A Reddit post in the GameBoy subreddit caught some eyes. It showed a fake yellow Game Boy Pokémon cartridge displayed at a GameStop. The post received many comments, pointing out the poor quality of this bootleg Pokémon game.
This has sparked concern, especially with GameStop launching new Retro GameStops across North America, where retro game authenticity should be a priority.
Lol, it’s Game Stop not the Library of Congress. These are minimum wage employees they’re not trained in repro carts
If they’re cheap and common games, I don’t think it’s a big deal to have fakes mixed in if it doesn’t bother the buyer either.
Now for more rare stuff, it matters more. Feels like mtg cards, where a certain threshold it should be graded for authenticity and condition
Video game grading is a massive scam. Karl Jobst did a series of videos on it, and it’s basically price rigging and speculation investments for profit.
No one is going to be making a fake Madden 99 cart for the gbc, it’s always going to be the heavy hitters like pokemon or atlus games. Idk how they prevent fakes on both ends tbh, from taking in fakes to selling them as well. But if they’re going to sell them they better be responsible about it.
In any case, isn’t it illegal for them to not ensure they’re legit? Selling counterfeits is definitely illegal
I think the employees would have a database of titles to ascertain value, so they are basically trained in this field.
I would argue that the employees may be negligent in the need to verify with the database due to being overworked minimum wage part timers who are just looking to “get the job done” and not care about mistakes made.
The presence of a database also does not mean they are explicitly taught to say “you need to use this database to verify, here is how to query it and ensure it looks right”
GameStop could probably address this partially with hyper-focused UI walking them through a review but then employees are just going to hit “next next next” just to get it done
I think this idea is cursed and a bad idea for GameStop to implement because this is inevitable and we are going to see this over and over again. This was already a recurring joke at some locations selling older games, esp. Pokemon, prior to GameStop formalizing the “Retro” branding
I’m into retro audio, cassettes, records, etc. I’ve noticed that all the thrift stores get raided by the resellers often. Same with the good clothes. There’s a “vintage” store at my local mall that sells old thrift clothing, like the nice band t shirts, and they sell them for like $50
The whole retro game market has become this as well, just resellers buying up all the games and reselling then for absurd prices
This really does seem like the endgame for all collectibles–to eventually get capitalized to the point that outsiders come in and start speculating/buying out new releases/limited editions solely to flip for profit.
In plenty of cases I’ve seen, they never even have the product in their hands–they’ll just transfer the order to the highest bidder. I guess it’s the nature of collectibles and limited-edition stuff, but it just takes away the fun for a lot of the people who enjoy the hobby/collectibles/etc… it’s kinda deflating when you can’t even get the item without paying a premium to some rando that has no interest in it first (instead of just paying the vendor/manufacturer directly at their list price).
Someone buys fake on eBay. Plays it. Sells it to Gamestop. Minimum wage employee does not spot that it’s fake and it ends up on the used game shelf.
None of this is new.
For any GB, GBC, and GBA fans, I highly recommend the GB Operator from Epilogue. It’s a super simple USB device that will not only play your games and back up your saves, but will also authenticate your cartridges. It’s great for something like Pokémon Ruby and Saphire, which has a lot of bootlegs floating around.
Or alternatively just download a rom and save money and a piece of plastic.
That’s true, but won’t stop you from buying fakes, just confirm that you did. The best thing you can do is to educate yourself on what a fake looks like, especially if you’re going to be buying pokemon emerald for $200.
Is the image of the post in the article not the actual thing they’re talking about? It says it was obvious because instead of “GameBOY” it just said “GAME” along with other issues that the image of the reddit post included doesn’t match at all.
The only thing in the image included in the article that is gnarly is the fact they are trying to sell it for nearly $50.
The image from reddit seems to be a mix of Japanese and US yellow edition? Not sure but here are both in comparison:
Original:
Version from reddit:
I’m surprised that they don’t take even a minimal amount of effort to clean those things up before selling it. A little dab of isopropryl alcohol does wonders.
That cartridge looks like it spent the last 20 years in a butt.
