Paid $45 for a vintage board game manual that ended up being a total scam

I found a seller on eBay offering a scanned PDF of the instructions for a 1980s game called Fireball Island. Cost me $45 and it was just blurry photos of the box. No actual step by step rules. The other side of this is I once paid $10 for a manual from some guy in a forum and it was PERFECT clear scans with diagrams. So is paying for old manuals ever worth it or are we all better off just hunting for free ones on archive sites? What has your experience been?

2 comments

2 Comments

ninas701d ago

The real trick nobody talks about is checking the seller's other listings. If they've got a hundred different manual PDFs all listed at the same weird price, that's a red flag right there. Also, if you do go digital, paying with PayPal goods and services gives you some backup if the scans are garbage. Most folks just buy the manual and cross their fingers, but a little digging on the seller's history tells you everything.

river_hart181d ago

Blurry photos of the box"? Dang, that stinks. I've had way better luck on archive.org myself.