Buying Used Console Games Without Getting Burned: A Spotter’s Guide to Fakes, Region Locks, and Fair Prices

There’s a real thrill to buying used. A game that cost $80 new lands in your hands for a fraction of the price, a long-lost childhood favourite turns up in a bargain bin, and you keep another cartridge out of a landfill while you’re at it. But the second-hand world has a few traps, and a bad one can cost you real money. Here’s how to shop used like someone who’s been burned before, so you don’t have to be.

Trap #1: Fakes and relabels

Here’s the thing most people get wrong: you’re rarely dealing with a full-blown bootleg. Far more common is the relabel: someone peels the sticker off a cheap game, slaps on a label for a pricier one, and hopes you don’t look too closely. Pokémon titles get hit the hardest, but nothing valuable is safe. The good news is that fakes usually give themselves away. A few quick checks:

• On Nintendo Switch games, the model number on the front label (something like LA-H-AXB8A-USA) has a middle code that must match the serial number printed on the back. Genuine carts also carry an HAC-008 marking and the letters CC. And if the model number on the back starts with KYOTO, walk away. That’s a store display cartridge, not a real game. (Yes, real Switch carts also taste bitter, Nintendo coats them so kids won’t swallow them. A weirdly reliable, if gross, test.)
• On DS and 3DS cartridges, do the same front-to-back code match. Fakes often have a slightly greyish shell instead of solid black, an oversized font on the back, or a blurry label. Shine a flashlight through a genuine Pokémon HeartGold cartridge and it glows a clear purple. Most counterfeits won’t.
• Across everything, trust the price. If a rare game is going for half what everyone else charges, that discount is the counterfeit tax. Real copies rarely get that cheap.

When you’re not sure, lean on the people who do this all day. GameVerifying has detailed, photo-heavy authentication guides for nearly every cartridge system, and the r/gameverifying community will usually weigh in on a photo within minutes.

Trap #2: Region locks

This one catches importers off guard, because whether it matters depends entirely on the console.

• Mostly, you’re fine. The Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One all play game discs and cartridges from any region. Import that quirky Japanese title all you like, it’ll boot.
• The big exception is the 3DS. The entire 3DS family is officially region-locked by Nintendo, which means a game bought in Japan or Europe simply won’t run on a North American system, and vice versa. If you’re eyeing an imported 3DS game to save a few dollars, check that it’s the right region first. Older systems like the Wii, GameCube, and PlayStation 2 are region-locked too, so the same caution applies to retro hauls.
• One catch even on region-free consoles: downloadable content and bonus codes are usually tied to the account region of wherever the game was sold. The disc will play, but that DLC code tucked in the case might not redeem on your account.

Trap #3: Overpaying

Used-game prices swing wildly, and a friendly-looking listing isn’t the same as a fair one. Before you buy anything, check what copies actually sell for.

PriceCharting is the go-to. It pulls real sale data and shows you separate values for a loose cartridge, a complete-in-box (CIB) copy, and a sealed one, which matters, because those can be wildly different. A loose copy might be $25 while the boxed version is $80, so know which one you’re being sold. For a sanity check, filter eBay to sold listings (not asking prices) and see what real buyers paid in the last few weeks. Two numbers, two minutes, and you’ll never overpay by accident again.

Where to actually buy

Big marketplaces like eBay and Mercari come with buyer protection, which is your safety net if something shows up counterfeit. Always pay in a way that lets you dispute the charge, and skip the cash-only local deal on a pricey title. Specialist shops that authenticate every game before they resell it are the safer bet still, because someone’s already done the hard part for you.

Happy hunting!