Think i might have been scammed

Pretty sure i've been scammed here, but i'd like a second oppinion please..

Getting back in to the old GBA Pokemon games, i wanted to pick up a copy of Leaf Green.

Went on eBay, found a seller selling one.

I should point out i had briefly looked at a 'how to tell fakes' page which made me check both the sticker and the (C) Nintendo on the board.

The seller's pics looked legit and the price seemed reasonable for a legit cart (I paid around £40) as i'd just paid £35 for a legit copy of Ruby about a month before from a different seller.

It arrived today. Popped it in my GBA SP and it immediately launched in to a new game, i went through it and saved the game. Tried to reload it and got "The save file will be loaded". I don't have the triwing screwdriver to pop open the cover and i can't link the pictures i took because i just made this account to post here :/ The board says (C) Nintendo 2002 AGB-E05-01. The sticker print does look legit (its a PAL cart), although when i look at the sticker it does look pretty shiny.

I contacted the seller and said i think the cart if fake, but he maintains it's legit.

If anybody would give their oppinion, that'd be great as i think this is gonna have to go to eBay.

Thanks in advance :)

Posted 5 times, so now i can post a link to the pictures.

https://filebin.net/312zsr6972aeyseg

Opinions welcome

Some aspects of it look real, but others, like letter thickness, make it seem like a well-faked copy to me. :x It's also missing the ESRB rating. You unfortunately likely did get scammed - I'd report this to eBay and demand a refund. This is a good guide that I was following.

Yes, certainly looks fake to me.

some parts look fake, other parts don't. i think it's fake

Sheep said:

Some aspects of it look real, but others, like letter thickness, make it seem like a well-faked copy to me. :x It's also missing the ESRB rating. You unfortunately likely did get scammed - I'd report this to eBay and demand a refund. This is a good guide that I was following.

Click to expand...

Thank you for that, genuinelly very helpful 🙂 I've just raised it with eBay now, they've opened a return. I feel pretty foolish to be honest, i didn't think the fakes had the (C) Nintendo the ones i'd seen had (I) Nintendo or similar. I don't think we have the ESRB rating on the PAL copies, or at least my genuine copies of Sapphire/Emerald i had since i was a kid don't. I'll make a note of that guide though for when i get this refunded and try and buy an actually genuine one.

No problem! Buying old games can be stressful now, plenty of bad sellers out there. Really sorry that happened to you oof.

I think PAL copies of the games don't have the ESRB rating, typically, if that's the region you're from. I'm from NA and the copies I got always had it. But there are other giveaways, like letter thickness. :(

As far as I know the best way to immediately know if a Gen 3 Pokemon game is real or not is by looking at the back of the cart and if you see 4 little rectangle metallic plates (usually on the left or at the top left of the cart) then you have a real copy. As of now only genuine Nintendo GBA carts have this and I still haven't seen or heard of any fakes that have this on their carts.

My Pokemon Sapphire for example, it's a little hard to see because of the bad lighting but the 4 rectangles are at the top left. On green carts like Leaf Green and Emerald it's even easier to see since you can see better through their green plastic.

No ESRB on PAL games :)

Here is my legit PAL cart. It's a bit dirty cause I had to go through the cupboard looking for it 😅

the game label not having that metallic sheen to it is the big giveaway, unfortunately. sorry that happened to you, friend.