Official "Grey Market" GBA Games?

masterh

masterh

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Okay, here's something I hadn't heard of before.
I won several GBA games on eBay recently for uber-cheap prices. The seller was based in Canada, but I rechecked the auctions after I noticed that he was selling something like 20-30 GBA games a day. These were Asian knock-offs, no Nintendo Seal of Quality, a label that was just cut and pasted from the game box... ugh.
I emailed the guy and said that I was not interested in cheap bootlegged games and that I wanted a refund... and the dude said that the games weren't bootlegs; they were official Nintendo games, but they were from Japan and so they had different game art. I called shenanigans, and then I called Nintendo's piracy department.

Here's where it gets interesting - the Nintendo customer service rep said that they might actually be Nintendo-produced games produced for the grey market. I explained that the labels were all different, no box included, and so on, and she said that yeah - that it was more likely than not that Nintendo had still produced them. They only differ in that sometimes they're in a foreign language and sometimes multiplayer is crippled. She said go ahead and go with my gut instinct on whether or not to go through with the auctions, but they were likely legit.
Anyone else heard of this? I've heard of them doing this with DVDs, but... Nintendo?! That's kinda... strange.
 
I am curious to see the posting and the way the item was described. I got screwed over on some dvds a few months back that were crap bootlegs. There are so many crap bootleg GBA games on ebay, be very very careful.
 
Again: It's very rare even for an original GBA game in this day and age to rely on batteries for saves. For the most part, the industry has evolved beyond that.
 
[quote name='eldad9']Again: It's very rare even for an original GBA game in this day and age to rely on batteries for saves. For the most part, the industry has evolved beyond that.[/QUOTE]

Well what exactly is creating all the save and play problems in the bootlegs? Is it just cheap parts?
 
[quote name='The VGM']Bootlegs. Just look at them.[/QUOTE]

you could tell right away because of the labels and the cartriges are blacker than they should be.

what are the differences between the bootlegs and the real ones besides the price and crappy labels? battery, saving, etc.
 
That is pretty odd. I'd maybe call Nintendo a 2nd time and see if another rep tells you the same thing.

Also did the listing say anything about them not being the North American release? I suppose it probably didn't say one way or the other, but the seller is obviously banking on the fact that buyers will assume he is selling the U.S. release. Shady.

It can be a pain in the ass even buying DVDs on eBay. I generally e-mail the seller to ask something like 'Is this the U.S. (Region 1) release of the DVD just like I'd buy at a retail store?' I'm sure that annoys legit sellers, but you gotta look out for yourself as a buyer.

EDIT: Just saw you linked to his current auctions. Checked one and he put this in the standard details section:

"Format: NTSC (US, Canada) "

If that's on the ones you bought you should quote that to him and tell him games from Japan are not NTSC (US, Canada) so you want the auctions cancelled.
 
Doesn't sound like something Nintendo would do since they're so anal about piracy issues to begin with.

My friend unkowingly purchased a bootleg Advance Wars: 2 GBA game off Ebay.
 
[quote name='zionoverfire']Well what exactly is creating all the save and play problems in the bootlegs? Is it just cheap parts?[/QUOTE]

No, batteries in GBC games or some of the very first GBA games. Or worse, just missing chips altogether, so there's never any possibity on saving.

But if you've bought a recent GBA game, pirated or not, chances are it doesn't have a battery.
 
[quote name='chief928']I am curious to see the posting and the way the item was described. I got screwed over on some dvds a few months back that were crap bootlegs. There are so many crap bootleg GBA games on ebay, be very very careful.[/QUOTE]

Yea it was so bad back when I had a SP I trying to find games for it on ebay that shipped from america. and almost 95% did not. they were all bootlegs I even made a thread about, a long time back.


http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13563
 
I bought a cart-only copy of Castlevania: HOD a while back on eBay. It appears to have the normal front sticker, but the "Nintendo" stamped on the back is not like my other GBA games. Does anyone know if this would be a good sign of a bootleg? The letters in "Nintendo" look like they were stamped in a different font.
 
Definitely bootleg. No joking about it. I'd cancel pronto instead of getting stuck with one of these and especially knowing Ebay now adays.
 
The easiest way to tell if you have a bootleg cart is to see if it has a number stamped on the front. It's not colored or anything, just pressed into either the lower left or right corner of the sticker. Then again maybe they've gotten wiser since the last time I got a bootleg and changed that.

Most of the bootleggers that I've dealt with have been friendly enough. I got a Golden Sun that didn't save, emailed the guy and he sent me a new one. Anyone want to guess where the first one went?
 
The only grey market games are "not for resale" copies that nintendo gave out. The one on ebay are likely bootlegged.
 
It wouldn't surprise me at all that they these are grey market games, nor that nintendo would make grey market games. If you ever do any traveling and hit up on markets, you find these things everywhere. I've found em in a ton of markets in Europe when I used to go there a lot. The quality is usually lesser on these with what the rep from nintendo stating being pretty acurate. They usually aren't in English and they have minor bugs in them. Think of them like a beta game, cause thats how they play. Lots of minor bugs in them. I think if you want to cancel the auction, you should, but yeah grey marketing goes on big time and I'm sure nintendo participates in just like most companies. I have a feeling they use it as a beta type thing to work out bugs.
 
I'm going to give the auctioneer the benefit of the doubt. If they're all in good working condition and Nintendo doesn't have any problems with it, then why not? The price is right, and Paypal is good about charge-backs.
 
These are obviously bootlegs... look at the rating symbols for the ones that have them, they're way off the official ones. The art on them looks way off too; it's dark and generally looks really odd.

