's item that you can literally never verify without destroying its value. Doesn't that just seem dumb?

 

The ironic thing is that the people most likely to get hurt by this are those who do buy games to open them and play them. Those who just keep stuff sealed forever will never even know that they got scammed. Ignorance is bliss.

[MotoRacer]

A sealed game is the exact definition of the opposite of the item's intention. Sealed games and the collecting of them is a sickness as far as I'm concerned. It's hording material goods you'll get zero amount of use from. It's a shelf stocker that does nothing than inflate your ego for a quarter second before you feel the need for more crap in your life.

 

It's a hop skip and a jump from a room full of games you'll never have the time to play. Which is why I sold my collection for Everdrive and SD card solutions. It's just not worth it, and there's no "pride" from the crap at all. If you want a few boxes, or a few physical games that are near and dear to you, fine. If you want a few magazines or promotional material because nostalgia, fine. But there's a limit. And sealed games are the tip top of that limit.

[Keatah]

A sealed game is the exact definition of the opposite of the item's intention. Sealed games and the collecting of them is a sickness as far as I'm concerned. It's hording material goods you'll get zero amount of use from. It's a shelf stocker that does nothing than inflate your ego for a quarter second before you feel the need for more crap in your life.

 

It's a hop skip and a jump from a room full of games you'll never have the time to play. Which is why I sold my collection for Everdrive and SD card solutions. It's just not worth it, and there's no "pride" from the crap at all. If you want a few boxes, or a few physical games that are near and dear to you, fine. If you want a few magazines or promotional material because nostalgia, fine. But there's a limit. And sealed games are the tip top of that limit.

 

Indeed it is! All that and more.

[spacecadet]

It's hording material goods you'll get zero amount of use from. It's a shelf stocker that does nothing than inflate your ego for a quarter second before you feel the need for more crap in your life.

 

You can say all those exact same things about a painting or a sculpture.

[BackInTimeSime]

Makes you though wonder how much more of this the community can accept, get to the point soon where it will effect your ability to even bother collecting? There is a few games I wanted to collect that I just didnt bother with as chances of getting a modern copy was just to high. Its a terrible shame, but with money come, well greedy people..

[Punisher5.0]

That's scary. I've bought several LRG Vita games off eBay. No expensive ones but still

[eightbit]

I've purchased a few Switch games off of ebay that I missed out on (like Retro City Rampage) but I opened all of them

[Punisher5.0]

I wonder just how close they are in real life. I inspect every game I get online. It sounds like the wrap is thicker than usual in that video.

[Eltigro]

Yeah, even if I buy a sealed game, it doesn't stay sealed. I'd rather play them. There's the term "shelf queen" that I've heard that I like quite a bit. I don't have any shelf queens.

 

Edit: Oh, and I never buy sealed games from 3rd party sellers. There's the threat of it being a fake and they always want too much for them.

Edited May 21, 2018 by Eltigro

[Flojomojo]

You can say all those exact same things about a painting or a sculpture.

 

Only if you kept the painting or sculpture in their unopened shipping carton.

 

Have we learned NOTHING from Toy Story 2? Toys are meant to be played with.

 

[spacecadet]

 

Only if you kept the painting or sculpture in their unopened shipping carton.

 

I guess, but what I meant is there are things that people buy just to look at, and that's fine. Nobody berates people for buying paintings and sculptures even though they're just *things* that cost a bunch of money, then just sit there and take up space without doing anything.

 

I'm just playing a little devil's advocate anyway. I don't think MotoRacer was really talking about people like me with a few unopened games that I keep that way for specific reasons. I don't generally buy games to keep unopened on a shelf, and I do play all my games and systems other than those few 2600/7800 games (all of which I have playable dupes of anyway).

 

I do just feel like it's kind of a double standard, though. Who's even to say what something's "meant" for? There's a reason companies like LRG exist - it's specifically to make games in very small quantities for collectors. If all you care about is playing, for the most part you can just get the digital versions of these games. (I'm not sure if they do releases that are *only* these few thousand physical copies, with no digital release; I don't follow them that closely.)

 

Personally I don't think I own any LRG release, but I do own the physical copy of Rez on PS4, which was the same sort of deal... I opened it and played it.

[Mord]

I guess your only protection is (as always) to buy from legitimate sources....and maybe open your games just to make sure.

 

Because we all know game stores would be above resealing used games.

 

 

 

You can say all those exact same things about a painting or a sculpture.

 

As at least one museum in France recently discovered.

[Tanooki]

A sealed game is the exact definition of the opposite of the item's intention. Sealed games and the collecting of them is a sickness as far as I'm concerned. It's hording material goods you'll get zero amount of use from. It's a shelf stocker that does nothing than inflate your ego for a quarter second before you feel the need for more crap in your life.

