Honestly though, beyond GBA and Neo Geo carts, has anyone ever bought a counterfeit cart that you honestly thought was the real deal?

Playstation 1/2 & Saturn HK silvers are obvious at first sight to be counterfeits.

I don't think I've ever seen a counterfeit factory produced NES cart. Beyond NWC or other competition carts, I've really not seen any homemade reproductions that were counterfeits.

Every single SNES or MD counterfeit I've ever seen had some form of hideously deformed cart sticker art or box inserts, and even if that wasn't the case most of the time the shell's they use are either from the wrong territory or universal pirate notched shells. To me, as far as the 8 & 16 bit market goes, I don't see how anyone that's even the slightest bit of a collector is going to be duped into buying a boot. If you're dropping 3 & 4 digits on a 20 year old "game tape" chances are you probably have done your homework.

And I don't really understand why anyone would look down at people that buy or play counterfeits. If you're looking to pass them off as the real deal to make a buck, then yeah you're a real piece of shit. If you just want to play the game, why is buying a $5 pirate of Alien Soldier blasphemous yet emulation/flash carts/MAME circle jerks are above reproach?