Hey everyone. So it's been over 5 years since I posted board pics of my Breakers homecart, and after receiving some responses here, I pretty much stopped worrying about it's potential of inauthenticity.
BUT, I've been surfing eBay here and there lately, and I was looking at this cart that's listed as a conversion.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Neo-Geo-AES-Breakers/274424053187?hash=item3fe4f2bdc3:g:RNAAAOSwj~5fCLfr
Comparing the boards and soldering job to my own boards...they look pretty much identical. The only glaring difference is that the contacts/edges of the board are almost white in color, and have a different (pin?) arrangement.
Now, I don't have a keen eye for soldering proficiency so maybe there are some "give aways" I'm not seeing (of course the cart label is a give away with the 1996 year printed instead of 1997).
My ultimate question is this : Can the appearance of a cart's contacts serve as an important indicator of authenticity today when makers of conversions are doing soldering jobs that look factory level?
Also, I've observed is that the contacts for my cart are a darker green than the picture of the Breakers cart listed here on the neo-geo.com cart pics gallery (though the arrangement of pins seems to be identical). I'm not sure whether or not this should be a cause for concern. I don't know how much variation (if any at all) exists within the realm of contacts among various carts.
(Here is the cart from the gallery)
(The picture below is my cart).
I removed the imgur a while back that listed the board pics of my cart, but I can definitely reupload these pics if anyone thinks they would be helpful in determining...well, anything.