Alright, so as some of you may have known, I purchased a sealed Mega Man 1 recently.  This was by far, the most exciting purchase in my 3 years of collecting.  I was beat out on a sealed copy in Feb 2010 by a narrow margin and have wanted it ever since.  Then one sold on sealedgameheaven about 2 months ago and I was pissed that I wasn't even given a chance to offer on it.  Especially when I discovered the selling price.

So I was on the BINs one night and saw it.  I snagged it as the first and only page view and have been trying to contain my excitement ever since.  It made it here safely and I paid $25 in 2 day Fed Ex shipping.  I sent it to VGA, it was received safely.  They sent it back today and it arrived safely again.  Perfect right?  Far from it.



EDIT:  Looks like it was 100% fake thanks to the microscope test (vent holes) and some apparent marker touchup on the back spine under the wrap.  Thanks to those who have contributed.


Here's the photobucket with plenty of large pictures so you can see for yourself and make your own decision:

http://s981.photobucket.com/album...


So here's what I'm looking for from the community.

1) Anyone that owns this game sealed, can you confirm the location of the ventholes?  If this game is a fake then the faker obviously at least had one real copy if the placed the holes in the exact correct spots.  Nevermind being able to hand-cut them without nicking the box at all.

2) A recommendation of what to do now.  I've already emailed VGA a lovely response.  I've also emailed the original seller requesting a full refund, though ultimately it isn't their fault. 

And I guess if anyone has first hand experience with a refusal through VGA, I'd like to hear about it.

im so sorry this happened to you with this game.

Damn, sorry to hear man.

Yeah I was about to contact you about this. The Popeye seller was selling turned out to be a reseal as well.

At least you have enough time to claim a refund.

Okay now I'm gonna read your post.

Wow...so many variables in the sealed/grading game. That sucks man. Sorry I'm of no help, but good luck finding the info u need.

Holy crap, that'd be frustrating. Hope things clear up quickly and smoothly for you!

I don't know sealed games well at all but I can imagine that is the one thing everyone fears when sending to vga minus a low grade.

How did you pay? This would be an easy charge-back, since they effectively delivered nothing.

ok, so is this a fake reseal or not? i didn't quite understand, alot of stuff going on in that post

After looking at your pictures.  It does kinda look like a reseal.  You can see a slight crease at the top flap and I dunno if it's just the pictures or not but it almost looks as if someone tried covering the crease with marker.

Well that's the point, we don't know.  I did just get an email back from VGA saying:

Ask Bronty, ask Moedown, ask Bucky before you listen to this but:

that H seam looks a little weird to me.

sucks man, either way. can I ask who sold it and how much it was??

^ Same dude that sold me the resealed Popeye. Give me a few minutes and I'll elaborate.

Jone, unfortunately what they are telling you is that its fake. A pretty good fake but fake.

Yeah get the opinion of the higher ups but I'd say that's a without a doubt reseal. Seams look off. I zoomed in on the crease in the flap, definitely been opened and looks like marker over it. Looks like there might be a crease on one of the side flaps as well. See what the other guys say and I'd see what you can do about gettin your money back for it

This is precisely why many of us sealed collectors use VGA - authentication. They have refused several games of mine in the past, ones that I could not detect as reseals. For very much the same reason as yours. Sucks dude, but you should at least be able to get a refund from the seller now. You have 3rd party proof.

Aha!!!!  You are indeed correct, I can verify this.  Definitely marker covering it up.

Well, I feel better about the refusal, but I still didn't get a cleaning / case or detailed grading report that I paid for.  So even a store credit doesn't help me there if I'm now scared to collect sealed games.

^^^ right. you can see the color touch under the wrap.

these are your jeff dailey reseals right here. we were talking about that little punk on the flintstones thread

jone, at least you didn't get ripped off to the tune of 40 grand. cause there is someone that was by games just like this probably from the same source

sorry jone. what a crappy way to get in to the glorious world

I knew that game looked familiar.  I'm sorry but I'm 100% sure that MM1 is resealed.  And the Popeye.  Yes, those are resealed.  And some damn good ones at that...some of the best I'd ever seen.  There were a bunch of them, in fact I'll post the pictures I have for all to see. 

There was also a Kid Icarus in the group, and a MPTO which sadly were also resealed.  I got burned on the MPTO, and almost on the KI.  I submitted the MTPO to get graded, and the reasoning behind it being resealed was the exact same as what is said in your report.  Also, if you looked closely you can see microscuffs underneath the wrap, and black ink in the areas of wear (it took a camera flash to really see them though).  I ended up not buying the KI due to some suspicious spine wear.... a hunch I turned out to be correct on.

This was probably a couple of years ago when all this happened, and I don't remember the seller at the top of my head.  I just happen to still have the pictures.  However, yobo (user at sealedgameheaven) can probably tell you more about these.

*warning, don't get exicted, these are ALL reseals*

well said robin

Yeah it's unfortunate. Especially for starting out on such an awesome/expensive title

So, the Popeye was one of the mintiest BB games I've ever seen. But there were no ventholes so I knew within 10 seconds from opening the package that it was fake. Upon closer inspection, there were no roller-marks, there was a thin line across the top of the box in the shrinkwrap...not a seam, a line??!... and all three top flaps had been inked where they were creased.

I contacted the seller and after 2 days of bullshit responses from him, I opened a dispute threatening to send it to VGA for verification, to which he granted the return. It is "out for delivery" right now. I'll let you know if he pays up.

Blarky:

wish I had my old computer files. I had loooooots of black box pics from this reseal hoard back in the day

there was other stuff like sqoon, etc as well