Questions about box damage and tape seals

[stephen_rockefeller]

Does the tightness of the seals affect the value of sets? The seals on my imperial shuttle aren't as tight as I would like them to be.

[StarCityBrickCompany]

Well I guess you'll need to just throw that one away Seriously though, while a better/tighter/cleaner seal is better - I wouldn't stress over it. When it comes time to sell - there will likely be many sets with a wide range of conditions for sale - very few will ever truly be 100% mint.

[Chowrentoys.com]

No it does not. As long as the seal does not come unglued you should be fine. What we do is shrink wrap the older and expensive sets to insure that the seals don't fail or come unglued from dust.

[stephen_rockefeller]

Jack do you sell and ship your older sets still shrink wrapped?

[Chowrentoys.com]

We ship them still shrink wrapped, but we leave notes in the shrink wrap to let the buyer know we had inspected and wrapped it.

[Ed Mack]

Well I guess you'll need to just throw that one away

Seriously though, while a better/tighter/cleaner seal is better - I wouldn't stress over it. When it comes time to sell - there will likely be many sets with a wide range of conditions for sale - very few will ever truly be 100% mint.

All true. LEGO seals often come off or get loose. Expose the boxes to heat, and they get soft and peel back. As stated, very few boxes, even those directly from LEGO, are 100% mint.

[exciter1]

In the recent Wal-Mart clearance, I picked up several large sets. Upon looking over my purchases at home, I found a couple of them only had one tamper seal (tape) strip remaining one side of the box. This made me skeptical, so I slowly peeled back the other tamper seal and opened each set. I looked over the contents of both sets and they appear to be complete, no bags missing, no sliced bags, and all the minifigs are there. Is there any point in me trying to reseal these? How does this affect the value? Do most legit buyers understand when you explain they were found this way, or are they skeptical too?

[stephen_rockefeller]

Can you return them and exchange them for new ones? It most likely will decrease the resale value, hard to say how much though. I know you can't (shouldn't) list them as MISB or maybe not even NISB. Which sets?

[Legodog]

I just posted a similar topic about box condition here http://www.brickpicker.com/index.php/forums/viewthread/1241 I too have a couple sets where the seal looks a little odd but I hate to open them and risk hurting the value. I still think being completely honest in the auction is the best thing to do but I know it might be hard when it hurts the resale. Just not sure how much imperfections or "stretched" tape sealing the boxes is acceptable to list as NIB or even MNIB.

[exciter1]

One is a Millenium Falcon (7965) and the other is a Black Pearl (4184). I might return them for a replacement, if I see them again. These two sets are becoming pretty scarce in B&M stores.

[stephen_rockefeller]

Pardon my ignorance but what is B&M? The 7965 should be around for a while but I don't think the 4184 will be.....or it might already be EOL

[Legodog]

Brick and mortar.

[stephen_rockefeller]

I see......I thought it might be some regional store or something lol.

[Ed Mack]

One is a Millenium Falcon (7965) and the other is a Black Pearl (4184). I might return them for a replacement, if I see them again. These two sets are becoming pretty scarce in B&M stores.

You will not find a Black Pearl most likely and if you do, they could be in worse shape than what you have. On topic, seals get stretched on larger boxes and others can dry out and fall off with time. There will be a definite decrease in value with missing or cut seals. The set is still considered NEW IN BOX, just not MINT IN SEALED BOX and that can be a substantial difference on an expensive LEGO set. As with anything, it depends on buyers and their tolerance for such issues. Some people don't care and just want a new set. Others want that sealed, mint box.

[Doofy McGee]

Not that I am cynical or anything (insert laughter here,) but I would always be skeptical about a box with missing seals. I would just sit and stare at it wondering if it was complete or not. I would ulitmately end up having to open it to inspect the contents. I am a seller who takes great pride in his merchandise, so I could never sell an item as "complete" or "new" without knowing that the right parts are inside if it looks sketchy. That's just me though. I'm sure there are people out there who don't give a rip. I'm also equally sure that some less than savory people have probably purchased sets at retail, removed seals and removed pieces, and then "resealed" the box and returned it to the store they bought it at. I would hate to be the poor soul who buys that set the second time.

[force392]

Not that I am cynical or anything (insert laughter here,) but I would always be skeptical about a box with missing seals. I would just sit and stare at it wondering if it was complete or not. I would ulitmately end up having to open it to inspect the contents. I am a seller who takes great pride in his merchandise, so I could never sell an item as "complete" or "new" without knowing that the right parts are inside if it looks sketchy. That's just me though. I'm sure there are people out there who don't give a rip. I'm also equally sure that some less than savory people have probably purchased sets at retail, removed seals and removed pieces, and then "resealed" the box and returned it to the store they bought it at. I would hate to be the poor soul who buys that set the second time.

This is the new and popular scam.

[Doofy McGee]

I bought a set a couple months ago with two questionable seals on the same end. It looked like the adhesive had been melted or something. I immediately became suspicious, but had the good sense not to inspect it. I immediately brought it back for a refund. This has been my only run-in with something like this, but I am sad to hear that this is the latest scam. People are disgusting.

[Legodog]

I thought about somehow listing the weights of each set online somewhere so you can check for accuracy of the contents without opening a box but it seems like this would help the scammers get the weight of the box just right more than it would help the rest of us. We need a Lego xray scanner of some sorts. LOL.

[Doofy McGee]

I thought about the weight thing too. That was my first course of action when I got the presumed "tampered with" set. The weight checked out, but again, being the skeptical type, I assumed that the scammer probably thought of that too. I guess the moral here is to always inspect your seals when buying sets from brick and mortar stores. Online might be a crapshoot. Maybe the guys at Amazon get bored enough that they start rooting around in LEGO sets. Lol. On second thought, maybe I shouldn't joke about that. God help us.

[Legodog]

What is funny (or rather not funny) is that some of my sets with the most questionable seals were from Amazon. And not a 3rd party through Amazon either. I just take it as they get pretty tossed around during shipping. But how I would love to open the boxes to verify the contents to make sure.

[Doofy McGee]

So THAT is how Amazon gives us such good deals! We are buying sets that don't have any mini figures in them! *gulp*

[stephen_rockefeller]

We need a Lego xray scanner of some sorts. LOL.

I posted a while back that I was thinking about taking a few of my SW sets from 2007 to my buddy who works for the TSA so he could run them through the scanner at the airport hi see if there was a gold C3PO inside, I still haven't got around to doing it though.

[exciter1]

Thanks for the discussion guys. All of reasons mentioned above is why I went ahead and opened the sets and inspected them. One consolation, even used, these sets are still worth what I paid for them. Since all the contents are still sealed and NIB they should still be worth holding on to.

[cflannagan]

I bought the first Lego set intended for investing/profit, Tower Bridge! There is some scratches/scruffs, my wife thinks I should return it to Amazon for a better box. I looked at it and I don't think it really is bad at all. I am not really a "box snob" and I think this box will still be worth it when the Tower Bridge goes EOL. I'm attaching pixs - I've marked the potential problems in red. Anything to be concerned about? I'm thinking nah..

[Nakapfao]

Maybe. You never know. There was a thread yesterday discussing box condition and its impact on sales. For such small tears on such a large box, this probably won't be an issue, but there are sticklers out there. The best thing you can do is be honest when you're selling it. Make sure your buyer knows that these imperfections exist.