Buying a Gimmick! without getting burned

Started by nerdynebraskan, March 16, 2014, 06:30:29 am

Previous topic - Next topic

waterclocker

Most copies of Gimmick I've seen have that patina to them.  I've owned 4-5 different copies.  The label will start discoloring around the edges first.  The only copy without this I've seen was sold to me as new.  Other Sunsoft games of the era have the same issue.  That is one tell tale sign to look for.  Also, fake copies will probably not have the sharp clear printing on the small text if you can get a decent picture of the game. 

nusilver -  Would you be will to share what you paid for the case?  I have a case I was considering selling too.  Instruction manuals are hard to come by unfortunately :(

nusilver

He wanted $150 - I offered $120, expecting him to haggle, and he didn't. I paid $100 for my cart several years ago, so I think $220 altogether isn't bad, considering. And yeah, I've been hoping to come by a manual for Hebereke for years, but it's never happened, so I assume it's unlikely with Gimmick, as well. It's not the end of the world to me -- I'm glad to have these ones in boxes. :)

waterclocker

Not bad!  I paid over $500 for by like new CIB copy about 1-2 years ago.  They were super scarce at the time and I might have done better if I waited.  It seems that the demand is well know now and sellers in Japan are finding more copies to sell.  Now it looks like there are always a few copies up on ebay.

nusilver

Turns out it was a counterfeit - I have other boxes on hand to compare it to, and the label is several CM too small, the print bleeds, small text is almost illegible, etc. I'm bummed out, but he'll give me a refund (or eBay will extract it from his bank account) and I'll move on with my life. If you're interested in selling your box, and manual, do let me know, but I'm afraid I can't go higher than $150, which is probably unreasonable for you (and I totally understand!)

compile_6502

Sorry to hear it was fake.  It seemed too good to be true.  I almost bought it a couple of weeks ago, but it didn't make sense that no one was buying at the listed price.

Can you please post the ebay username so I can be careful in future dealings?

nusilver

March 23, 2015, 12:11:31 pm #35 Last Edit: March 23, 2015, 12:49:09 pm by nusilver
Actually, I'm going to edit this post to say "soon" -- will post his username once I've gotten my refund. He provided a return label so I'll be shipping it out tomorrow.

Yelir

Sorry to hear about your misfortune! I came across the eBay listing as well a short time ago, and almost pounced but the CDN to USD translation is less than favorable at the moment. I had a thought that it could be a reproduction sleeve but then I've never seen an original in person (yet). :(

nusilver

Let me put it this way: It's pretty obvious to anyone with a brain that video game cover art was not printed on inkjet printers. Text should not bleed or be illegible, regardless of how small it is. Also, there are high res photos of legit ones online, so if you ever suspect you've been sold something... off... it shouldn't be hard to tell. But now that I've seen a fake in person, anyone here is welcome to ask for advice if another legit box ever shows up at random (which I doubt, notwithstanding the person here who may be looking to sell his.)

FrankWDoom

Quote from: nerdynebraskan on March 07, 2015, 02:50:17 pm
Well, I broke down and did it. I just dropped a chunk of change and a Gimmick showed up in the mail for me today. Usually, something like this would be grounds for bragging in the Finds thread, but I'm still paranoid about this. I figured I'd post some photos and give a little description and see what y'all think about it.

There's definitely discoloration on most of the front label, if that's not obvious in the photo. It actually seems like only the edges of the label are the original light-blue. It looks like the glue used may have darkened/yellowed the majority of the label by a couple of shades.


That looks kind iffy to me. Fair disclaimer, I've never handled a real Gimmick cart but I've handled plenty of NES repros. The things that jump out at me are:

- label is misaligned
- label looks poorly cut, or at least more so than I would expect from a factory cut label
- text in white box looks blue, vs green on on the legit examples I could find

Before you open it I'd check the weight on a small scale. Ceramic eproms will make a repro cart noticeably heavier than a legit one with plastic mask roms.

nusilver

So, since that box ended up being a fake and who knows when a real one is gonna show up, I ended up just making my own at home. Protip for counterfeiters: *don't* make fake crap that looks worse than what I can print at home with a 10-year-old deskjet printer.

By the way, I had to make the spine for this from scratch using photos (including some of the photos I took of the fake box to show eBay it was a counterfeit), and I won't be uploading the image to the internet -- don't want to contribute to more fakes out there. Just thought you guys might like to see what I made last night. I know the color on Yumetarō is off on the spine, but I'm really happy with how it turned out :)


MarioMania

Everybody here knows I'm on a tight budget, I don't have like $200 or more to spend on a hard to find game

I wouldn't mind have a Repro Cart of a High Demand game like The Flintstones on the NES or even DuckTales 2 --  Yes I know I have an EverDrive to do that, But I like holding the Cart in my Hands

If I knew how to Repro Game on my own, I would do that, I won'y sell it. cuz it's fake

nerdynebraskan

I'm still agonizing over this.

I definitely see how mine has the similar discoloration patterns on the one that nusilver has posted pictures of.

I'm pretty sure I have one with expansion audio. There's just so many layers to the soundtrack. I've tried listening to different versions of the soundtrack on YouTube, but it's hard to be sure given the differences in speakers on my TV and my computer (and on the recording devices of those uploading videos of THEIR tvs). I did see a couple of guys running side-by-side comparisons of their Gimmick cart with a Gimmick ROM running off of an Everdrive. I went ahead and tried that too, but I don't have a US prototype ROM for a great side-by-side comparison. The versions of the JP ROM I ran were definitely missing layers on the Everdrive (most sound effects were even missing), and the PAL version definitely seems simpler (although it's also over-clocked on my NTSC console, so comparisons are difficult).

I've added a photo of the pins as LET asked for. I've pried at the bottom a little to look at the PCB a little bit better. I haven't been able to see any wires, but obviously I haven't had a great view.

Also, I appreciate Frank W Doom's careful eye for detail. Yes, my label is slightly crooked, but this seems more common among FC than NES games for whatever reason. Off the top of my head, I'd guess I probably have at least a couple of others that aren't well-centered (and they're cheap games; no reason to think they're bootlegs). And yeah, the label does seem a little rough especially along the left edge. But the edges don't look pristine on nusilver's either, if I'm seeing them well from his picture. The color question is tricky, since the label is already discolored.
Can Nintendo Age Beat Every NES Game in 2015?

http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=140551

muckyfingers

I took a look at my FME-7 boards and they are all the same on cartridge connectors. So here is a quick and easy way to tell if your Gimmick is legit or not. Simply turn the cartridge over and look at the connector, if it looks like this in anyway it's a boot/repro. If it only has 1 set of pins jumpered, it's legit.

Click on the picture to expand.


nerdynebraskan

Thanks. I only have one set of "jumpers", so I guess this is a 5B. But there are other 5B Sunsoft carts, right? And those are what get chopped up to make the expansion-audio clones of Gimmick!, right? Would they all have the same pin configuration?
Can Nintendo Age Beat Every NES Game in 2015?

http://nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=140551

muckyfingers

There's only 1 5B board and that's Gimmick!. All others are FME-7 boards that might happen to have a 5B chip. All these FME-7 boards will have 2 jumpers, even if they contain a 5B chip inside.