ZandGEmporium Keeps Getting SCAMMED Buying Sealed Video Games
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- Опубліковано 23 сер 2024
- This guy just can't seem to catch a break! Good reminder to always do your due diligence when buying raw factory sealed games. Fortunately, he should be able to get a full refund for this purchase! Also, this is why having authentication companies is so dang helpful.
Original eBay listing to see the photos again: www.ebay.com/i...
ZandGEmporium's Channel: / @zandgemporium
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Video game collecting and investing UA-cam with emphasis on vintage video games. Grading VGA and WATA retro collector. Gaming with consideration on rarest games ever or most expensive games. Talking about N64, NES, Super Nintendo, DS, 3DS, Sega Mario and More!
That's why I buy used games and seal them myself so i know I'm not getting scammed
5Head
So that's what you tell unsatisfied buyers huh 😂
ZandG is such a smart businessman. Intentionally buys resealed games in order to get a free shoutout on Greg’s channel.
There are so many "repros" in the retro market as is. The fact that we have to worry about the plastic around it is just sad...
Very well done notification my man. It's so easy to get scammed. I stay away from these exorbitant prices and bought most of my sealed stuff when it was either at retail or got it on the cheap because nobody wanted it. There's so many nuances that if you miss one thing you can get caught.
As the prices climb, it's probably only likely to get worse, unfortunately
Worst thing about this is that it implies that the fraud will continue (by at least this same seller) and will become more common.
Oh sad day when the original cellophane from the early 00’s has been replaced by cellophane from 2020. Totally worthless item.
facts aha
Man, I played the crap out of Advance Wars!
This is one that I completely missed out on. Never played it, never really paid attention to it. When I saw how much it was selling for sealed I was baffled haha
The last few games I've bought raw, I warp zoned to wata in the hopes i could get authentication within the 30 day return period on ebay. This is assuming everything checks out for me, of course. The one thing I always look for now, even on a perfect seal, is an ink break on the top flap of a Y fold box (or on either side of a double ended box). Very clever camera work by this seller.
YES! More scammed videos. You’ve made my day Greg.
Same. Greg is my new favorite tuber.
Great video. I remember getting a re-sealed tomb raider and having my heart sink. I swear I had a denial period of about 3 days before I accepted it wasn’t factory.
I got one of those too! Same scammer seller? Although this was back when games were dirt cheap, so it wasn't a huge hit.
@@boxwi must have been. It wasn’t expensive so I took a chance. You live and learn!
Before watching the reveal my thought was "maybe the color break on the edge" which by the way you taught me!
Man, I was sooo close to bidding on this one, but it looked kinda fishy and was shipping from over seas. Bummer it happened to Z&G :(
Honestly, this makes it so difficult to buy anything online that's supposed to be sealed. Maybe sticking with graded games is the way to go?
Comes with quite the premium to always buy graded but at least you have the peace of mind!
The ebay listing had every possible photo except the one necessary to confirm its not a reseal, usually my first red flag. If I cant verify color breaks I usually stay away.
I also found that amusing, but not many sellers actually ever include a good hinge shot unless you specifically ask
@@GetTheGreg truth. It does make me wonder though, if someone bought a WATA NS, cracked the slab, and gave it this type of reseal job and resubbed, would it pass certification. Reseals are just going to keep getting better.
I agree with this... Like no, this H seam example isn't perfect, but the proof of concept is absolutely there...
@@GetTheGreg Bingo.
@@GetTheGreg quick everybody! Wata NS to the moon!
This is what I've been preaching everywhere, while usually being met with denial.
Counterfeit games for NES and up to PS2 have existed for over a decade already, so when any title is selling for hundreds, scammers will inevitably perfect their craft and get to work.
I could tell this was fake, but if you got fooled by this one you've got a rough road ahead... And we should expect some counterfeits are already going undetected 😕
Yeah, your video really helped me in determining what an authentic factory seal vs a fake one should look like.
On the internet, it is very easy to get scammed because there are grainy photos, or not enough angles and stuff to determine if it’s original or not.
It is easier to figure out if an old boxed game was resealed or not, but I’m sure that it is way easier to fake and fool people on factory seals on rare and valuable PS1 or GameCube games. You can’t look at the hinge for irreversible paint cracking on those like you easily can a box.
The red flag to me was the Seams are way too thick / big / pronounced. And the seal looks too shiny, reflective and tight. Looks like the seal was made recently , not in the early 00’s.
WOW! I really gotta keep an eye out for fakes now. Hey Greg, you should have your own authentication service too XD
Vent holes are the tell tale sign of an actual sealed game. No vent holes = fake.
I agree but how do you spot the vent holes online?
After 2 years the scammer know how to improve the fakes
btw.. i was looking some games on ebay and there is almost no way to tell if some copies are resleaed or not..
