Oh wow that is pretty interesting. It does seem like a non-Frankenstein listing too.
I found a weird listing recently. A double-ended box with cartridge tray xD
www.ebay.com/itm/Pokemon-Red-Version-CIB-Fair-Shape-See-Pictures-Tested-Gameboy-1998-/154440192213?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286
Also, do you collect Pokémon Pinball GBC? I have two copies but both are double-ended boxes. I’m curious to see what the dates are in y-fold if anyone has any-fold variant. It does seem to be the more rare one from what I’ve seen so far in eBay. It seems like about 30% of listings are y-fold. Either way, I’d like to collect the y-fold regardless but it’d be interesting to see how the print dates correspond with the release date.
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I would bet money that double-ended/tray listing is a frankenstein. The tray doesn’t look OEM (no product code stamped in it). I’d bet the box is just trashed so the pocket insert doesn’t work any more or got ripped out entirely.
I’m gonna go back over all my double-ended Blue/Red listings and mark the insert style where visible soon; then I can see what clear correlations emerge between insert style and contents. My guess is it’ll wind up looking like there was a kind of “intermediate” print run with white-ESRB cart/manual but the no-flap insert style (and -7 consumer safety most likely).
It would be interesting to track down other games that released in double-ended boxes between 1998 and 1999 and see what style of insert they have, it might help narrow down when Nintendo switched from flap to no-flap, if indeed that’s how it happened…
I don’t really collect the spinoffs, sorry 
I just have a Mystery Dungeon Red PLAYS ON DS* because I like snagging those PLAYS ON DS* boxes when I can.
adamw
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OK, so I got around to doing a more comprehensive box-style survey, and posted some numbers over at VGS: www.videogamesage.com/forums/topic/6629-pokemon-generations-i-to-iii-us-box-printvariant-guide-with-contents-and-population-survey/page/6/?tab=comments#comment-192798 . Summary - they look like pretty solid confirmation of the theory. Tab-pocket boxes are earlier, flat-pocket boxes are later. There were probably more than two print runs, it seems there were some intermediate prints that still had white-ESRB manuals and carts, but came in flat-pocket boxes.
adamw
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Hah, and as it happens, this same afternoon, my flat-pocket Blue Sandshrew box arrived. I have stared at it and my tab-pocket “Blue text” box side by side for several minutes, from every angle, and cannot see a difference from the outside. They just really do seem to be externally identical.
However, @weeabruh 's weight angle might *possibly* work! On my kitchen scale, the tab-pocket box weighs very slightly more - the tab-pocket box weighs 25g, the flat-pocket box weighs 24g. That’s weighed empty, with no contents at all; if there’s more than a 1g natural variance in the weights of any of the contents or the shrinkwrap itself, it may not be possible to identify a sealed copy by weight. But, at least with my scale, it does seem like the boxes have very slightly different weights.
edit: ooh, actually, I just thought of another interesting thing. The cartridge pocket on the tab-pocket boxes is actually *wider*. It’s designed to fit a cartridge *in a cartridge protector case*. The pocket in flat-pocket boxes is not wide enough to fit a cartridge in a case. The carts in those boxes just came in thin plastic bags.
Now, if the carts in tab-pocket boxes *actually came in cartridge protectors*, the weight thing may well work, because those protectors are heavy. The one I have here weighs 15g on its own. So if sealed tab-pocket boxes have cart protectors inside but sealed flat-pocket boxes don’t…they should actually have fairly significantly different weights, more than different enough to overcome any small variation.
Now, who has a bunch of sealed copies of Red or Blue and is willing to break out the scales? 
@adamw ,
Trying to complete my mainline Pokemon collection Gens 1-5, I have gens 2-5 which I bought a year ago when prices were better than they are, and its just a maze of information trying to find whether the ebay listings out there are legit with all the variants for R/B/Y. Also, so many of the sellers do not include pictures of the top inner flap to verify, and additionally there’s information that buyers/collectors are hiding to prevent 100% accurate fakes (which is reasonable) and I’m just considering not buying altogether, which is truly depressing lol. I think you mentioned the Y flap variant of Yellow, for instance, has a smaller Cubone on the side than the “double-ended” flap, which I can’t even tell the difference when I look at the open listings. The things I currently look for other than consistency in the variants as you and other detailed in this thread and another over at VideoGameSage is the paperboard color being off white and not completely white and I am also very suspicious of listings where the price is decent but the condition is “too good” to be true. For example, www.ebay.com/itm/133768613320?epid=8474&hash=item1f253b0dc8:g:h8gAAOSwmalgqc-m
39 views per hour at the time I saw it, and no buyers? Usually these are snapped up real fast at that pricepoint and that condition. Maybe I am missing something, or maybe it is legit and I’m overthinking it. I just don’t want to make a potential thousand plus dollar purchase and have it turn out to be worthless. Anyway, any insight would be helpful. This is so much more stressful a purchase than I thought it would be.
I have the Pokémon Yellow box and manual with all the inserts (I am original owner), and am looking to complete it with the game (which I sold a long time ago). My question is I have the box without the ESRB on it (U/DMG-APSE-USA) with the earlier version of the manual (U/DMG-APSE-USA-1), do I need to have the cartridge with the white ESRB (DMG-APSE-USA) or the one with the black ESRB (DMG-APSE-USA-1)? Or are they both vaild combinations with the box and manual that I have?
