Whats the deal with these HK games

[CDiablo]

So I've been searching for a reasonable priced (both)used complete and sealed Mario and Luigi Partners in Time. On ebay theres a ton of this(notice all the "new" and free shipping items). Now I know that some of these listings are from US sellers, but I am ASSUMING that the HK sellers of this game are selling bootlegs. Am I right in assuming this? It just sucks because I feel that the market will be flooded with bootleg copies of this game and I will always live in doubt of the copy(copies) that I will eventually own

[tubeway]

I don't know how cost effective it would really be to make bootleg DS carts and sell them on ebay for $15 with free shipping....

[pfp]

You're right.

And shipping from China/HK is CHEAP! Slow as hell, but it gets here - I've ordered other stuff from them like batteries and chargers.

Probably less than $1/game to make, less than $2.00 to ship.

If you're not sure, and if it's cheaper than you'd expect, I wouldn't touch it. Makes me scared to buy them from US sellers....

[roushimsx]

I damn near refuse to buy GB/GBC/GBA/DS games online (or used, actually) because of the rampant bootlegging. If I can't find it in a store, I almost always skip on it.

[ScourDX]

The only place I would buy DS games would be Play-asia and Amazon store (not Amazon user). Craigslist is another good place to look for DS games.

[CDiablo]

I don't know how cost effective it would really be to make bootleg DS carts and sell them on ebay for $15 with free shipping....

Go to a site like dealextreme.com, look at some of the stuff they sell there. You can get plenty of stuff from them for $2 with free shipping from China. You need to realize how strong the US and Euro currencies are against the HKD. There are plenty of things on ebay that come from China for 99 cents with free shipping AND you pay with paypal(paypal fees+conversion fees)

[Ed Oscuro]

Yeah, but the people in HK have to get their stock from Japan, so you'd have to look at that currency as well. The yen seems pretty strong right now: 100 yen = $1, roughly. I'm used to it being about 150 yen to the dollar.

The DS card format doesn't seem terribly expensive to make; the games are basically just flash cards, I believe. Nintendo and the developers are likely making nice profits even at $30, given the lower development costs of the games. Hopefully we'll see some concrete articles confirming or debunking the existence of widespread DS fakes, but if history is any guide, there's going to be fakes.