The latest scam from sellers of the rare but highly sought after Nintendo Wii is to advertise bundles with 14 or more games as part of the package.  Unsuspecting people, especially parents who don't know much about games or the Nintendo Wii in particular think these bundles are amazing deals, but they are being duped through carefully crafted "misleading honesty".

A typical listing might say "Nintendo Wii with 4 controllers and 14 games !" and inside the listing it will say "5 sports games and 9 play games"

Example listings with high final bids:
120189101644
200178300474

The catch here is that the 5 sports games are actually mini-games all on one disc called "Wii Sports" which comes FREE with EVERY Wii ever sold.  The 9 sports games are mini-games that come on one disc called "Wii Play", which incidentally is sold as a pack-in with a remote controller (average retail value is $45 for the remote and game disc together).

Unsuspecting people who do not know this think they are getting approximately 14 x $50 or more worth of games with the Wii and extra controllers. Do the math folks. You can't get $1000 worth of brand new goods for $500.

The actual retail value of such a bundle is about $325 us. I suppose if you don't mind paying 2 or 3 times as much, that's your choice. But hopefully this guide will help someone from making a big mistake (like a friend of mine just did!)

Technically, these listings look honest in the sense that there are no direct lies. They even have receipts like Ebay requires them to. They usually show screen-shots of the various games, etc. But they are counting on the ignorance of people who don't know Wii hardware and software inside and out. What they DON'T say is just as dishonest as blatant lies would be.

RB