Link to photos of my box, manual, and inserts (all original and authentic) below:
Pokemon Yellow U/DMG-APSE-USA imgur.com/gallery/LW0YAgV
adamw
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@buzzkilldude , hi! Just saw your messages, sorry.
That Red - it’s sold now - looks to me like it was likely legit. All the box details I know of are correct for the print, and it had the correct manual and packins. Nothing about the box itself or the print quality looks off, though it can be hard to be 100% sure from internet listings.
It was a pretty solid price, indeed, looked to be in pretty good shape.
For your Yellow box, I would expect it to have a white-ESRB cart. I have only ever seen one listing with the -1 rev manual but the black-ESRB cart, and it was a twobrothersgames listing, and I know they do mix things up sometimes because I’ve seen them do it. Especially since your copy has the Red/Blue player’s guide offer - which I suspect means it’s one of the earliest no-ESRB boxes, that seems to have been the first thing they fixed - I’d really expect a white-ESRB cart. Of course, they’re pretty easy to find, that’s the good news 
Your box looks to be in nice shape, it’ll be a great set once you have a cart!
edit: yeah, the cubone thing is true - cubone is bigger on all double-ended boxes than all y-folds, for Red, Blue and Yellow. It’s very hard to see in listings, though, much easier when you have them side by side.
To be honest, I think fake boxes are a bit less of a problem than I expected them to be. *most* listings are either legit, or really really good fakes that I missed You do see fakes, but you don’t very often see people selling them undeclared, and they’re usually quite bad. I’ve seen one listing for very good fake boxes sold as repros, but I haven’t actually spotted anyone trying to pass one of those off as a legit box or CIB yet.
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Oh, sorry, I should mention one caveat on that - I talked to a guy who sent a similar copy (no-ESRB box, -1 rev manual, I forget which players guide offer) with a white ESRB cart to WATA for grading and they marked the cart as an IMP (incorrect married part). I disagree with them on that, but I thought I should let you know - if you’re considering grading, take it into account.
Hi @adamw - Thanks for all the information. I actually was able to find the photo of my original post when I sold the game 10 years ago. Not sure why WATA said his was IMP as I had the white ESRB cartridge and I know for a fact all of my stuff is authentic because I am/was the sole owner of it. I attached a photo of my game cartridge (the one I sold) as reference.
adamw
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yup, as I said, I disagree with them. I think they just haven’t figured out yet that the contents of the no-ESRB box seems to have changed over time.
It’d actually be interesting if you could mail WATA and tell them you are the original owner of a no-ESRB box and you can vouch for those contents. It might change their thinking. The owner of the one that came back IMP was going to write to them and question it, but I didn’t hear whether they replied yet. Maybe someone else chiming in would help.
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@adamw, do you know the other user who sent his into WATA? I’d be interested in contacting him and seeing if I can get more details to see if ours are 100% the same. Also if you know what thread (or website) that conversation happened on, can you please provide it, I’d love to read through it. I’m wondering if the PCB board might have different numbers internally (like dates) that caused WATA to say it was an IMP, as maybe the timeframe doesn’t match up?
adamw
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it’s an eBay listing: www.ebay.com/itm/294153751334
you can contact the seller via eBay. I don’t *think* WATA is at the level of checking PCB dates at least for GB games yet, but not sure.
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Thank you! I’ll see if I can get some more information from the seller.
I contacted the seller, he is planning on emailing WATA, he is going to include me on the correspondence. I’ll keep you updated if I find out more information.
Thought this was interesting, one of the photos I have back when I sold my games, the blue box has an white ESRB and the cartridge has a black ESRB. Again I was original owner. Wanted to share in case you didn’t know that was a plausible combination.
Not sure if anyone has ever tried to contact Nintendo directly to get answers. I just called Nintendo and they couldn’t find any info, since they are mostly limited to support of more recent games; however, they pointed me to Pokemon.com and said that Pokemon.com has it’s own support team. I just emailed them, maybe they have some more specifics that can be beneficial.
adamw
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On Blue: yep, we were actually discussing that here recently, see the last couple of pages. Yours looks like one of the “later Sandshrew” copies, with a Sandshrew box with an open/flat cart holder (not the “tab close” one earlier boxes had). I expect it would have had manual U/DMG-APEE-USA-1 - which has a black ESRB logo also - and consumer safety U/DMG-USA-7.
Again it’s useful to have someone who’s an original owner of one, though.
I have been meaning to get in touch with Nintendo/TPC for a while but haven’t got around to it. It’s possible they have production records that would say what boxes were being printed where when, which would be very useful. Let us know if you get anywhere!
Both Nintendo and Pokemon.com (at least the main support) does not have this level of detail that they can provided for this old of a game. I have a an email out to WATA as well to see if I can information on the IMP and what they are expecting for that specific variant of Pokémon Yellow.
adamw
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yeah, I feared that might be the case 
It would be great if we could find someone who actually worked in a relevant position in the late 90s/early 2000s, but I don’t really know how to go about looking.
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The eBay seller just got an email from WATA saying they accept the IMP marking was incorrect and they’re going to correct it for him. Good to hear they’re on the same page as us now 
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