 

It's a hop skip and a jump from a room full of games you'll never have the time to play. Which is why I sold my collection for Everdrive and SD card solutions. It's just not worth it, and there's no "pride" from the crap at all. If you want a few boxes, or a few physical games that are near and dear to you, fine. If you want a few magazines or promotional material because nostalgia, fine. But there's a limit. And sealed games are the tip top of that limit.

I love that you wrote that instead of myself or some others here. I know moto is not talking about the dude who has one or maybe 5 or even 10 of them. It's the shelf queen collectors as a sickness type who buy a couple dozen, a couple hundred, a couple thousand or more and get some sick pleasure of seeing shiny plastic over a supposedly undisturbed old good. Sure you'll get the lame fallacy loaded counter arguments trying to use some false equivalency with anything from as we've seen already with art, or maybe coins, and other weirdness.

 

In a way I'm actually equally pleased as in a way I am displeased by this latest turn but it's not a surprise. Within the last couple of years the Chinese and others have figured out how to externally and greatly so internally attempt to copy an accurate GBA, DS and 3DS type chip/board and the outsides are spot on right down to even getting the ink patterns and size of the paints used for the labels. Boxes and stickers have come along at a slower clip for the older stuff, but it's there without at the least having a security bit, but in harder cases it's now down to looking at numbers on individual chips to verify if it's from the 90s of the 2010s.

 

If anything given the penny pinching cheapness of all 3 of the big fish now with the plastics, disc inks, cover art flaps, and thin plastic shrink seals it should be easier now more than ever to rip someone off with a small start up cost. I'm glad anything I buy with a seal is modern, undervalued on ebay, and will be opened and used. I pity anyone who isn't, and even if the good is legit, how many old batteries so far have popped and eaten the contents of the cart alive at this point as it will only exponentially increase. I await the day of some online pictures of an old NES game where the acid has leaked through entirely to be visible.

[Shawn]

I await the day of some online pictures of an old NES game where the acid has leaked through entirely to be visible.

 

I would find that very funny and would enjoy seeing such a sight just because. I don't think the acid from a coin battery could do such a thing under any plausible situations though.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

I do just feel like it's kind of a double standard, though. Who's even to say what something's "meant" for?

I'm pretty sure the companies out there developing and publishing video games aren't making them just to look pretty on a shelf. I mean, when was the last time you heard someone watching E3 say "Oh, that new PlayStation/Xbox/Switch game coming out this fall looks so cool! I can't wait until it comes out so I can go buy a copy, bring it home, and never play it!" They're games mate, they're made to be played.

 

That said, when there isn't a huge price difference between a new sealed game and used copy of the same game I'll often buy the sealed one. It's fun opening them up and being the first person to ever play that particular copy of the game. It makes the game feel a little more special to me, like it's yours and yours alone.

 

Over the past 6 or 7 years since I got into retro gaming I've bought probably a couple dozen sealed games and only once did I ever get a counterfeit copy, which happened to be Mario Kart DS. Luckily eBay has a good buyer protection policy when it comes to counterfeit stuff and I got my money back no problem at all after snapping a few quick pictures showing that it was a forgery. There are quite a few fakes out there, but as long as you do your homework and learn what to look for they're generally pretty easy to avoid. And if you do end up with one inadvertently it's not difficult to get your money back if you bought it off eBay.

[Mulletino]

I miss the lovely smell of a freshly opened game box manual.

 

Reading that thing on the bus on the way home before playing it.

[Tanooki]

 

I would find that very funny and would enjoy seeing such a sight just because. I don't think the acid from a coin battery could do such a thing under any plausible situations though.

I don't either outside of a hard bit of bad luck and extremely humid or something weather that could cause a blowout. But in all fairness, why not go into secondary devices and select systems. Some come as batteries included. Both modern and classic handheld toys some came with AAs, 9volts, Cs even. I've popped open new items from the 90s that had a couple AAAs and they were oozing crystals of battery acid. Anything can go and at whatever extreme.

[eightbit]

I always buy games sealed if at all possible and if the price difference is minimal between used and new. But I too open them. I just like to own new games wherever possible that are mine first...as Jin said.

Edited May 22, 2018 by eightbit

[eightbit]

 

I would find that very funny and would enjoy seeing such a sight just because. I don't think the acid from a coin battery could do such a thing under any plausible situations though.

