Gumtree versus eBay.
My recent experiences hunting for a R4 cartridge for the Nintendo DS.
I bought a pink old style Nintendo DS console many years ago for my daughters who managed after a while to lose the original stylus and most recently broke one of the hinges. Because my middle daughter did well at school, I promised her a new DS, and bought her a white DSi. I had heard that although it doesn't come with MP3 playback as standard, you can install a third party application which will do called Moonshell, but found out that it required an R4 card to make it work. Disappointed I couldn't install Moonshell without hardware modification, I began to look into the world of the R4 cards and ultimately acquiring one.
The R4 cartridge is a third party cartridge which plugs into the back of the Nintendo DS, DSI or 3DS and allows you to backup games onto a microSD card. Primarily advertised as a way of running homebrew games and software, it was quickly utilised for far more illegal purposes. The upshot of this is that you can play illegally downloaded DS games on the console, as well as run homebrew programs including the MP3 player, movies and other emulators, such as the Super Nintendo (SNES).
The downside is that since 2010 these cards have been made illegal in the UK, courtesy of a lawsuit from Nintendo, which is fair enough. You can however still buy them online from websites branded as .co.uk or .com. If you do a search on all of the domains you quickly discover that they are owned by Chinese companies who manufacture the cards. The problem with buying an illegal device from outside the UK is the lack of buyer protection. Combined with the proliferation of fake cartridges which are R4 cards that are sold at full price but don't work.
I viewed many different websites all purporting to be UK domains, but a quick WHOIS websearch revealed that the domains were always owned by a Chinese or Hong Kong based company, and finding new sites in America and Europe revealed the same lineage back to China. The answer was to buy one from a reputable company, but seeing as they are illegal and would put any games company out of business, this proved impossible.
I did search eBay but this proved fruitless as everyone was selling microSD cards for use in an R4 cartridge as eBay have clamped down on anything that is illegal. I then did a search on Gumtree as I have had some reasonable successes in the past and below is my observations of buying.
I saw three Nintendo DS consoles for sale all of which included the R4 cartridge.
The first was a Pink DS Lite which was in Chatham, about an hour round trip from where I lived and in the opposite direction from where I worked, meaning it would be a real challenge to get there within a time frame. Because my wife doesn't approve greatly of games, justifying purchase of a handheld console which will let me play even more games just wouldn't sit well with her. The price was right, but I wasn't sure about the colour or its usefulness. This would have been my fall back purchase. I already owned a DS for my daughter, and would have swapped her White DSI for this Pink DS Lite, and kept the R4 card for myself. He wanted only £35 for the whole unit.
The next advert I saw was a Black Nintendo DSi with three brain training games and an R4 cartridge. I contacted the seller who would refused to give me their address, instead only giving me their postcode. They asked me to text them once I got to their road and they would then give me their door number. Very bizarre. So I left work early (at their request not mine) and drove thirty minutes to their house, parked up, got their door number and checked the unit over. It was clean and in perfect condition, so was very happy with the way it looked. The trouble was the person couldn't demonstrate the R4 cartridge working. I was annoyed as this was the sole reason for me travelling there. I was doubly upset because (a) they hadn't given me a full address and it could have been a wild goose chase and (b) I had explicitly said I would only be happy to pay the money on the basis that the screens were unmarked and that the R4 worked. Had they known what the R4 card was they would have told me and I'd not have wasted my time. She wanted £45 for the unit.
The third option was a location on my way home from work, so it wouldn't cause too many delays or detours, although the stretch of road I would be using was very busy at rush hour. This auction was for an impressive Nintendo 3DS XL with several games and the R4 card. I contacted him only by email, as that was all he could be contacted with and said I was only really interested in the R4 card. He wanted £150 for the whole lot, and he replied saying he was happy to sell the console and the R4 card on its own for £100. He gave me a full address this time, but no other contact details. I confirmed what time I would be arriving at his flat and set off. I found the location fairly easily. What he had failed to tell me was the door buzzer didn't work to his block of flats, and that I would need to email him to get him to let me in. After many anxious minutes waiting including giving up he answered and took me inside. I saw the R4 unit working, the console was clean and in immaculate condition, so I paid him the money and left. Apparently he was in the shower when I arrived.
What was bizarre in both instances was the reluctance for either people I went to see to give out their addresses or full contact details or make me aware of any shortcomings with regards to how to actually get to knock on their front doors.
Having come from the selling world of eBay where once you have won an item you are given full access to the sellers address or if you have sold an item given the full address of the person who just bought it, I find the walls between you and the seller quite immense. I can understand people being concern about giving away too much, as there is less protection on Gumtree, but little things like not telling me the door buzzer didn't work, just seems odd, or knowing I am coming to visit yet being elsewhere in the shower.
When people have bought stuff from me on eBay and they have come to collect it, I’ve readily provided a full address and my mobile number for easy collection.
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