Tobias Dracula X crap...

[ProfessorProfessorson]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Akumajo-Dracula-X-Rondo-of-Blood-Deluxe-Edition-PC-Engine-Castlevania-Japan-/121772174395?hash=item1c5a2fec3b&nma=true&si=Jmz3nioPHx9irZLNB81FEhBjOXE%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

So same seller now listed another copy for $500 BIN.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Akumajo-Dracula-X-Rondo-of-Blood-Deluxe-Edition-PC-Engine-Castlevania-Japan-/121778924630?hash=item1c5a96ec56

I'm going to assume that Tobias bled out a few of these with both disc included to certain resellers or something, unless this is a proxy seller of his. At any rate, it will prevent me from trading off or raffling that box set he sent me, both of which I considered doing if I ended up picking up a legit copy here soon, for fear of risking whomever getting it being tempted by a quick large cash grab.

Fact is if retards are willing to pay $700 for the small double disc set, I don't want to know what they will pay for the full on box set he sent me. It's really f*cked up when a bootleg goes for the price of 3-5 legit copies of something. Seriously....

[NightWolve]

eBay Reported, might as well do so again.

[ProfessorProfessorson]

eBay Reported, might as well do so again.

Wont matter. They wont pull it. About the only way they will is if Konami ask them or some shit, and we all saw how that went when Konami was notified about stuff.

[NightWolve]

How did we pull that off last time ? I could swear there was one that Necro or someone brought up and we got it pulled... Is my memory off ? :/

[WoodyXP]

Fact is if retards are willing to pay $700 for the small double disc set, I don't want to know what they will pay for the full on box set he sent me. It's really f*cked up when a bootleg goes for the price of 3-5 legit copies of something. Seriously....

Some people have more money than brains.  If they think bootlegs with some fancy packaging is worth that much then more power to them.

[Punch]

The disobeyer, easily parted from his money. As much as it sucks I'm done caring about that kind of stuff, if people want to burn money and destroy a hobby they 'think' they're a part of, so be it. I'm just glad I've found a close knit community that actually cares about playing the damn games.

As cheesy as it sounds, the flames of the PCE will always burn @ PCEFX. And maybe DoxPhile. Maybe.

[Elder]

Hey guys, question here about Tobias' reproductions.  I've seen these eBay prices reach ridiculous levels which I don't understand whatsoever, but that's another story.  What I'd like to know is the back story with Tobias.  Happy Console Gamer swears by PCE Works in terms of the quality of the reproduction, but I've also seen a lot of people dig into this guy.  Is there history here I don't know about?  Is he not giving credit to those that do translation work, etc?  Just curious what the history is here. 

[Punch]

Hey guys, question here about Tobias' reproductions.  I've seen these eBay prices reach ridiculous levels which I don't understand whatsoever, but that's another story.  What I'd like to know is the back story with Tobias.  Happy Console Gamer swears by PCE Works in terms of the quality of the reproduction, but I've also seen a lot of people dig into this guy.  Is there history here I don't know about?  Is he not giving credit to those that do translation work, etc?  Just curious what the history is here. 

http://www.superpcenginegrafx.net/sapcomp1.html

At the time Tobias claimed the bootlegs were official, authenticated by Hudson japan and fooling many unsuspecting buyers. That's enough history to 'dig into this guy'.

I'm disappointed with Happy Console Gamer. Didn't knew that he was enthusiastic about these repros.

[Dicer]

The outrage over idiots on e-bay is absurd, e-bay is full of idiots, sellers and buyers alike.

If someone is a true fan of the system they know this is just repro stuff and not worth what they are being sold for, if not well, not my problem, or anyone else for that matter.

Let it go, they will continue to pop up, people will continue to complain and try to get them removed.

At least the other stuff he's put out hasn't seemed to show up...the more fuss it made the bigger deal it is to some people, if anything you are probably gonna drive up the price.

Just felt like spouting my .02 on the matter.

[WoodyXP]

I'm disappointed with Happy Console Gamer. Didn't knew that he was enthusiastic about these repros.

His endorsement is probably the reason for the demand/high prices.  Other YT Channels are pimping Tobias swag, too.

[NightWolve]

Hey guys, question here about Tobias' reproductions.  I've seen these eBay prices reach ridiculous levels which I don't understand whatsoever, but that's another story.  What I'd like to know is the back story with Tobias.  Happy Console Gamer swears by PCE Works in terms of the quality of the reproduction, but I've also seen a lot of people dig into this guy.  Is there history here I don't know about?  Is he not giving credit to those that do translation work, etc?  Just curious what the history is here.

Yeah, there's plenty of story with him, I'm trying to coin a term for it/him that'll stick, went with "Sapphire-Gate." I had just written about it a few moments ago in a thread on Tatsujin's PCE Facebook group actually, so I'll repost it.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/obeypce/permalink/1679195508992462/

The issue for many here is WHO this particular bootlegger is and "Sapphire-Gate" - that is how Tobias began his pirating operation by trying to pass off one of his first bootlegs [Sapphire] as original/authentic, to the point where he forged a document purported to be by Hudson Soft in order to bolster his claim that this new batch of his was 100% authentic/real, a last batch that was never released due to slight imperfections (wrong colors,etc), all this lying even though he had pressed these Sapphire CDs himself! He wanted to evade eBay's anti-counterfeit policies for one thing, so that partly explains it.

