Topic: Are repro carts safe to buy?

I've been trying to add to my snes collection but many of the better games have ridiculous prices on ebay. At least the official ones. I've noticed there's a few sellers with reproduction carts. Do these actually work just like the originals? Has anyone had any experience with these?

I was gonna post my thoughts in more detail, but looking at the guidelines, I don't want to get in trouble even if I'm still encouraging you to get your games through legitimate means. There are better ways of "getting" these games to run on original hardware while saving even more money, but I'm not gonna go into details and I'd honestly encourage you to just play them on the Virtual Console.

Oh, wait. The guidelines say "in the context of emulating previous generation(s) hardware." Ok. I'd honestly suggest you buy up Virtual Console releases while you still can, dump them, extract the ROMs, and put them on an EverDrive. This would technically save you money if you plan on buying a lot of games.

Buying repro carts isn't really legitimate, and it puts more fakes in the market. Hacking a 3DS and Wii U to dump your Virtual Console games is technically legitimate, and it's cheaper than buying repro carts for all of them.

I've been looking into those everdrive things. Sounds like that is probably the better way to go. I would prefer getting the legit versions of games but those prices especially on ebay are crazy.

I have a few repro carts myself and they work just fine on my original systems and my clone systems as well. I know alot of people say their bad because it puts fakes out in the market but, if you just want to get them to play and for your own collection I don't see anything wrong there.

They may work sometimes, but in the vast majority of cases they'll be infringing copyright and/or trademarks.

If you're going to collect pirated games to play them on original hardware, consider getting a flashcart instead. It'll work out a lot cheaper and there's less likelihood of it ever getting mixed up with authentic cartridges should you decide to sell it on.

Yes, I would go with a flash cart. If you're going that route, downloading ROMs and using them I would say is less wrong than using bootleg cartridges (let's stop calling them "repros" and call them what they are, no need to give the bootleggers some feel-good attention).
You're still getting a pirated copy, but not letting someone make money off it.

You can get safe ones but based on my experience with them they don't work as intended or at all. Proceed with caution and at your own risk.

If you own the original game still then downloading ROMs is perfectly ok. Every ROM I've downloaded over the years I still own the original game for each one of them.

@RubyCarbuncle That message was in the context people often buy "repros" of games they don't legally own.

Yeah, if you've bought a game and still own it, your conscience should be clear. Rip as many copies as you like. Print your own label and box art if they're missing. It's yours, do what you like. You're only getting into dubious legal territory if you sell it on.

I'd think bootlegs and flash carts are mostly going to get used to fill out collections where prices have inflated to the extent that you'd have to sell vital organs to get the missing games. That's illegal and don't try to sugar coat it. It's mostly the people who host downloads and manufacture and sell bootlegs and flash carts that get sued though, not the end users.

I know it's alright I was just saying. Personally it doesn't bother me if people own the game or not because let's be honest if it wasn't for these ROM sites preserving old games we would have next to no way of playing them unless you're willing to pay a lot which I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't be, except hardcore retro collectors ofc.