Topic: Tons of Pirated DS Games on Ebay

Hello everyone! I just wanted to update you on the arrival of my copy of Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland. It arrived today, one week from the time I purchased it on eBay and in perfect condition too! It was factory sealed and is without a doubt an official Nintendo product; not a bootleg, thank God! I played it for a little while and it is indeed a very strange and bizarre game but I absolutely love it! I really hope that Nintendo does bring the sequel to this game to the US next time around but for now I'm going to enjoy this little treasure! Thank you all for your time!

Ebay is evil, only time I buy stuff on there is when my dad is around, since he knows Ebay very well. But yeah if I bought a game online it would be from Amazon.

Ebay isn't inherently evil, there are just some evil sellers to watch out for. I've never had a single problem on eBay personally, though my brother has bought one or two bootleg games by mistake before we learned to search only for games in the US. But they still worked just fine, so we didn't worry about it TOO much.

Never buy from HK. Buy from the US, Canada or Japan (if importing.) Look carefully at the picture and description. If it states its a genuine game (hopefully it will) then you can 100% demand a refund if it is not. Always buy from expereienced sellers (high # next to Star) with a % of 90+, preferably 95+. If they have negative feedback, see why they received it.
FALSEHOOD: "If its cheap, it can't be legit." In an auction, that's the whole point. Be suspicious of cheap BUY IT NOW items though.
I have ebayed DS, Wii, and PS2 games with no problem by following these kinds of rules.

Europe's fine for imports too, Objection_Blaster. Better, even, because the games are actually in English!
Almost every seller I've bought from recently had hundreds of sales with 100% positive feedback. If you know how to use eBay, you won't really even run into anybody else.

@Wolf...Yeah it sounds like your OK on that one. Its mostly when the game is really cheap and now that the DSi is out that will put the will NOT play on DSi on the listing. Ive got to pick up Tingle at some point. Ive bid several times on it but never won because it went up higher than I wanted to pay. Like everyone else is saying here though ALWAYS check the feedback. That was my biggest mistake in my two pirated copies ive bought for the DS.

Never buy ANYTHING from Hong Kong. I ordered an "iPod" from there, thinking it was an official iPod. Turned out to be some cheap knock-off. It's broken now. Woot.

@slapshot82: Yeah I do consider myself lucky with my purchase. I was careful but it was the very first item that I have ever bought on eBay so it could have gone horribly wrong. I'm really sorry to hear about what happened to you though. I think this thread has been very helpful and hopefully it can spare other people from being scammed.

beware of resellers on Amazon, they can be just as shady as auctioners on eBay. :3

@theblackdragon....I hear you on that one. Amazon doesn't even require pics on their used games. I actaully was looking for a copy of Shantae on the Net the other day just to see what was out there and found a copy from a site that sells alot of used games. Most all of them were priced 14.99 - 24.99 and Shantae was right there in them at 14.99 but I didn't buy because of the piracy problems. Never know though. Some guy just may not know what he has.

Like I enjoy spreading around the web, I got a genuine copy of Shantae for $3 at Gamestop because that company really has NO CLUE about the value of that game.

Oh my God you suck LOL. (not really) I asked them about it and my buddy pulled it up on the computer and told me just that. Well if we DID have it it would be 3.99. LOL. Thats awesome you got that. I really hope I can get lucky and get that one someday without really having to shell out the cash big time. I really want to play thru that one.

Okay, I'll just buy em off Amazon instead. eBay should really and literally cooperate with nintendo to combat counterfeit piracy.

@slapshot82: I got a lot of ridicule for buying a game my coworkers knew nothing about with a label like this, though.

I was just too exited we had a copy, I guess. I claimed it as "MINE" rather forcefully.

I only get games from the store. Not online. If u get a game online, it costs more and you get it sooner if you just go to the store.

Huh. Yeah, I don't think that's true.

1. Generic Boxart instead of actual pictures
2. Too cheap compared to places like gamestop.com or other trusted game retailers (specially if it's a buy it now, new unit)
3. Comes from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, etc.

If all 3 are true, then it's a counterfeit 100% of the time
When buying on eBay, only buy from trusted sellers (Good rep, 95%+), and avoid at all cost that the 3 conditions above are true (Specially number 3, that's where most pirated and counterfeit stuff comes from)

Every single DS game I've bought from eBay has been legit.

AWWWW!!!! Now how am I going to import the other Starfy titles and catch up with Kid Icarus 2 and Metroid 2??

I ordered six SNES games from eBay, and they work just fine and are legit.

And this is why I buy my games on Amazon or Gamestop.