The recent Kid Icarus story in the news got me curious about a sealed copy of The Legend of Zelda that I've owned for about 20 years. I don't have any intention of selling it, but after looking online and coming up empty, I'm wondering if anyone here has an idea what it would sell for. Most of what I've found online are sales of the Classic Series re-release; the few I've seen with a gold cart are up for nonsensically high asking prices. I'm also confused by the NES P ZL printed on the back; I don't see that mentioned in most posts about the different LOZ release variants.

Any insight is much appreciated!!

Hate to say it bud, but look like a reseal.

No H-Seam is a big red flag.

Yep. That's a re-seal. That sucks to have had it that long thinking it was legit. I feel for you

Without knowing anything about sealed games, I would 100% trust jone, sign guy, and fleck...

And yeah... no H seam would be my big red flag.

Interesting. My brother originally found it in an old toy store for a few bucks - would the likely explanation be that it was opened and returned and resealed? Obviously no one was trying to make money off of it.

Also, does anyone know about the NES P ZL code on the back? I'm just curious since I haven't come across much information related to that.

Store probably just resealed it to sell it again.

 

I just came across this listing: https://warnersretrocorner.com/sh...

Doesn't appear to have an h-seam and it has the same NES P ZL designation as mine that I still haven't found out much about. Not trying to be argumentative - just curious what you guys think. Even though that one's graded could it still be a reseal? Or are they just that faint that it might not appear in the photo?

That's a PAL copy, yours is NTSC.  PAL = Europe, NTSC = Americas (more or less).  I'm not an expert on the PAL seals but the NSTC Zeldas 100% should have an H seam on them. 

Like Jonas said, that's a PAL copy and graded by a company called UKG. Not reputable here in the US, unsure of how reputable they are in the UK and Europe.

In PAL collecting circles, new doesn't mean original factory sealed (which is the way works here in the States) since most PAL releases never came sealed with plastic.

New in PAL regions just means (for the most part) "Never Used" or "Extremely Mint" which I guess they determine by looking at the pins of the cartridge or whatever. Not sure how it really works there really, all I know is they've got some really fun obscure stuff that I like to collect.

Regardless, a US release of Zelda must be sealed in plastic with a proper H-Seam or else it's without a shadow of a doubt, a resealed game. Even if it's been in your hands for over 20 years, it just means when you bought it all those years ago it was opened and repackaged at one point along the way.

Still, if you feel that's not a fair assessment then you can always have it professionally graded. Maybe you have an undocumented no H-Seam variant and it's something unique.

Thanks, that's super informative! I think you're probably right on all fronts. I will say that my brother found this in Panama on a trip years ago. I always assumed it was just a US copy since there's long been a big American presence there (I was actually born there - my dad worked in the state department during the invasion in the 80's and used to buy us NES games from the BX). I wonder if that has anything to do with it or if it indeed is just a resealed US copy that ended up down there.

Whatever the case, it has a really cool back story.

Agreed! At the end of the day, it's a fun piece to have in my game room.

Like others said the H-seam missing is a red flag. However I would personally send it out for grading. I believe VGA can confirm if it is a reseal or not. 
Check to see if the top flap was open or not. There would be clear wear indication there if it was. 

I don't see any indications that the top flap was ever opened, but obviously I'm no expert.  I've attached a picture here in case anyone wants to take a look.

I was actually going to ask if anyone thought it was worth getting graded despite the obvious signs that it may be a reseal.  I know very little about that process and as I said, since I've never considered selling it I never really looked into it.  I guess it seems like a lot of money to spend given the likelihood that they'll just tell me it's reseal?