Maryland-based former Neo retailer in trouble with the Feds?

From a recent email a friend living near Baltimore sent me:

"It seems Jabba the Butt is finally going down. Jabba is what I call Biren Amin(sp?), the founder/owner of Pandora's Cube, formerly Pandora's Box until 1998. Imho, he's a thief, bootlegger, backstabber and just plain dishonest. There are so many stories about his illegal activities that I was always surprised no one had busted him and/or his company. Well, maybe today is the day. Just heard one of his stores got raided by the FBI. Not a bunch of people to fuck with. I went by the flagship store in College Park, to see if it was affected as well, and it was closed up with the steel door down and a simple white paper pasted upon it saying that they were closed on this day. Now, Pandora's is almost never closed (Biren needs every day to scam unsuspecting customers) so bad mojo was definitely going on. If the FBI have finally come down on him, he's looking at jailtime. With the FBI and the IRS (tax fraud is what took down Al Capone after all), he's really screwed in both directions."

Pandora's is a very notorious video game/anime chain of stores. They're well known for price gouging customers, committing mail order fraud, selling/renting bootlegs, misrepresenting import items they sell, selling stolen items, etc. I know they were routinely hawking Neo CD, AES, and Neo Pocket carts and hardware over the last six years. They managed to make a killing in the late 90's on obscenely overpriced PSX and Saturn imports. I remember they had a massive booth during an Otakon a few summers ago where I spotted a used US copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga for 250 dollars. That's just one example. You had to be an unsuspecting fool to consider buying from their selection of hundred bucks-each UK Neo Pocket carts...

Anyone here frequent the store enough to know what the hell happend and if they are under scrutiny from law enforcement??

I believe it's long overdue that these retard importers got punished somehow...

GOOD, and he deserve it I hope he will get jail for awhile.

I remember seenig them at Otakon... interesting read.

I used to know two guys that worked in his White Marsh store. I'll head up there after I finish finals next week to see what is up.


I remember the late 90's when fansubed VHS was big. They would sell the fansubed tapes for 12 bucks a tape. Also if they got a tape from a subber that had four eps on it they would split it into two tapes. I heard from someone that worked there that they would have dozens of VCRs in the back just copying tapes all day.

I'll look forward to their monster sized overlypriced booth not being at Otakon this year.

I occasionally visited their store in Springfield. You're completely right about their ridiculous prices, they were totally inflated and a joke. The only good deal I got there was when they got in a bunch of Neo home carts and sole them all for like $25-$50 each. No earth shattering titles but a friend of mine got Kabuki Klash for dirt, not a bad deal. Other than this rare exception, all the prices were a complete joke and I hardly ever bought anything from Pandora's Cube. Good riddance if in fact they're all closing . . .

Actually, Pandora's Cuba was already asked not to return to Otakon because they got caught selling H titles to minors. After they had been warned about selling modded X-Box systems that had hardrives full of ROMz.

So they wouldn't have been at Otakon anyway. But it is good to see that all the bad Karma is finally catching up with them.

Damn, never thought I'd see the day those jerkwads get what they deserved. This made my day.

Oh and 'Jabba the Butt' is absolutely spot on. I don't think I ever saw him even get out of his chair whenever I was in the dealer's room, he just kind of sat there, like some kind of professional couch potato.

Stefan give me a call- John

Oh, Jabba. I know who your talking about. That huge fat guy that I've seen at Otakon for the past three years. They always have the booth right when you walk into the Dealers Room with TV's set up.

Yeah, I think they do the modded Xboxes with TEH R0MZ because I heard one guy who worked there say how he could put in the chip, LED lights and a bigger hard drive.

Good riddance to them I say, they overcharged WAY too much at the conventions, games you can buy for 30 bucks they try to sell for 50-60 dollars. And the prices on imports? Holy crap, the Sailor Moon Super S game I have for the SuperFamicom they wanted almost 180 dollars for it, and I think sombody baught it!

Now lets hope they go after BuyRite and put those scumbags out of business too.

AAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe it's because they were selling a bootleg copy of Beat Takeshi's Zatoichi.

Which miramax just released here in the US. Or maybe it was just for bootlegging in general.

(did I mention they RENT fansubs )

www.pandorascube.com

300 for a Nintendo DS. 200 for a REFURBISHED OLD STYLE ps2. Retards...

I know Pandora's Cube quite well. They are a complete rip off. They are totally overpriced and they sell plenty of bootlegs and shit. The only thing I will give them credit for is that they will make domestic anime sets from individual discs that they will sell at decent prices. I feel no pity for this store however

I just called the white marsh one - they are still answering the phone there.

Anyone want to call up and ask if there was a fed raid?

Pandoras Cube sucked.

The owner was a complete ass.

Question his prices and he'd yell at you to get the hell out of his store.

Wow those prices are just silly ... I can't believe my eyes ... $300 for a DS that you can get at Wal-Mart or Best Buy for half that price. What the ... ?

I think I remember seeing Pandora's Cube at AX '03. Took a look at what they had, but as already said, most of it was way expensive. A good portion of it could be found at other booths and at a much better deal. If they get taken down, it's no skin off my back.

Maryland-based former Neo retailer in trouble with the Feds? Good.

Confirmed:

http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuo...tfh79544_2004-12-08_19-12-29_n08100947_newsml

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/08/1950226&tid=17&tid=10

It's a positive turn of events but how about them going after Buy-Rite and Casey?

HMM I wonder what will happen to that Euro SS2 they wanted for 150?

I hate those fucks...they had a kof 2002 for the dc on sale for $80 dollars...


...$80 dollars!?

I went to their store in Springfield in September of last year. Among the many overpriced games I saw there, I also discovered that most of their anime CDs were from Sonmay and Ever Anime. I never went back to Pandora's Cube after that.

I've been to the White marsh store several times. They were always too expensive. Apparently they got nailed for selling modified Xboxs. They came preloaded with Xbox games and other roms. I've seen one in action. There is a small article about the bust at xboxaddict.com

First off, DAMN STEFAN awesome to hear from you man

Secondly, good riddance to that scum bag

SonMay and EverAnime plague nearly every small import game store.

Go to starland and you see the same shit.

It's really sad.

really really sad.

I personally hate (buyrite.net) I've dealt with them once, the bastard sent me a beat-up merchandise calming to be a new one and that friggin stinkin owner never answer his email and I've to called them. Will never dealt with them again.