First red flag for me would be how bold the H seam is across the back. Usually it's pretty faint, and you can't even see it from far away.
🤣 "Sorry, con PEOPLE out there! It's 2022, women will also scam you" priceless!
I can't even trust my own grandma anymore.. 😪
Yeah the paint is broken on the lid bend, that’s a dead giveaway. That’s how you can tell if Japanese games are new or not since they don’t have seals.
I feel bad for the guy :/ I hate when people ruin the hobby
I always liked the xbox 360 and ps1 and ps2 sticker seals that seems to have like holo on them. Probably harder to fake. Then shrink wrapped over top. Its probably pretty easy to make a y or h seal in like 5 years.
Just got a powerstone 2 back as a reseal just shows how much certification is needed
Yikes, I mean when you look at these photos it shows how difficult it is to know 100% what is legit when it comes to sealed stuff. It's way more difficult than identifying, for example, a bootleg GBA or DS cart. These are very subtle details.
Yep I don’t have enough knowledge to tell this is a reseal. The seller did a good job not ethical though
I’m pretty it’s because it doesn’t have the breathing holes?
The way people reseal games in Europe is usually by taking seals from cheap games, opening up the y fold on one side very carefully, sliding the game out and putting a different game in. I have done some experimenting with this myself (to learn not to sell obviously lmao) with some cheap 3ds games and it's surprisingly doable. It sucks because aside from glue residue it's extremely difficult to catch, especially on ps2 as the quality control of the y folds isn't that high to begin with so messy folds are not really an indication either. I wonder if you have any tips for this considering that, aside from the tear strip, disc based nintendo games in the US and the EU use the same Y-fold system.
That is unfortunately a big issue with North American games, too. GameCube, Wii, late PS2, PS3, etc have nothing other than simple Y folds so you have to be very careful and scrutinize every game with value
dude how tf do you have a sealed Sculptors cut? how? That's insane.
haha I wish man. Only a CIB for me. Pretty sure there are only like 2 confirmed sealed Sculptor's Cuts floating around
Seller has another sealed video game up with plenty bids on it. Not sure if that one is genuine factory sealed or not but I wouldn’t touch it
Yea I have it a good look over too and the seam lines look a bit weird (or maybe I'm just completely bias now). But yea, no shot I would touch it either haha
Man feel bad for this guy
Biggest red flag to me is that h seam is quite wonky, it can have a little curve but should not be wavy also always remember vent holes are your friends on stuff like this! Ask the seller for pics that show the vent holes that helps immensely
Yes! Thankfully the H seam still needs work, but it definitely makes .e feel it's only a matter of time until it's damn near perfect
@@GetTheGreg I agree it's still quite scarily good and an unfortunate sign of things to come
@@GetTheGreg I think the only reason we haven't seen any faked sticker seal boxes is that it's so hard to find third print boxes to put the sticker on if that wasn't the case I bet those would get faked a lot too
I just picked up a sealed moon patrol for the atari 2600 for $5.99 out of a bargain bin from the same place i got the sealed halo 2. You might remember i asked you about it during a live stream .. its not in great shape at all. Theres 2 small holes in the seal, the hangtab is half missing and the box is dented. But hell for 5.99, i have my first and only atari game, in factory sealed condish, and the best part is that i KNOW its real. Lol thanks for all your informative content Greg, and for being a cool dude.
Haha you can't complain about that price point!
Can you do sealed DVD case games? Tips and what to look for?
I need to go out and get a reseal first. It's harder to explain without having side by side comparisons!
Greg - Ur the best man. TY!! 🙏🏽
H-Seam is MUCH thinner / harder to see on the legit game.
If a game like Rodea the Sky Soldier for wii u ever became expensive, sealed collector's would be screwed. The original seal of that game looks like my deceased blind grandmother did it with a roll of plastic wrap she found in a dumpster.
Would have fooled me.
Some other flaws I see. The length of the wrinkles around the edges look too small. The y fold usually doesn't continue on to the other side. The side seams are not straight. The H seam and side seams are uneven in width.
It's getting scary how close scammers are getting to replicating OEM seals. At first glance yes it looks real and good enough for most people to get scammed.
I would think it's an original seal. I don't collect sealed games, but know of the H seal etc just from collecting and loving games for a couple decades. Hopefully the seller wasn't malicious and thought it was genuine.
With gamecube I hate to say it but just because wata denies it doesn’t mean it’s a reseal. Especially the short print variants wont match up to the mass printed titles. Like the Kmart games or Metroid Windwaker.. They are y fold but different and they get denied but are authentic.
Oooo that's really interesting. I'm not nearly as well versed in GC nuance as the lack of security seals/UPC strips always made me much more hesitant to dive in deep
@@GetTheGreg Ya gamecube is crazy.
