Bought a Bootleg Box

Karma has a strange way of coming around when you least expect it.

It's no secret that I used to be a cyber pirate. Porn, MP3s from CDs that only had one good song. Hell, I even "stole" some albums because I couldn't find a way to actually purchase them, mostly because I didn't trust eBay or Amazon at the time.

Well, those days are behind me. I don't resort to that kind of thing unless there is no other way to acquire what it is that I want. Thankfully, those acts of piracy are few and far between.

I mention this for one reason that you probably figure out by now. I have become a victim of piracy.

I have a valid reason now not to buy anything from the user marketplaces of sites that I trust like Amazon. I no longer believe that 98% approval rating on the seller's profile given the items they are offering. And I learned this all too late.

While I am not denied the actual product I paid money for, it hurts me knowing that my cash is going towards someone who did the one thing I would never do even given all my acts of piracy: actually sell a pirate good as if it was the real deal.

I will say this much about the illegal copy I bought. For something that is a fake, they did a very good job of making it look like a real product. They even embossed the cardboard sleeve like someone would do for a special release and produced a bound booklet of the original from photo copies. Whoever produced this did a damn good job of making it look real.

Unfortunately for the users out there thinking about selling their stuff, I'm not going to be a buyer. This is my third "third party" purchase I did through Amazon, and it will be my last as long as I can help it.