Hi there. I'm a pretty avid pc game collector but one thing that still stumps me from time to time is whether a game is still factory sealed. For instance, I just bought a sealed copy of Gabriel Knight 3. It came to me as advertised, in shrink wrap, but claimed to be factory sealed. Now, I can't for the life of me recall how this game came packaged. I have other Sierra games and I don't believe they were shrink wrapped. I know that most, if not all, pc games of the time came in the big box with a sticker seal on the top and bottom openings, and no shrink wrap. This game came in full, but torn, shrink wrap and the stickers. The box itself is in immaculate condition, not even a finger print on it, with the exception of half of the system requirement sticker that's poking out of torn wrap: it's a little dirty. This tells me that it has indeed been shrink wrapped early on in its life. But, the top sticker has been broken, then another sticker placed on top of it. The curious thing though, is it doesn't look as though the box was actually opened, as there is no creasing on the opening side spine, and the little tabs on either side of the opening flap are not bent or in any way disturbed. The door on the face that opens to show more game details doesn't seem to have ever been opened, as theres no creasing on that spine either. The only explanation I can come up with is that in the process of being sealed, it broke, and another one put over it. Then maybe whatever retailer had the box, also shrink wrapped it(if not at the factory. If anyone can shed some light on this it'd be great. Attached are some pictures.
Bottom with system requirement sticker.
"Door" spine
This shows the tear on the top sticker. If you look to the far right you can see the 2 stickers, one of top of the other.