So what defines " never been used before" to you all. The reason I ask this is last wekend i found a guy with some Atari stuff. He had 2 of them one of which was still in the box and he claimed "ive never even used that before!" typical line really just because the box is there. I honestly overpaid just a little for his Atari lot knowing that the boxed Atari is worth a little more value. I could have talked him down more if I had really thoguht about this at that time but you know when you're on the hunt and your adrenaline kicks in seeing this little gems... Anyways had I thought about it I could have said something along the lines of  " You're telling me that this has never been used so when we open the box. It will still have its factory styrofoam, factory bag wrappings, and the cables will be nice and organized" but instead we just came up with a price and i purched the lot. When I finally got to opening up the "never been used atari" the cables were so damn knotted up it took me 15minutes to unknot them. There was no insterts or styrofoam simply a cardboard box with an atari... Clearly its been used.

IMO your definition is correct: "when we open the box. It will still have its factory styrofoam, factory bag wrappings, and the cables will be nice and organized"

Same as what VGA "Qualified" grade means.

Things that sellers say that should have zero bearing on your purchase if the item is right in front of you:

"I've never used that before"
"It's new in the box"
"It is an Atari"
"It is not filled with cat pee"
"[Literally anything]"

YOU need to open the box and look at everything, and YOU need to get the emotion/adrenaline/excitement OUT of the equation.

IIRC, qualified requires an unsealed game to have never been used. 

Yep, that's why it fits my definition of "never been used before"

My definition of never been used before is....

Never been used before

I'm with quest. Never been used means never been used. The inserts, quality of Styrofoam, etc is irrelevant. Regardless, I take that saying with a grain of salt as it is in no way verifiable.

Cat pee fetches top dollar.

Haha around my area "never been used" means used for the full life span of the product and only one analog stick was chewed off by a dog.

Where I come from, never been used means she must be damned ugly looking.

Or she smells like an Atari box full of cat pee.

if the game's hymen is still intact

I've seen so many used twice, original xbox's asking $200 on kijiji its not even funny..

It's either brand new and factory sealed or used. There is no middle ground for me.

To be fair, "never been used" and "i've never even used that before" have two different meanings to me. The former means your definition. The latter can mean, "I just bought this last week for $5 at someone else's garage sale and now I'm selling it to you. I know for a fact I've never used it but damned if I know what happened to it before I came into possession of it." Heck, even "never been used" can mean out of the box. I have plenty of non-gaming items I've taken out of the box but can still be considered "never been used."

I've bought "brand new" games that arrived as just the cartridge or incomplete with a trashed box quite a few times on Amazon. An order I made a few months ago, showed up with "brand new" SNES games in clear plastic rental cases with the manuals

This. It's pretty clear cut what "never been used" entails, which is different than "new/brand new".

"never been used" is a loaded statement, "used" means a lot of things to different people.

I have managed game store for 9 years of my life and in my experience "Never been used before" is a disk based game with no case that probably doesn't work....yep.

Since you can't prove that something was never used in a console without enlisting the help of a forensic expert, for me it's not "never been used" unless it's sealed.

I saw an ebay posting of a "barely ever used" PS1 game.

The case sure look like it went through a sander.

To me itd never been used if I use my brain and logic lol Cables all fucked up and stuff missing is obviously used. I could imagine jone getting his n64 on Christmas and being like "no circle seal?! thanks for the used console mom and dad". Lol