I paid $80 for everything double dash is missing the disc but the sports game has an action replay disc. https://imgur.com/gallery/wYUBYDu
weird big box Carmen sandiego.  Never saw one before until now!

Unfortunately there's nothing weird about it. It's just the way that game was released.

I been buying and collecting games almost 6 years now I never saw one contacted a local game store he said he doesn't really see them around I showed collectors who been collecting for 10+ years they told me they never saw one in person. 
 

I actually have two boxed copies of that, both with the oversized box protectors it requires.   I'm pretty sure the bundled desk reference encyclopedia is part of the gameplay and the player is expected to look things up after finding clues. That’s why it had to be oversized.

I recall seeing the NES version at K-Mart in the glass case by the checkout since the big box didn't fit the typical NES game display case. Early ‘90s, of course. What I haven't seen are the oversized SNES and Genesis boxes for this game! Didn't they also include the desk reference encyclopedia? I assume they did.

I've came across 3-4 of them in the wild. Not super rare, but definitely an odd ball box. Common enough that video game box protectors made a custom sized protector just for that game.

Solid grab, digging the Mutant League Football.

It's definitely not the most common game. I would suspect the encylopedia often got separated from the game and was usually kept on a shelf or with other discarded books.
 

This game was only sold like this, I've seen lots.

I guess these guys never look on eBay. There are 14 for sale on eBay right now with the big box.

It's normal and reading that earlier comment I've had this game too. Yes that encyclopedia is fairly special to the release as the game does in fact need it to handle all the historical references in the game so you can solve the clues depending where it takes you each time you play. The book itself on its own is an over the counter thing, but it had to be included as I would think the license owner (of Carmen) and/or Konami figured most would have no clue how to handle the clues if they weren't well up on history.

Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego snes (green big box) is the holy grail of Carmen Sandiego Saga

Afaik the Genesis version did, just with a slimmer fitting box than the NES version.

Here is a picture of my originally purchased game. This game in its CIB form comes like this...as posted by a few folks already. That's a good find though, it's a pretty fun game; enjoy it!

Nope no one checks eBay anymore

...and just because I can, the final proof for the OOP.  Here is my sealed/new copy of said game.

Yeah it's super common.     I've had probably ~5 over the years.  Definitely interesting and cool though that it came with an encyclopedia.

The ONE thing that could improve the experience of any NES game... Homework and heavy reading, lol!