It's hard I bought a castlevania ps2 and it was a reseal. But i got lucky with mario pinball land because it was still in the hard costco case
Same seller Mario & Yoshi and Pokemon Crystal pal uk version with fake usa seal.
Damn what a bummer. This is a big reason I don't bother collecting sealed or mint stuff. Just whatever used secondhand games or consoles I liked as a kid. Too much stress in trying to make sure everything is legit. Side note Advance Wars is a fucking BANGER, easily my most played GBA game
Gonna die one day, no need for me to collect too much. I like collecting to an extent but we can't take it with us.
These reseals are getting better and better unfortunately... and its ruining the hobby
Surprised he didn't open it. Fake seals often don't have the original game in them.
He still has recourse to return it thankfully!
Colors look darker on the fake one
Just realized this was a dumb comment since apparently it was a legit CIB copy just the seal was fake , but it weirdly did look darker. Maybe UV damage on the sealed one…
nice vid. I myself collect sealed videogame, and only once i stumbled on something strange; a sealed game on the wii but inside the seal wrap, there was a small hair and some dust. i thought how can this be real if there are dirt inside the wrapping wrap.
I really wonder if the Grading companies have enough skills to detect this kind of thing. Seeing how they screwed up with some grades and with the Logan Paul debacle in mind... seems unlikely.
My hope is that WATA doesn't start cutting any kind of corners with authentication as they expand. This is largely why CGC has to go out of its way to hire multiple experts in order to even get started haha
So is the SNES super bowling the ebay seller is selling also a resealed game?
It's hard for even me to say 100% for sure from the photos, but I *think* so. There is at least enough 🚩 for me to ignore the listing/not take the risk. If it is indeed fake, it's another one that would have to be examined the same as the Advance Wars in the video.
@@GetTheGreg check your ebay messages 😎
So sneaky 👀
Haha, yes, equal opportunity scam market in 2022 :D
#progression
the seal on american games looks so easy to fake, so glad the uk games gave a nintendo strip in the plastic ect, bit more secure
I agree. I wish we also would have gotten those Nintendo strips!
Weight is already being used for Sealed Yugioh games as most of the value comes from the included promo cards, If the weight is too low then the cards have likely been removed and the game resealed :c
I remember seeing Ruxins heartbreaking DDS experience 😢
Interesting, I never thought about the cardboard colour breaking before. Does this mean things are harder or easier to reseal on newer gen like dvd games.
Easier overall as the focus can purely be on perfecting the seal itself. Games like PS3, Wii, GC, etc where there are no security strips are easy targets. Not that there aren't ways to still tell under intense scrutiny, but easier to fool the common collector overall.
@@GetTheGreg Right, very good point, thanks for the info! Any plans to do a Fake/Real Seal video on these types of games?
Ugly wobbly back seam
Interesting. I just won an auction for a sealed Drill Dozer at a decent price yesterday. Looks legit from the pictures but I’m pretty new to this. I imagine it will be fine because it is not a very high value game so I imagine scammers would go for bigger money games. I will take a closer look when I get it. The seller has a decent history of sealed and graded game selling.
Is it common for Wata graded games to be faked or is that harder because of being sealed inside the case and the effort that would take? I know there is also a QR code type thing on the back so I assume that will help verify authenticity as well. Just wondering if that is a safer buy for a newer collector.
The people at WATA in general are experts at authentication (I learned a lot of what I know over the years from the people who eventually started the company) which means you can feel like 99.99% confident you're buying something authentic if it's been WATA certified.
Actually faking the entire casing isn't plausible at this time with the amount of safety checks they have on it.
@@GetTheGreg Good to know. I recently bought my first WATA game and it seemed like a pretty good price for the rating and condition. I bought from a reputable seller. The only concern I had was a very small tear in the seal near the corner of the box yet the seal still had an A+ rating. It’s more of a tear than a hole if that makes sense. Again, I’m no expert so I trust the people who are. Anyway thanks for the videos. I’m a new subscriber. I’m a lifelong gamer but new to collecting and your videos have been very helpful.
Something to note about that, their seal rating is softer in actuality than their website describes. It's not uncommon for there to be a slight rip/tear/corner poke(s) in an A+ seal. It's something they really should update.
Cheers man!
@@GetTheGreg That’s what threw me off! I saw the website said “no holes” in an A+ seal rating so I started wondering how mine could be rated A+. Then I thought well maybe a tear is different than a hole. It’s very small but still noticeable. No way an expert would miss it. That makes sense. 😅 Thanks!
yeah i would rather not buy them lol
Another great video
Ya I can instantly tell. The corners have no fanning and the shrink is too tight.
Not everything has vent holes though. I have legit nes games without em. Sometimes the end of the shrink roll doesn’t have em.
Sure you can mate, you should get paid to verify these as you are obviously such an expert
Dam right, I ain't click on the Link😈😈😈🔥🇺🇲
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too damn predictable aha!
second
First one i