Pirate on ebay

Reporting him probably won't do much good, and you're probably unlikely to get a refund. I'd imagine the cd key you got with it isn't going to work, but Stardock does allow you to purchase just a registration (since you already got the game) for a smaller fee.

All in all, though, yep, looks like you got screwed I would contact [email protected] to explain what happened and inquire about the separate registration purchase, maybe you can still salvage it

You will need to contact ebay/paypal and work to resolve this with them (if you used a card to pay, you should be able to chargeback if nothing else).

If the copy you bought is a bootleg (as opposed to an imported copy of Snowball's Russian release, which should have a serial you can register with them for Russian-language updates), it will not have a valid serial. The option of contacting support as Annatar said does not apply here (separate purchase of additional serials only applies for legitimate used copies).

We're also now working to get all such auctions removed from ebay whenever we see them, but it's an imperfect process and some may still slip past as seems to have happened here.

Thanks for clarifying, kryo! Wasn't sure the policy on the separate serial purchases, just that it was possible

how much did u pay? Doe the money really matter?
I'd just report him to ebay.

Cheers for replies, been away all weekend. The seller says i can have a refund if i send it back to him. Which brings up a second issue of location; the seller said the item was in the UK, but it was actually in the US. So i'm not going to bother sending it back, and it would probably be unethical to do so. I'll report him instead. Who knows i might get some compensation from paypal. Can i leave him negative feedback? Or will he return the favour?

Hopefully you can get the money back, at least. If all else fails, you may be able to reverse the charge with your bank, though that possibility will vary.




IIRC sellers can't leave feedback to buyers anymore (I haven't used eBay in a long while, but I'd heard they were making that change). If that's true, then bombs away. Anything that can legally be done to stop bootleggers is worth doing.

not all copies that sell cheap on ebay are pirate copies. I live in thailand, and I got my real copy for about 12 usa dollars. these are the real thing. on the cover of the book they write, "for sale only in thailand".

why are the prices here so cheap, you ask? ..from what I understand, the average salary here in thailand is about 6 usa dollars a day. so, if these companies selling the games tried to sell their games in thailand at usa prices, they would probably not get very many customers. ..thus, the low price.

yeah. they do have "pirated" copies of everything here. but the fact of the matter is - these pirated copies ALWAYS have problems with them. and of course, the serial numbers don't work. so, I don't even bother with them. waste of money, waste of time.

if you want to take advantage of these low prices, plan a trip to thailand. hehehe. or maybe get yourself a "personal shopper" to buy it for you.

Given that there is no authorized publisher of the game in southeast Asia that I'm aware of, it is extremely unlikely that it is anything more than a well-done bootleg. Currently the only markets with retail releases of Sins are North America, Russia, Australia/NZ, and Europe.