Starter Gift Box Reseal?

Collecting
1

Its my first time buying vintage seal and i came across a sealed starter deck gift box and i was wondering if it could potentially be resealed. All the other pictures online seem to have the ridges on the front face of the seal along the edges. For example this image from heritage auctions:

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But mine seems to have smooth edges on the seal.

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Also it seems like all the starter kits have one edge that doesnt have the seal line and mine happens to be the one with the qr code.

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Just wanted some advice on how to verify if its a legitimate box. Its my first time buying vintage and i am inexperienced with looking for reseals.

2

The lighting and pictures most provide when asking these questions rarely allow even experts to determine this with certainty. It does look fine to me personally, but I can’t say. So I can leave you with important tips to look for.

  1. Is there any wear underneath the shrink? If you can find even one scratch, one smear, where the shrink above it has no indication of corresponding damage, it is questionable. This is one of the biggest things to look for. If the wear is on the shrink, A-okay, if the wear is underneath but also shows consistent wear in the same spot above, A-okay. But any damage underneath with clean shrink above? No way Jose.

  2. The edge seal line being on this side doesn’t mean anything in this case, as with a quick comparison you can see it varies on these boxes. But shrink wrap, while tending to tighten, which creates the “ridges” or ripples, does this in varying degrees and depending on the climate, the storage conditions. Some will have it, some may not. It isn’t necessarily an exact indicator for something being authentically sealed or not. That said, you can clearly see ridges on yours, just on the other side. This looks completely ordinary.

  3. Any sort of provenance? When in doubt, maybe try a very reliable source? I mean, quickly looking, there’s one ending tomorrow on auction from a very trusted member on this here forum (who btw is not giving me any dividends for plugging him but like totally should if I had any impact… jk). Maybe if you pass on yours, consider going to a trusted source for such a purchase.

  4. It’s also a low value sealed item, so chances are lower, but still possible I suppose. I’d wager not very likely without it looking super sus, which this one doesn’t.

My opinion is it looks like a well cared after, well stored piece. But you’d have to consider the points to make a more educated decision.

2 Likes
3

Thanks for your reply! I did check for wear on the box. There is not too many spots but and they are all consistent with the seal. It is good to know how the ripple effect occurs on these old sealed boxes.

I bought mine at 250 before tax from a collectible store so that is why i am a little bit wary because the price seems a bit too good to be true given the good sealed condition.

4

No problem. All recent sales are looking like $200-350 on ebay. That seems more like a good deal rather than a “too good to be true” scenario, especially considering a brick and mortar doesn’t need to pay ebay 15% and ship it. So there’s like nearly $45 right there. Seems spot on to me.

1 Like