Ok, a while ago I asked around to find what would be the cheapest factory sealed Game Boy game.   I asked because I have a personal grading scale for my carts and I wanted to open a brand new cart to get a baseline for a perfect cart.

Below are various photos from my unboxing.  Notes are provided on the cartridge condition.  Oh, and I settled on Wheel of Fortune, obviously.  I think I picked it up for under $15, including shipping.

Normally I'd hate to see any sealed game this old be opened, even with a $15 price tag but, in this case where I wanted to know what I "perfect" item looked like, I had to have a reference.


The box: Sorry, I had already removed the shrink wrap.


Removal


Contents, folded.


Back of the manual and unfolded NP advertisement and warranty card.


The other side of the NP advertisement.


Top of the cartridge.
No sign of wear, sticker in exceptional shape with no scraping. Sticker edges are unstuck from the cartridge just a little. This seems to be a normal conditional state, regardless of cartridge usage.


Back of Cartridge
It's tough to get a good image, but you can see that there is slight scuffing at the bottom edge of the cartridge. As I had expected, this is likely due to the cartridge being inserted into a Quality Assurance test device, or two.


Back of Cartridge
We see additional scraping on the back of the cartridge, along the two smooth "bars". Though these bars do align with the two bars int the dust cover case, it is likely that the cart was slid against two guard-rail style metal guides when inserted into the QA device(s). I've yet to find a cartridge without this scuffing.


Inside the Cartridge
We see no signs of scraping on the leads of the cartridge. Makes sense considering that the metal leads would be harder than the exterior plastic. Any scraping on the leads should only be fine at this point and likely only visible under a magnifying glass or microscope.


Inside the Cartridge
Here we see the inside of the cartridge from a different angle. It's tough to see but on a few of the leads (from left-to-right, leads #7,23 & 24) what looks like oil staining, likely from someone's hand assembling the cartridge.

Interesting stuff, thank you for sharing!

Theres a little lift on the label. Sorry, 9.5/10

Lol, I get that.  However, my point is that realistically you're not going to find a better cartridge that one that's freshly opened.  I guess the label could still be firmly secured if the sealed game is kept at optimal conditions but there are other factors that could affect the quality of the sticker that could result in this occuring 100% of the time due to the age or the type of the materials used to make the sticker adhere to the cartridge.

Also, I know others may disagree, but a "10" is slightly-relative to each specific cartridge.  This is because, as I mentioned, there could be minor variations in how specific carts, or at least their stickers, were manufactured or assembled.  If there were some regions that used labels that had a lower quality adhesive applied to the sticker, then that means that a "perfect 10", as compared to all other GB cartridges may not exist.  Therefore, if all labels for a specific game will have a raised edge due to poor sticker glue, then I'd consider a cartridge like this in perfect condition, because it would be impossible to find a better example.

LOL this cracked me up.

Thanks OP for sharing.  So many of us that got these games when we were younger lost/destroyed the boxes and inserts ...

 

That's factory condition alright.

Grading beyond what's possible is what makes grading (whether self, or professional) such an interesting topic.

It might be literally impossible to have a perfect score on many things. Yet if something went from the factory that didn't get tested and had more pressure applied from the label roller and the technician used gloves instead of bare handing the board then it would clearly be better.

There's nothing like opening up a sealed game though and appreciating the "mintiness" of it.

Yeah, I understand that too.  But, for me, since this was for a personal grading scale, I meant for the GEM MINT "10" to be something as a standard.  It is to say, this cart, in the wild cannot get better than this.  Of course, if I ran into someome who told me "this was the first cartridge we produced for Alleyway.  Never inserted into a test bed, we used gloves hand-assembling it and the sticker is perfectly intact and centered with the highest grade sticker paper and glue" I'd put a cart like that in an completely different class.  In fact, as a collector, I'd pay a premium (well, to me) for such a cart because value would come from the excessive nature of the quality that extends beyond what would have been possible under best case, but normal, assembly conditions.

No doubt. For what it's worth this is the base 10 condition by definition. It means most all items should look like this to qualify as mint and anything better would be considered extra special.

Sort of like how actual mints have proofs, and double proofs.

I think the only way to get a 10 is to have them break the seal themselves which is bullshit........

Just proves they have no confidence in what they are doing to me, what if you broke the seal....touched none of the contents, sent it in unharmed, perfectly cared for and they give you a 9?

