Yay...I (unknowingly) bought a pirated game on Ebay!

[corporate_lackey]

It was Pokemon Emerald for Gameboy Advance. Very well done box and cart though for a pirate, no obvious spelling mistakes etc. About the only thing that gave it away as a pirate cart was the 6 page (looking very official and "complete" though) instruction manual. It was advertised as brand new in box, when I got it though, there was no "shrinkwrap" nor seal still, obviously not as advertised!

btw, does anyone own the official copy and know how many pages the real manual is, haha! I know it has to be at least 23, as at the bottom of page 4 of mine is says "see page 23 for more information on saving your game". A long time ago, my sister bought a copy of Bubble Bobble for Gameboy, also a pirate. Instead of saying "Nintendo" on it, it actually said NINFENDO. Needless to say, I've never let her live this one down. :-D

Anyway, I told the seller I wanted a refund and they gave me one thankfully. And they said keep the cart, didn't want it back. So now I have a free pirate cart for my troubles. I'm still thinking about reporting the seller though...what do you guys think, should I?

[Mr_Elimin8]

go for it. he probably let you keep the game so you wouldn't report him. Which is a bribe. REPORT NOW

[jajaja]

Hehe, that happend to me too. Bought Zelda 3 for GBA and it said like "go to page 40..." and the manual was only like 20 pages lol. If a seller uses stock photo and NEW GAME as description, but doesnt mention factory sealed be aware. Always ask if its factory sealed if it says new.

If you check your pirate game, you will see that there are no inprinted number on the label and "inside" the game (where the pins sticks out) you wont see the word NINTNEDO. All original games have these 2 things.

Good that you got your money back. I'm not sure if i would report the seller if i got all my money back. I would love to remove all the pirate sellers from Ebay, but there are so many of them its practically impossible, unfortunatly :\ Some sellers probly dont know that they sell pirate games either, but on the other hand, alot of sellers also know.

So.. report or not report, its upto you of course. I dont think the seller will lose his/her Ebay account or anything. You probly also need to follow up on the complaint etc. I dont think Ebay will do much :\

[Vroomfunkel]

Sadly eBay are rubbish on this - you will likely find it difficult or impossible to convince them that the game you bought is a pirate, especially if it is a good copy.

Furthermore they are likely to suggest that you send it back to the seller. It stinks, but that's the way it is - had a friend who was burned in a similar way. Sadly, a vast proportion of the GBA games on eBay are pirates, and eBay aren't especially keen to do anything about it.

[Nebagram]

Oh man, in my experience it's damn near impossible to find a legit GBA game on ebay. In Britain it's slightly easier to pick out genuines as the box designs are slightly different (the GBA logo is a different colour) and HK rip-offs always copy the US design, but I've just stopped buying GBA, DS and PSP games off ebay full stop. Especially not from sellers in HK, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore...

[Kitsune Sniper]

I've been lucky and have found legit games on eBay. Then again, I don't go for the easily pirateable games... anything with Nintendo or Pokemon is likely bootleg.

And I avoid Asian sellers. That's the biggest tipoff. Everything from China is fake.

[DefaultGen]

.....

[wallydawg]

I saw this on eBay a few days ago as well and thought maybe it would be pirate.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=012&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=220101457062&rd=1&rd=1

Has a different cover than what I remember seeing

[corporate_lackey]

I see what you mean...thanks! This copy does not have any imprinted number on the label. Also, I noticed on the type of carts you can see through, there is a copyright symbol followed by "Nintendo" and the year of manufacture, stamped right on the back of the "circuit board". This pirate cart has none of this, just a stamp (in black lettering) on the back that says "AI28-2-WM".

btw, it seems like a fairly close copy of the game though having never played the official one, I really don't know. It's not like it's a totally different game. Graphics look fine etc., but for some reason, the time feature doesn't seem to work. Also, my sister is the one playing it, the one I bought it for.
I'm just going by what she tells me about it. Thanks for the offer to deal on it, I think I'll keep it for now though. As a reminder not to get too hyped on winning any Ebay gameboy advance auctions...

[DefaultGen]

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[handofg0d]

hahaha
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220101457518

that's not even a real game... i can't make out what the actual game is based on the screenshots on the back of the box.
I'm guess it's supposed to be Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. This is also from the seller of that pirate Super Mario Bros. 3 posted by wallydawg.

[Nebagram]

The funniest pirate game I've ever come across on ebay was Sonic 3D Blast... for the original Gameboy. I even asked the seller about it, who replied with 'I am an expert on videogames and I can assure you this is a genuine game released by Sega, not a pirate at all'. Loled? I nearly ruptured something. :)