 

 

Never say never. A friend of mine purchased a Genesis game (I think it was some RPG...Phantasy Star II or Shining in the Darkness or something to that effect) and the game would not function. Opened it and the CR2032 battery leaked all over the board. I did not expect a coin cell of this type to ever do that, but from the looks of it I suspect the cart was in a moist environment (like abasement or garage) and it agitated the battery. So yes, all batteries are prone to damaging leakage...even the ones you would never expect.

[Tanooki]

Never say never. A friend of mine purchased a Genesis game (I think it was some RPG...Phantasy Star II or Shining in the Darkness or something to that effect) and the game would not function. Opened it and the CR2032 battery leaked all over the board. I did not expect a coin cell of this type to ever do that, but from the looks of it I suspect the cart was in a moist environment (like abasement or garage) and it agitated the battery. So yes, all batteries are prone to damaging leakage...even the ones you would never expect.

 

The reason I think I said what I did that started that response I got you commented to here is because I had a situation like this, twice before when I was back out in Cali for 3 years. I've never had this happen before oddly enough where I am now where there's wide temp and humidity variances so I'm guessing some dumb dumb lived probably too close to the beach because of the surprises I had.

 

#1 was a N64 game (Smash Bros), #2 was a SNES game (Super Punchout) and well, #1 was a done deal and #2 was salvageable but was also before I had tools to replace what was rotted. In both cases the exterior of the games had ZERO indication of something nefarious or abusive, sparkly clean, nearly fresh off the line looking stickers. In both cases the batteries (CR2032s) not only leaked but blew out. My only guess for #1 is that the metal shell in the N64 is what saved the outside in some respect from showing as it was all over the place, crusty, multicolored, crystalized, rust and rot even at some points where it landed and continued to eat and spread. It jacked up the metal cage eating divots into it, the board traces had rust and holes around where the battery was and various other diodes and things. I cleaned for all I could but it was wrecked, perhaps someone with a fine tip and hand maybe could have run some traces but it would have been a lot of work. The other #2 that one blew out but thankfully only discolored a few exposed spots but hadn't eaten enough through to disconnect any traces so I popped the battery on that one cleaned it entirely and it worked fine just with no save. The plastic had a few tiny scorch marks where a few crystals sat eating away. I'm not sure how all that works if it would have continued to snack or not, or if more battery would blow out on either case to show up outside (or down the bottom with the pins) in time but they were nasty.

[MotoRacer]

I didn't mean you at all. Sorry if I even hinted at it. Like I said, for a few things that are near and dear to your heart, it's fine. But to base ones collection off it is a sickness.

 

As far as the painting metaphor, when did I say buying expensive things was a bad thing? The painting is bought to be viewed. A game is meant to be played. You can't PLAY a sealed copy!

 

 

I guess, but what I meant is there are things that people buy just to look at, and that's fine. Nobody berates people for buying paintings and sculptures even though they're just *things* that cost a bunch of money, then just sit there and take up space without doing anything.

 

I'm just playing a little devil's advocate anyway. I don't think MotoRacer was really talking about people like me with a few unopened games that I keep that way for specific reasons. I don't generally buy games to keep unopened on a shelf, and I do play all my games and systems other than those few 2600/7800 games (all of which I have playable dupes of anyway).

 

I do just feel like it's kind of a double standard, though. Who's even to say what something's "meant" for? There's a reason companies like LRG exist - it's specifically to make games in very small quantities for collectors. If all you care about is playing, for the most part you can just get the digital versions of these games. (I'm not sure if they do releases that are *only* these few thousand physical copies, with no digital release; I don't follow them that closely.)

 

Personally I don't think I own any LRG release, but I do own the physical copy of Rez on PS4, which was the same sort of deal... I opened it and played it.

[spacecadet]

As far as the painting metaphor, when did I say buying expensive things was a bad thing? The painting is bought to be viewed. A game is meant to be played. You can't PLAY a sealed copy!

 

One of my points is that it's not for anyone on the outside to judge what something's "meant" for. Like I said, the whole point of companies like LRG is to do extremely limited physical releases of games you can at least generally (if not always) buy digitally. So why buy and wait for the extremely rare physical copy when the digital version is easy to come by and you can play it right away? It seems to me like these games are "meant" to be collected, not necessarily played.

 

You don't have to like that or buy into the whole thing, and I don't generally buy into it myself, but I don't really think it's for anyone to judge what someone does with their games, especially when it seems like the whole business model of a company like LRG is based on people buying games to keep them for display on a shelf.

 

I'll bet that most people who buy LRG games also buy the digital copy to actually play. I don't know if you'd consider that better or worse. But to me, I'd think of that person as a real fan of the game, and they actually paid twice for it, so they're doing more to support the developer than someone who only bought the digital release.