Beware the Errors - A PS2 Controversy

With Ps2 collecting become more and more popular over the past couple of years its sure to bring some attention. Sadly part of this attention comes from people looking to gain profit by preying on a persons lack of retro education!

2016 has been the year that Playstation 2 collecting seemed to have a boom! Its vast library of games that can be found from as little as 5p each mean its a great machine for not only a hardcore collector, but general enthusiasts alike. With over 2000 games released in the European regions its a console that everybody is sure to find a series of games they can enjoy. The popularity of budget titles has grown massively throughout 2016, with some obscure titles selling for phenomenal amounts its brought a lot of awareness to the system.
Sadly when something becomes popular it brings with it a surge of profiteers all looking to cash in on the publics needs and wants. Seeking out what people are looking for in order to raise the values is a forever growing and unstoppable form of 'business' that just sends prices into insanity. Traders who understand the retail market have access to libraries of games that the general collector would struggle to find, and with many collectors reading false information from reputable websites its far too easy for someone to conjure up their own reality and pass it off as factual. This is something were now seeing a lot as were coming into 2017, and if it isn't addressed quickly then a lot of false, and outright fraudulent sales are going to be flooding the market.

In this post ill be mainly talking of a current ebay auction for a sealed budget title by Phoenix Games, probably the most well known shovelware company on the system.

Its very uncommon for a game to be printed with an error and released to the public, though as shown at the IAmError website it does happen. As the PS2 community grows there gains more interest in collecting these items due to the obscurity of them. As the market is niche it can mean that some items become very sought after, creating bid wars between those looking to own something that slipped passed the quality control.
Because of this ever growing awareness there have now been attempts to cash in on products by giving off the impression an item carries a defect, and placing an extremely high figure next to it.

The item in mention is the Phoenix games mini-games release called Girl Zone. Quite an uncommon game but one that's not too hard to find in any localized part of Europe, and also one which has a relatively cheap price tag. But here in this ebay auction we see a sealed version priced at £1000 due to it carrying a packaging fault.
The fault is shown as the game being sealed in a case carrying a NBA holographic image from the NBA Live series of games on the Playstation 2. Being such a huge blunder for the Sony Packaging Plant it would certainly be of interest to collectors! ...sadly there are just too many issues with the item that just cant make it legitimate.

Firstly you will notice the game itself is sealed in a non standard seal. Carrying no Playstation tear strip it should instantly ring alarm bells. Now im not saying every ps2 game had a Sony tearstrip, but there are limitations to those that didn't. Games without could be reprints, special editions or released near the end of the PS2 lifespan when Sony no longer specified the seal. Girl Zone was released in 2005, and over time I've seen many sealed versions over several localized areas and all have had the tearstrip. Also with self sealing machines become affordable for the home market its far too easy to re-seal a game and pass it off as new, just like we saw at the start of 2016 with the miracle appearance of over 10 'New' copies of Rule of Rose on Amazon at £500 each.
As i mentioned, some games to lose the Sony tearstrip could be a re-run of a game, and it does so happen that Girl Zone actually did have a 2nd print run. But the next part will just deny the possibility of it being a genuine seal.
If you look at the close up image of the NBA hologram we can identify it as coming from the NBA Live series of games that ran every year since 2001 - 2009 on the PS2 before it changed into the 2K series. As Girl Zone was first printed in 2005 we would instantly assume this would be the case from the NBA Live 2004 or 2005 cases due to those being printed around the same time.
Sadly upon further inspection we can identify the number from the hologram as actually coming from the 2008 release of NBA Live. This could be now be looked at as being the reprint version of Girl Zone, but sadly, that too was re-printed in 2005. And to further decline the possibility of it being genuine its worth noting that Phoenix Games Group closed its UK doors in 2007.

So, there is sadly no way the auction is a legitimate product. Im assuming the popularity of Phoenix Games, and the lack of games left in the wild are the reason for traders inventing new ideas to cash in on.

Id like to point out that i do not know the seller of the auction and i have no idea if this has been created by himself, or if he is under the impression its a legitimate error. So please do not think this post is trying to label him as a type of scammer as its not, this is merely to educate people on howto spot fraudulent items in the marketplace.
When we discover items like this its always worth doing more research into them, in most cases you'll find its an attempt at gaining profit more than a genuine item. Seeking the correct info can sometimes be difficult but should not be limited to tabloid websites or hearsay. In most cases you will find that media websites will report false info, or contain info scraped from other websites that have false/misleading information. Always double check information given and be sure to check if your references are just coming the same news source. Google is your friend!

Buying sealed games in 2017 will be a risky investment i feel. With reseals becoming more popular on ebay it wont be long before the actual Sony tearstrip is recreated at home. Im not saying don't buy sealed games, but please be very careful if presented with sealed games at high prices.

Check out the IAmError Website here.
Take a look at the Girl Zone ebay item here.