Do you compare prices for retro games on Amazon/EBay to prices on PriceCharting? Could that be a way to see if a game is authentic? I mean, like they say, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is, right?
I got my copy of Link to the Past for $39 on Amazon, and PriceCharting lists LttP's loose price at $32.45.
price charting is an average price. you got the worst of the worst copies to minty copies in the same price charts. in practice it should balance it out which works for the more popular stuff and mainly disc based games. in practice however especially for non discbased stuff it gets quite messy.
In quite some cases even repro's with far lower prices are included.
And you can forget accurate prices for more niche boxed games. let alone that allot of listings have trash boxes really lowering that value or non complete copies being included with complete listings anyway.
Look closely at the average listings. cause if there is to much trash in there it might give a wrong inidication of price.
That being said. price charting has worked in my advantage people selling rare niche stuff at repro prices cause they only had repro's in them lists
Also stuff being authentic has nothing to do with price. A really good scammer won't sell at a to good to be true price.
If it's a single item especially something desirable with a to good to be true price and especially with a good description as if the guy knows what he is doing total scam.
If it's a desirable item within a lot, or bad pictures at a low price. probably legit. or if it's something more niche. to good to be true prices are usually in far to good looking organized listings. If a price is good and you get an indication that the seller actually knows what he has it's a scam.