I vend retro games, and I'll throw in my two cents to say I hate the relabeling thing. We have 20,000+ items in stock, and with that much quantity passing through our hands, and with honestly only a small cut being any sort of "profit" (there is a reason that my little company is run by two guys that also have day jobs...), it is VERY difficult to look at everything and determine if someone stuck a new label on a cart or not.

If I were to sell a game as "repro label"...

- If it is too good, the buyer forgets and then sells it as new in the future. Eventually, it's caught, and someone feels screwed.
- If it isn't great, the buyer isn't happy with how the label looks anyway and is disappointed they bought the game.

Neither is great for reselling and keeping everyone happy by telling them what they are getting exactly and being able to easily ensure they get that.

The pirated carts coming into the market is a similar thing. Yes, they are functional if that is all you care about, but less educated collectors won't realize they are fake (eBay got a flood of them last week and none of them mentioned they were "new productions" or anything), and will then try to pass them off as real. It now requires opening and examining the PCB of many of the higher priced games to prove authenticity, an annoying step to have to take for games that may only be worth like $20 to begin with (Donkey Kong Country is the one that sticks out to me).

It definitely can hurt the market, as if there is enough faked collectibles, it diminishes the market for that collectible. Additionally, it makes people who were willing to spend big money on a collectible or two much more wary of spending that, if they think that someone could successfully pass off a fake for the original. Note though, it's the faking itself that is the issue - Nintendo "Virtual Console", rereleases and various flash carts? They have only served to drive the market for retro games further up in most cases, as people decide they want the original physical copy. "Good" pirated copies hold the potential to disrupt that.