SPOT A COUNTERFEIT: THE OBVIOUS

GBA GAME! BRAND NEW! Right, sure. First of all, it should be shrink wrapped in plastic. You should be able to return it to a store if it's so brand new. Duh. We bought Backyard Sports. This is how it came to us:




THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE COMPLETELY OBVIOUS

Whaddya think, we're blind? Anyone can print a box at home and attempt to sell the item as "New". Fortunately, this leads to sloppiness. People get arogant, they get in a hurry!

In the photo, you'll notice that the maker of the box left a red FPO, not once, but twice (!) over the basketball players. The creases are sloppy, as if done by hand, and the edges appear to be cut with scissors.








Once again, same thing here. The game label doesn't always necessarily match the box exactly, especially in Gameboy games because of their small size. But naturally, the maker of this one forgot to remove the FPO before printing!

We've got a real winner here. The orange boxed game is the fake. The one with blue background is brand-stinking new, still in it's shrink wrap, fresh from the store. Compare the detail that is onvolved in the authentic game versus the counterfeit.

1. The game rating should be large enough to read easily without the use of an aid, such as a magnifying glass. (on the fake the "rating" is just above the bar code)

2. Copyright and trademark info should all be there.

3. The Nintendo Seal of Quality should be there!!!

These are just a few items to point out, but just comparing the two and you should know right away which is authentic and which is not.

Ok, so the photo above came out horrible. But you should still be able to see how sloppy the game label was put on The Ant Bully (the fake) versus Fortress (authentic). On the left side of the game, you can see the groove in which it should be aligned with. DEAD GIVE AWAY!