To begin with, I posted this on reddit and was redirected here.
So about two years ago, I was purchasing booster boxes, opening them, sending the cards off to PSA to get graded, and reselling them for a small profit. I came across someone who sold me a booster box and we started talking. It turned out that he had another booster box; a fossil, first edition. Although, this booster box was a bit different.
He began to explain to me that he had purchased this from someone who worked at Wizards of the Coast. That individual told him that this particular booster box was the display model at the Wizards of the Coast facility. I, being the risk taker that I am, purchased it. I have no idea whether the story is true or not and asked my friend to post an image of the booster box with a regular one to its right about five months ago hoping that someone would shed some light on this. All I ended up getting was a response of âIt just looks like it faded in the sun to me. Nothing special.â
If anyone has any insight about this booster box, please let me know. Also, if you have a need to see more images of it, Iâll be happy to upload them! I just want some clarity on whether or not this booster box is worth something?
m.imgur.com/lOomqtD â I took this image five months ago and you can probably find the posting my friend made by searching for it on google.
Here are additional images that I took more recently:
It does look like its faded, and the ânot for resaleâ sticker appears to be on the outside, so i canât see anything which would increase its value
A very interesting find! While the story is cool, and itâs a great item to have, I donât think itâs significantly more valuable than a regular Fossil box.
Most of the more valuable booster box variants were mass-produced but in small quantities, like the red logo Fossil/triangle error packs/possible shadowless variants. As this is a one-off, thereâs no established sale value (besides what you paid for it) so therefore you canât get a clear idea of its worth. With something like this you might be able to get a good price, but it would probably take you awhile to find a collector willing to buy it.
Having the sun-faded look (whether it is or not) also doesnât help. People always put up sun-faded cards on eBay as ârare misprintsâ so if you listed it as such I doubt you would get much serious interest. My best guess is that this would be a bog-standard 1st edition Fossil box that spent a little too much time in a display case at WOTC. Itâs therefore worth only as much as the story behind it (plus the going rate for a 1ED Fossil box).
Usually when wizards does test materials they donât waste holofoil resources. So the only thing I could think of is you could weigh the box and if you have an accurate enough scale to find it couldnât possibly have any holofoil cards inside then that might be able to prove itâs a test run. Other then that, or getting confirmation from a Wizards rep, thereâs no way to prove itâs real by keeping it sealed that I can think of. Keep in mind your talking really minscule differnence in weight so itâs even hard to confirm with just the wieght. If youâre willing to open it you could try and see if thereâs a different type of FPO cards inside.
Without it being authenticated I have to agree with whatâs already been said.
Itâs not always true about the foils. There was a Ex Sandstorm box on auction that said on the bottom Foil Only or something similar to that effect. I think it went for close to $1k. That is the only other test print sort of thing that comes to mind. That is the ex series and this is WOTC so that could be different.
The story itself would only be able to be authenticated if a picture existed of the box on display, as far as I can imagine. Or a picture of a different box displayed with the same stickering.
Thatâs all I can say that hasnât already been said. Since it canât be authenticated within reason, opening it to see if you have something special isnât the worst idea. If you do, proof is in your hands! And youâll have ready buyers for the rest of the packs. If you donât, mystery solved. Resell remaining packs.
I agree with most here too.
I can see no extra value at all to the box sealed so common sense would say, open it. Additional value, if any, would be found inside the box.
If I were to contact Wizards of the Coast, would they be able to shed some light on the subject? I donât want to open it because once I do that, if it is worth something, the value would drastically decrease and it would go from a pristine collectors piece to a damaged one.
Well right now its just a sun faded 1st edition Fossil booster box with a sticker on it, theres nothing special about the outside of the box, if the box is to have any extra value, it would be from possible unreleased cards from inside it, or something along those lines
As much as I dislike grading cards, that seems to be your best bet. I donât think a faded box holds any premium value. Not for me at least, it drastically decreased the value for me. Specially with that sticker blocking the artwork at an obscure angle.
My guess would be the guy who sold it to you left it in the light too long but have you checked for any other differences, maybe in the wrap or something?
One of the boxes is opened; the other one has hard-to-see wizards of the coast logos on the shrinkwrap (probably because it blends with the lightness of the box).
But, the brown part of the box on the underside is also âfadedâ identical to the rest. Unless whoever had this exposed each side to the same amount of sunlight (unlikely) I donât think itâs fadedâŚ
I agree. It would be unlikely that they would have exposed all of the sides to the sun at exact intervals so that they all had the same amount of fade. I really wish Wizards of the Coast could have given me some information instead of just âcontact the pokemon company.â