Telling a fake and real Pokemon game apart

[Prolo]

Hi there! I recently ordered a Pokemon Gold game. It looks like this on the eBay picture:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1PCS-Game-C....c100033.m2042

Now then, how am I supposed to tell if it's real or fake..? It DOES have a seal of approval. And the colors don't seem to be off. It is coming from China and most of the things I saw on eBay that are from China are fake. I saw a few other pokemon games with colors that are completely off for some reason, and also no seal of approval whatsoever.

Can anyone tell me if it's real or fake?
It would be massively appreciated.
Thanks!

-Mark

[Ragnar]

That's 100% fake. It's not even trying to be convincing. Straight off, it doesn't say "Nintendo Gameboy" on the top, it simply says "Game".

Aside from that, all the logos and such are all arranged incorrectly. Here, look at a presumably real one:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/POKEMON-GOL...QAAOSwmLlX---P

Incorrect arrangements aside lets point out a bunch of other flaws. The stock number on the left is wrong. The plastic is the wrong color and doesn't have the metallic flake mixed in. The label sticker isn't shiny. Blurryness aside the ESRB rating just wrong, somebody photoshopped that rating up themselves. It's possible that all the blurryness isn't just a bad picture, the label could look like that...

[Prolo]

That's 100% fake. It's not even trying to be convincing. Straight off, it doesn't say "Nintendo Gameboy" on the top, it simply says "Game".

Aside from that, all the logos and such are all arranged incorrectly. Here, look at a presumably real one:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/POKEMON-GOL...QAAOSwmLlX---P

Incorrect arrangements aside lets point out a bunch of other flaws. The stock number on the left is wrong. The plastic is the wrong color and doesn't have the metallic flake mixed in. The label sticker isn't shiny. Blurryness aside the ESRB rating just wrong, somebody photoshopped that rating up themselves. It's possible that all the blurryness isn't just a bad picture, the label could look like that...

Oh, thanks alot. I am dissapointed though. I hope the game is the same though. The game is supposed to work. Thanks alot. I just hope the game is functional. Costed me bloody 4 bucks. Eh, I can't know till it arrives. Anyways, thanks so much. I will know in the future once i get it. It's either arriving in november, or in january. I made a pretty big mistake. I shouldn't have ordered it from China...
Have you had any experiences with fake copies? If you have one like mine, can you tell me about it? The returns are hopefully accepted if the game doesn't work.

[ChronoCrossCrispyTreats]

I once made the mistake of buying an emerald cartridge on eBay from someone in China (didn't pay attention to that when I bought it) and the pictures that the seller used were all of an actual legit looking cartridge. But the one that showed up, was a standard gray cartridge with an obviously and poorly home printed picture of Rayquaza. It wasn't worth fighting, so I tried it anyway and wouldn't you know it, my saves wouldn't work and the game would randomly reset while playing.

Easy indicators of fakes are first off...

How cheap they are compared to other listings.

How many the seller has available. If they seem to have a lot available and they aren't the ebay page of an actual store that sells videogames, then they are most likely knockoffs. (To be clear here, I am talking about actual stores that you can walk into and buy from in person. Some of these smaller stores that are owned by regular people and not GameStop will have eBay profiles for them to try to sell their stuff online)

If its a colored cartridge are the colors correct, as the other post stated, do they have the flakes mixed in or if they are supposed to be transparent cases, are they?

But, the main indicator of a knock off is if its from CHINA. Sure, you can definitely get knockoffs from sellers that aren't located in China. You can get knockoffs sold from any place, but if they are from China id guess its more likely crap than not.

And even after looking for all of that, you can still end up with a bait and switch like mine where every pic looked legit but then the one that shows up is completely different.

[Ragnar]

But, the main indicator of a knock off is if its from CHINA.

I have gotten some legitimate rare stuff from China, but they only had it illegitimate reasons. I'm talking about DS/3DS demo carts. Nintendo historically destroys their store demos after retrieving them from their display units. But some fool thought it'd be cheaper to send them to China for recycling. China noticed it wasn't worth their time to melt down the plastic when Ocarina of Time 3DS demos were worth $50+ on eBay, so they flooded the market. For a while they were selling them for $1 shipped...

But that's just an absurd exception. China seems to have no rules.

[VmprHntrD]

I know others have done this, but I've got a system for myself at least when using hands off buying online
- Plastic, does the color match a known good image online? (In this case no)
- Does the plastic up top say GAMEBOY or GAMEBOY COLOR? Says GAME here, that's a fake
- Sticker, find a legit image online, does this match?**
- Rear side if shown does that molding product stuff match?

** Usually pirates who are sloppy won't even match the sticker, but more now are. Does the ink look right? Does the product code on the front (CGB-AAUE-USA) match, oddly in this case it does. Does the images of the look/size of the ESRB, (Nintendo), 'seal' of approval and the rest look correct?

Most cases anyone won't show the board, but that's usually a dead give away too as the white ink Nintendo etches into the board just over the pins doesn't match. Enough of the crappier ones will have little pin holes through the pins (some/all) which Nintendo doesn't do either. All this can be seen without using a security bit.

The problem is you can't win, the newest stuff off the line in the last couple of years is 99% correct on the outside and partially inside(pins and ink number.) GBA is the worst for it. The only time I ever got one was a UK copy of Alien Hominid GBA. Side by side online it looked right, but at home once I opened it up it wasn't, and with another inspection of the ink 'theBehemoth' text for the companies emblem was 1 pixel width too thin as was one other tiny bit of text but the rest ink (dot pattern) and all was right.

[Ragnar]

Does the product code on the front (CGB-AAUE-USA) match, oddly in this case it does.

So close, but it's actually DMG-AAUE-USA on this fake

[VmprHntrD]

Doh goofed it rushing, good catch.