Just wondering do Japanese GBA games actually came in factory plastic wrap sealed?
As I know that Japanese GBA games seem never came in factory sealed. However there are actually some “factory sealed” GBA games on the market and some Japanese people are actually paying a higher premium for that
AFAIK Nintendo DS (Handheld) and Nintendo Wii (Console) were the first instances where you would find NTSC-J games that came factory sealed in a plastic wrap straight from the factory. Notice how both NDS and Wii games were the first to be packaged in sturdy plastic boxes and no longer the cardboard from before. Anything from before this era would have shipped in larger cardboard “cases” containing anywhere from 5 to 20 copies of a game. I’ve noticed that loads of Japanese sellers will apply an after market plastic seal when they ship out these retro games. It’s definitely unofficial so don’t pay extra for it, but it does add an extra layer of protection for these old cardboard boxes.
It’s just too hard to identify the actual unopened Japanese games given that they all didn’t come with the seal. I can imagine Wata and vga can easily misgrade an opened box as unopened or vice versa… this could hurting the Japanese retro game market value as well as collectors confidence in the long run