[quote name='masterh']I'm going to give the auctioneer the benefit of the doubt. If they're all in good working condition and Nintendo doesn't have any problems with it, then why not? The price is right, and Paypal is good about charge-backs.[/QUOTE]


Then you are a fool. How many people have said these are bootlegs? I wouldn't even chance it. I'm sure if you gave Nintendo the actual links to the auctions, they would be able to confirm that they're bootlegs.
 
THEN YOU ARE A FOOL! Snap!
Hey, that IS a good idea - I'll forward these to Nintendo's piracy department and have them take a look and see what's up.
 
Yes, I agree that cheap asian knock offs are far FAR too common on eBay.

It's funny, eBay takes down a Saturn system auction because it included a Gameshark, and yet they let these bootleg Gameboy games run wild!?

Buyer beware, big time.
 
They are bootlegs. Get your money back. Whenever I buy a GBA game on Ebay I search for auctions only in the USA. Then I look through feedback because MOST of the time people will mention if they got sold a bootleg. Then I try to search for people selling their own stuff rather than a major dealer. A reasonable feedback score say 50+ and a picture is ususally a good sign. It takes more time but so far I have been bootleg less.
 
One of the old ways to tell whether a cart is a bootleg or not is to look inside right above where the metallic contacts are to see if there is a white printing of @2001 Nintendo and some numbers. Like this picture here:

sfa33.jpg



If it is there, most likely it's legit, if not, you probably got gypped. Not sure how this method is a sure proof nowadays. I would call Nintendo again like someone said to see if another rep say the same thing. That rep could've been just trying to brush you off the phone because he/she doesn't want to handle such a case, or maybe they get soooo many calls nowadays regarding the same thing that they are aware of the situation but wants to get you off the phone and be happy knowing you 'might' have a legit cart.
 
I bought some knowing they were bootlegs. I've had no problems with them and for $10 bucks its a great deal.
 
I emailed Nintendo's Auction Piracy department ([email protected]) with a link and asked about the CS rep's information on Nintendo manufactured grey market games. I'll update with their response whenever it arrives.
 
[quote name='wubb']
EDIT: Just saw you linked to his current auctions. Checked one and he put this in the standard details section:

"Format: NTSC (US, Canada) "

If that's on the ones you bought you should quote that to him and tell him games from Japan are not NTSC (US, Canada) so you want the auctions cancelled.[/QUOTE]

I agree to beware of Ebay for GBA games and DVDs (especially anime), and I make SURE I look for an auction listing that explicitly states "not a bootleg", "official Region 1", or something similar.

HOWEVER.... got to clear up one little pet peeve. The correct way of describing an official US released GBA game is simply "US GBA game" - might want to clarify with "official version", "not a bootleg", etc. There's no such thing as a "Region 1" GBA game (that's a DVD standard), nor is there a NTSC GBA game.

NTSC is just a standard for transmission on televisions, which is used in most of Asia as well as the US/Canada. CONSOLE games from Japan (and most of Asia) are indeed NTSC, just like North America. We use the same television standard as Japan. Europe uses the PAL standard. SECAM is the third main standard in the world, and is not often seen in the video game world. For console games (i.e. - they display on a television using one of the above standards), standard can be important because the display might not look right if you're using a game designed for the wrong standard. Refresh rates and resolutions can differ, so you can have display problems if you're trying to play a PAL game on an NTSC television.

A portable game doesn't use NTSC, PAL, or anything of the like, because it has its own proprietary display. It doesn't need to transmit to a television of the appropriate standard, it's simply designed for its own system. The only correct way to distinguish portable games it is by what region it was released for - North America, Japan, Asia, Europe, etc. GBA games are simply GBA games, not NTSC/PAL/etc.

Region for games isn't even "Region 1", "Region 2", etc. That's only for DVDs - the traditional six region system is for DVD only. Game companies sometimes adopt a similar system, like Sony has done for PSP software (PSP Region 1 is North America, just like DVDs). However, the traditional Region number system is mainly for DVDs. Even that region isn't entirely descriptive for games, since the DVD Region 2 is Japan and Europe. For DVDs, a disc sold in the UK will play in a Japanese DVD player since they use the same region code when determining region lockout on your player. However, for games UK and Japan are very different - different signal standard (Japan = NTSC, UK = PAL) as well as different region.

All in all, Ebay just doesn't have the proper categories to select from for sellers. When I sell original Japanese games, NTSC is the closest thing I can select. They ARE NTSC (and will display properly on a NTSC television), as opposed to PAL - which many games won't display properly on an NTSC television. There isn't a choice for sellers on Ebay of "NTSC (Japan)", which is what, say, my import PS2 games would be. Ideally, when setting up auctions Ebay should (but doesn't) allow seperate selection of signal standard (NTSC/PAL) and region (N. America, Europe, Japan, Asia).

Just being picky, I know. But it doesn't hurt to be correct about things.

I prefer to properly describe my auctions in the body of the listing, and I prefer to buy from people who do the same. I do agree that 90% of Ebay GBA auctions are bootlegs. I bought a game once that still had a warez distribution group's intro screen on it - which means they just took a downloaded ROM and used a boot loader to put it on the cart. Didn't even bother to remove the header. It's just people putting ROM images on cheap (in Asia) flashable memory and selling them for cheap.
 
[quote name='evo t rex']Yes, I agree that cheap asian knock offs are far FAR too common on eBay.

It's funny, eBay takes down a Saturn system auction because it included a Gameshark, and yet they let these bootleg Gameboy games run wild!?

Buyer beware, big time.[/QUOTE]

Let's not forget that ORIGINALS are usually ASIAN as well. That said, there are also many European knockoffs of everything from consoles to carts.

http://hawanja.com/famiclones.htm

The point is that they are cheaply made crap, not that they are from any particular region.:drool:
 
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