In short, he pulled a con-job on the public! So, Tobias is a lying fraudster that caused hundreds of dollars in damage to sellers and buyers alike, causing them to believe they were dealing with genuine 100% REAL copies! Since everybody that was defrauded by this man never filed any sort of class action lawsuit, he got away with it... And given how he's come back with all these new repros of his, getting all this publicity by Youtube channels, even with a past criminal injustice that he has never answered for, it's cringe-worthy, especially for his victims, some who resold his bootlegs at a loss by being honest that they were fakes.

To my position, I can't be against repros if they're done properly, in fact, I would like to do some myself one day. But yeah, the issue here is THIS particular bootlegger with his Dracula X latest bootleg, is a lying fraudster of the past that got away with it. He also took my fan translations, pressed them on CDs as well, all without any prior attempt to deal with me and my team so that he could pocket 100% of the net earnings. After calling him on it, he decided to give away the rest for free to escape the sticky situation he put himself in by doing this...

So, you have Sapphire-Gate on his record, along with taking fan works like the MegaMan NES 2 PCE ports, fan translations like Xak III and SO II, etc. all without prior consent/inclusion because he's as greedy as they come in having wanted to pocket 100% of the net earnings.

The dilemma is if you know all of this, and you see people supporting him, blindly at times, it causes some justifiable eye rolling... Like I said, to date, he got away with Sapphire-Gate, nobody organized any serious attempt to prosecute him for fraud, and he came back stronger than ever, but this time he stopped trying to lie about them as not being bootlegs/fakes.

[Jibbajaba]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Akumajo-Dracula-X-Rondo-of-Blood-Deluxe-Edition-PC-Engine-Castlevania-Japan-/121772174395?hash=item1c5a2fec3b&nma=true&si=Jmz3nioPHx9irZLNB81FEhBjOXE%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

So same seller now listed another copy for $500 BIN.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Akumajo-Dracula-X-Rondo-of-Blood-Deluxe-Edition-PC-Engine-Castlevania-Japan-/121778924630?hash=item1c5a96ec56

I'm going to assume that Tobias bled out a few of these with both disc included to certain resellers or something, unless this is a proxy seller of his. At any rate, it will prevent me from trading off or raffling that box set he sent me, both of which I considered doing if I ended up picking up a legit copy here soon, for fear of risking whomever getting it being tempted by a quick large cash grab.

Fact is if retards are willing to pay $700 for the small double disc set, I don't want to know what they will pay for the full on box set he sent me. It's really f*cked up when a bootleg goes for the price of 3-5 legit copies of something. Seriously....

A: That situation reeks of shill bidding.  Dude bids a copy up to $700, then sells another at $500, which seems like a bargain by comparison.

B: You should make a YT video of yourself dousing that boxed set in gasoline, lighting it on fire, and then (after a few minutes to let it get sufficiently destroyed) peeing on it to put the fire out.

[seieienbu]

Sapphire-Gate

I love how attaching "gate" to anything immediately conjures up images of illicit dealings to the extent that the whole problem may not even need more a description than just the name.  Thanks, Nixon, for adding such a useful suffix to our collective lexicon.

Does Konami still care about things like this?  I remember some years back when a site had roms for every Castlevania game except Dracula X and a note about how they had to take that one down due to a legal notice from Konami.  Of course, that was a different company in a different era, but I would Hope that people outright pirating and profiting from their works would still get shut down...

[Keith Courage]

That ebay auction is nuts. He sells that exact item for 99(eur) on his website. Not sure how that translates into $710 US dollars for it. Hope I didn't just give other re-sellers an idea.

[ProfessorProfessorson]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Akumajo-Dracula-X-Rondo-of-Blood-Deluxe-Edition-PC-Engine-Castlevania-Japan-/121772174395?hash=item1c5a2fec3b&nma=true&si=Jmz3nioPHx9irZLNB81FEhBjOXE%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

So same seller now listed another copy for $500 BIN.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Akumajo-Dracula-X-Rondo-of-Blood-Deluxe-Edition-PC-Engine-Castlevania-Japan-/121778924630?hash=item1c5a96ec56

I'm going to assume that Tobias bled out a few of these with both disc included to certain resellers or something, unless this is a proxy seller of his. At any rate, it will prevent me from trading off or raffling that box set he sent me, both of which I considered doing if I ended up picking up a legit copy here soon, for fear of risking whomever getting it being tempted by a quick large cash grab.

Fact is if retards are willing to pay $700 for the small double disc set, I don't want to know what they will pay for the full on box set he sent me. It's really f*cked up when a bootleg goes for the price of 3-5 legit copies of something. Seriously....

A: That situation reeks of shill bidding.  Dude bids a copy up to $700, then sells another at $500, which seems like a bargain by comparison.

B: You should make a YT video of yourself dousing that boxed set in gasoline, lighting it on fire, and then (after a few minutes to let it get sufficiently destroyed) peeing on it to put the fire out.

A: Yeah I was thinking one of the bidders was a shill also. But there is also the thing about them including the translated disc. I think that is partly what drove the bids up too.

B: I dont have a legit copy of the game yet. This is basically my copy until I get a legit copy. The way the legit ones have been going for over 200 bucks lately, I have been reluctant to buy one. I could afford it, but I'm not the type to spend $200 on any one game for any system.

Looks like the seller pulled the second listing.