#sealedgamesmatter

Strange, I've opened sealed GB games and none of mine had any wear on the back. Are you sure this was authentically sealed?

Well, it should have been.  I mean, I know that bootlegs were a problem, in general, about 15-20 years ago, but nothing about this says bootleg and this is one of the most common, low demand Factory Sealed games in Game Boy existence.  If this is a reseal, it really wouldn't have been worth the time of the seller.  CIB version isn't worth much less (possibly a buck or two.)

Necro-bumping this thread with some relevant pictures. There's a used game shop near me that had some NIB copies of a Japanese GB game, sitting there for years with no buyer. So they were cheap, and I grabbed them. These games were never shrink-wrapped, so I went ahead and carefully opened each one to take pictures. These carts have never seen a Game Boy, aside from whatever device is used for testing, before they leave the factory. No such thing as a "perfect" GB cart.

Normally I'd shrink the pics a little for a more thread-appropriate size, but this thread is all about the details. You can see the Chalvo 55 box in the background of the 2nd pic:

From what I can see, it looks like your cart is in about the same condition as mine was i.  Do you see any scraping down the smooth "bars" like I pointed out?  I've found some carts in my collecting that had obviously never been used or possibly not used more than once.  After looking at hundreds of carts, I've not seen a single one without it.

My initial post was one of my first, real information contributions to this site.  Looking back, I see the value in doing what I did, documenting the Wheel of Fortune game but I now wonder if my game was still less than "perfect".  For one (and as was pointed out) notice the label peeling.  I wonder what specifically causes this.  I assume these labels were put on the games by hand. This means that maybet the assembler simply gave a quick thumb-swipe and never pressed down the edges.  Or, maybe the adhesive degrades on the edges of most labels, first.  With time, most labels will start to peel.  I also wondered if my game had set in a hot warehouse for a while.  I don't think you can see it but the plastic tray was definitely starting to yellow.  Yellowing, as we know, if often attributed to plastics setting out in the sun, but I never recall opening a game as a kid and seeing it set in a yellowish plastic tray.  I can't help but wonder if time and heat degraded the plastic tray and if it verifies this game was in a hot environment, did that effect the label?

I certainly don't consider your cart, or mine, to be "perfect".  However, as was my original intent, I see these examples as about the best as one can realistically hope to find, with the exception of maybe a better-centered label with no lifting.  If you don't find the minor scuffs, scrapes and finger prints that I documented, I'd be shocked.  These games were all hand assembled and they no doubt when through some quality control checks, which would have certainly left their mark.  A legit, pristine example would have had to have been assembled with gloves and skipped QA.  I just don't see that happening.

To clarify, these are 3 DIFFERENT carts in the 3 pictures. So this is additional evidence x3 that a brand-new GB cart is scraped before it enters the box.

If I remember right, you were making sort of a condition scale for your collection, so that you would know if you could reasonably give a cart a 10, even if it wasn't perfect. Well, like you said, a "perfect" cart doesn't [commercially] exist, so "reasonably/realistically perfect" should be what gets a 10. I'd even give a 10 to carts with more scrapes on the back, (and I think you agree) as long as the label is clean and centered, and the plastic isn't yellow. It really is weird to see a cart with so few scrapes. I'm used to that area being completely hashed on every cart. Even when I come across an Infogenius cart in very good condition, that obviously never saw much use, it still has way more than these Wheel of Fortune or Chalvo 55 carts.

That really would be a crazy find. An original cart that never entered any device ever.

Edit: I'll take pics of the "bars" tonight

I just counted off of my master list and of the near 450 carts that I own, I've only classified 29 as 10s based off of the established scale I made from my cart.

That said, I think I managed to get at least half of those from one seller early on who had an extensive GB list for sale. I managed to get probably 50-80 carts from the seller and I think every one was in the 8-10 range. I guess he bought a lot from a very serious collector who really cared about condition.

Interesting enough, and not entirely related, I've found that often rarer games are easier to come by in 9-10 shape. My guess is that there's a reason why they are rare-- no one wanted them so most you find weren't played much. My copy of Felix the Cat is a 10. However, after picking up a ton of duplicated, the only "1" rarity I have based off of the NintendoAge list is Alleyway that's a 10. All of the other's are 8s or 9s, even though I've found many of them. In fact, I don' think I've seen a perfect Tetris and if you collect GB, you know those are a dime a dozen.

I don't think have ever seen such perfect labial on a cart before