Recently I have been buying games left and right off eBay, getting some great deals on there (hell, the last 7 games I bought I have saved $98 compared to buying them in stores). However, I think I may have been scammed. I had been looking for a copy of Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and won one for $3.25 plus $18 shipping, which isn't unusual for eBay. However, after winning it I noticed several red flags:
1: The picture of the case.
Now, this may just be a stock photo, but I have never seen a stock photo of a DS game with an American flag in the upper left hand corner. It just seems odd.
2: The location of the seller and the item.
The seller's profile says he's in China and the item will ship from Hong Kong (aka Hidden Pirate Island). This started sending up red flags immediately.
I checked the guy's feedback and he's got 100% feedback and no one has said anything about the games they buy being bootlegs, but then again I doubt that most people could tell the difference between a bootleg and the real thing.
Now, I could be wrong and this could actually be a legit DS game, but I have a very strong hunch that when it comes in the mail, its gonna be a bootleg. So, the moral of this story is, don't buy DS games from people in Asian countries on eBay
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Shame the cartridge died after about a year. :(
Luckily I bought another copy from Ebay (I just love the game so much) and bootleg or not the game played and saved properly so I was happy.
I mean ebay
my favorite anime shopping center XD
Now I would go all don't buy from people in Asian Countries I mean games from Japan are pretty safe bets though probably in Japanese. And there are some fun Korean PSP games.Not Ebay but Play Asia is out of Hong Kong and have had excellent luck ordering from them. So there may be some legit sellers in Hong Kong, I would just be in buyer beware mode, mail them before you bid etc to ask for proof of authenticity's.
I did in the past order Mario Golf GBA a while back from a Hong Kong seller and the cart was a slightly off grey and the manual was 4 pages long with none of the epileptic warning and game care info etc that all Nintendo games have that and you could tell it was on cheaper paper. The box for the game was also not folded you would think that is smart break the box down for easier mailing except it was obviously stiff enough it had never been folded out.
Don't get involved with those Triad guys... Not a pretty thing *shows you the stump where my left hand once was*
Hell yeah Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis is the only Tactics Ogre game I have, but I agree it totally rules and is one of the best GBA games.
Yeah chances are that it is pirated. Don't feel bad, I've been duped too. Few months ago I got the first Fire Emblem for GBA off Ebay and it was bootleg. I then got a real copy off Ebay. I very rarely bid on auctions that don't have a pic of the actual game anymore. I don't know why most people insist on using the stock photos, it takes a few minutes to take a picture or 2 and upload it.