How to not buy fake AES shit...a guide

awbacon

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Ok well for most of us this is stuff we know, but I made it anyway because I was reorganizing part of my collection and lately I’ve seen more games for sale on sites like eBay (probably due to people needing $ due the pandemic, which is sad) plus the fact not everyone that comes here is a old timer experienced buyer.

And no I didn’t blame the French in the video lol.

But hey if it helps even one person not get burned on a repro / boot passed off as a multi thousand dollar game I’m cool with it!
 

theMot

Reformed collector of junk
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Personally, I laugh my sick ass off when I find out these collecting mutants get ripped off. Delete this, don’t be a kill joy.
 

yagamikun

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Yay! That copy of Pulstar I sold you had it's 15 minutes of fame! (or 6 minutes). lol
 

awbacon

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Yay! That copy of Pulstar I sold you had it's 15 minutes of fame! (or 6 minutes). lol

Lol that's why I made sure to reference in the video I knew it was a conversion too :)
 

awbacon

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Personally, I laugh my sick ass off when I find out these collecting mutants get ripped off. Delete this, don’t be a kill joy.

Lol some of the "bad buys" are particularly bad and you wonder how someone didn't realize it wasn't real after a cursory look at the photos but...I still have the scamming shit that goes on with boots and AES/MVS. So while I enjoy the occasionally comedy of it all...fuck scammers!
 

Heinz

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I didn't see you use a loupe or gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to determine authenticity. This is not a definitive guide!
 

awbacon

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I didn't see you use a loupe or gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to determine authenticity. This is not a definitive guide!

That’s part 2. I also send it off to my go to psychic so she can get the aura of the game and tell me it’s lineage down to the name of the Japanese guy who worked the manufacturing line that day
 

Heinz

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That’s part 2. I also send it off to my go to psychic so she can get the aura of the game and tell me it’s lineage down to the name of the Japanese guy who worked the manufacturing line that day

Don't forget to enlist a professional smellist, you cannot manufacture the smell of real aes.
 

awbacon

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Don't forget to enlist a professional smellist, you cannot manufacture the smell of real aes.

Lol I mention that in the video description since I wasn’t about to shoot myself smelling games.
 

NexusX

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Very cool video. But you kind of showed your hand when all the other AES games were in plastic sleeves except the Pulsar. Clearly you didn't care about the condition of that as much.
 

awbacon

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Very cool video. But you kind of showed your hand when all the other AES games were in plastic sleeves except the Pulsar. Clearly you didn't care about the condition of that as much.

Lol I left that in as a bit of a “cab you tell the difference” joke
 

Neo Alec

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Thanks for making this. I've considered making an MVS bootleg guide, since the only video available right now is basically just "check the gotwalls site".
 

2D_mastur

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Don't forget to look for the neohymen.
 

CORY

a.k.a. Mother Teresa
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Another thing that can help the noobs is the neo-geo.com cart pics section. Legit Pulstar carts don't come with a warning sticker. Boom, problem solved. Sure, a single low rez pic per game isn't much these days but sometimes boots come with the wrong arts or the wrong type of cases and these pictures can help spotting this kind of things in a matter of seconds.

pulstar.jpg
 

Digmac

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Thanks for making this. I've considered making an MVS bootleg guide, since the only video available right now is basically just "check the gotwalls site".

I made one a while back, pretty in depth actually. I just don’t have traction on YouTube so not many have seen it.
 

Burning Fight!!

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I made one a while back, pretty in depth actually. I just don’t have traction on YouTube so not many have seen it.

It helps to actually link to it when you mention it, otherwise I don't see it gaining traction :lolz:
 

wyo

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The video was a good beginner's guide but would you have known Pulstar was a boot if you weren't already aware of it? Knowing this fact up front, you were able to retroactively conclude a crime against gaming was committed, much like a viewer of the classic detective series Columbo. You mention the case being a repro but what if an authentic case was swapped out? Did you open the shell and check the boards? What if original ROMs were carefully soldered onto the correct PCBs? What about questionable English releases such as AF3 where it comes down to paper analysis?

I can tell you one thing: ASID is not going to be impressed with these oversights!
 

awbacon

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The video was a good beginner's guide but would you have known Pulstar was a boot if you weren't already aware of it? Knowing this fact up front, you were able to retroactively conclude a crime against gaming was committed, much like a viewer of the classic detective series Columbo. You mention the case being a repro but what if an authentic case was swapped out? Did you open the shell and check the boards? What if original ROMs were carefully soldered onto the correct PCBs? What about questionable English releases such as AF3 where it comes down to paper analysis?

I can tell you one thing: ASID is not going to be impressed with these oversights!

lol Colombo. I prefer Murder She Wrote myself. Angela Lansbury would be on the case for sure. And yes anyone with any common sense would have known Pulstar was a boot. It doesn’t have a common center PCB pin. It had individual ones. Dead giveaway. Plus it doesn’t smell like the inside of an ashtray :)
 

Late

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Personally, I laugh my sick ass off when I find out these collecting mutants get ripped off. Delete this, don’t be a kill joy.

Personally, I think it's great if the video helps to reduce the sales of any counterfeitbro on eBay.
 

Neo Alec

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A Pulstar conversion with original boards like your Neo Bomberman probably would've been harder to pick out, especially with a repro manual, if done well. You wouldn't have been able to tell by the weight. But I'm glad you mentioned the weight, since there are now so many 100% repros on Etsy now.

I think you’ve got a good point, man. :lolz:

Here’s my MVS bootleg guide for anyone who wants to check it out
https://youtu.be/nzS1W2edPW8
Thanks. I subbed.
 
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