Nintendo Direct Refurbished Wii (U) and (3) DS games

[phart010 1,655]

I’ve been enjoying myself collecting refurbished Wii, Wii U, DS and 3DS games for a couple years now. There doesn’t seem to be much info available on them online, so I was hoping to start some discussion here.
 

In 2015, when Wii U sales were stagnant, I guess Nintendo decided to try and boost their revenue by offering refurbished games. Some came sealed just as new games, some just had little stickers to seal the case:

 

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by phart010

[phart010 1,655]

This is a sealed game.

 

Notice the sticker seal on Mario and on Pikmin 3. These are authentic as I am the original purchaser. I ordered them direct from Nintendo and I still have the invoices to prove it.

Edited June 14, 2022 by phart010

[phart010 1,655]

I picked up some games second hand so can’t say if they ever received a wrap-sealed version.

My Metroid Prime is not sealed, but I’ve seen listings for it as having the sticker seal. Check out the giant sticker seal on Zelda:

[phart010 1,655]

I don’t have them all. I am aware that John Hancock has the Wonderful 101. I saw it on one of his videos:

***Edit: I just noticed after posting this that John Hancocks Wonderful 101 has a sticker seal if you look real closely at the right side.***

There could be other Wii/ Wii U refurbished titles that I’m not aware of. I vaguely remember seeing Luigi U on Nintendo’s website, but it could have been NSMBU+Luigi U. I don’t remember and it sold before I was ready to buy it. 
 

Some old forum had people talking about these and they mentioned some other titles I don’t have: 

I have seen pics of Zelda Phantom Hourglass and Zelda OOT 3D online. I can’t find the Phantom Hourglass pic anymore.

 

Someone on NA back in the day mentioned having Mario vs Donkey Kong DS. I tried to contact him to buy it, but by that time he was no longer an active member.

 

If you know of other titles, I’d love to see them!

Edited June 14, 2022 by phart010

[0xDEAFC0DE 1,272]

@phart010 is the "refurbished product" label on that skyward sword a sticker, or is it actually printed on the cover art?

As far as other games, I know @VGCollectaholic posted some in this thread:

The ones he lists that you don't are Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD (I had him post a picture of this in that thread), and New Super Mario Bros U + Super Luigi U. He does not have Wonderful 101 listed though.

I also remember there being a NA thread on this. I'll see if I can dig it up.

[0xDEAFC0DE 1,272]

Turns out I manually archived that thread on archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20191111064553/http://74.86.217.179/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=149013

Not much more info there, but someone did say they had a "Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem" with refurbished on it. Also some more pictures of new super mario bros wii.

[phart010 1,655]

20 minutes ago, 0xDEAFC0DE said:

@phart010 is the "refurbished product" label on that skyward sword a sticker, or is it actually printed on the cover art?

As far as other games, I know @VGCollectaholic posted some in this thread:

The ones he lists that you don't are Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD (I had him post a picture of this in that thread), and New Super Mario Bros U + Super Luigi U. He does not have Wonderful 101 listed though.

I also remember there being a NA thread on this. I'll see if I can dig it up.

Ah I though I had posted my NSMBU+Luigi U. Must have missed that one..

Dang now I need to hunt for Zelda windwaker hd. That’s awesome to know it exists.

The red stripe is printed onto the cover art. Also the cover art seems to be a lower grade of paper than the retail versions.

Edited May 16, 2020 by phart010

[0xDEAFC0DE 1,272]

Can you post the back of that skyward sword? I'm curious if it has a different product code or updated revision number.

[phart010 1,655]

@0xDEAFC0DE Here it is. It still has the original barcode, but then they plant a sticker with a new code on top of it.

Its strange, a lot of the games don’t have a sticker with a new code.. Zelda does though... And on some games, the sticker is on the paper, on some the sticker is on the plastic

Edited June 14, 2022 by phart010

[phart010 1,655]

Here’s some other various refurbished items I’ve seen which I am not so interested in collecting :

Edited June 14, 2022 by phart010

[0xDEAFC0DE 1,272]

1 hour ago, phart010 said:

@0xDEAFC0DE Here it is. It still has the original barcode, but then they plant a sticker with a new code on top of it.

Its strange, a lot of the games don’t have a sticker with a new code.. Zelda does though... And on some games, the sticker is on the paper, on some the sticker is on the plastic

Yeah the back minus the sticker is unchanged. Here's the a normal version of this variant for comparison: https://www.ebay.com/itm/383533250635

[phart010 1,655]

11 minutes ago, 0xDEAFC0DE said:

Yeah the back minus the sticker is unchanged. Here's the a normal version of this variant for comparison: https://www.ebay.com/itm/383533250635

If I remember correctly, I think the retail version has shiny gold on it. No shiny on the refurb

[0xDEAFC0DE 1,272]

1 minute ago, phart010 said:

If I remember correctly, I think the retail version has shiny gold on it. No shiny on the refurb

There were three variants of the retail version. Two had shiny gold, the one I linked (which matches the product code of yours) does not.

[captmorgandrinker 1,610]

My Luigi 3DS XL had a refurb box.   I'll have to see if I can find it.

[RegularGuyGamer 1,858]

They were all available on store.Nintendo.com I had all of the Wii yours at one point and since sold them. I even had a Wii mini with the seal on it. Some items had it printed on and others had just a sticker slapped on. 

I always thought the stickers were over stock. One thing is the Wii games did not come with manuals. 

I'm pretty sure I had a thread about it on NA. Would've been 2013-14. 

I still have a 2DS that's the refurb with the sticker on the box. It's by I last piece of that style of refurb. Most of the 3ds consoles came in standard boxes, blue or black, and the sticker showed the actual color of if it was a special edition. I think I had the smash Bros 3ds, dream team, and the clear blue 2ds in standard boxes but w the "color" designated on the sticker.

[DefaultGen 4,935]

I didn't know the hardware came in their own printed box that looks like the retail box. That's pretty neat. Also there's more software than I realized. I know some games like SMG2 were up on Nintendo.com for years, but haven't seen many of the others.

[RegularGuyGamer 1,858]

12 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

I didn't know the hardware came in their own printed box that looks like the retail box. That's pretty neat. Also there's more software than I realized. I know some games like SMG2 were up on Nintendo.com for years, but haven't seen many of the others.

One of the problems with finding them second had is there's literally 1000s of the titles for sale and so few people will even mention, let alone read, the text on the red box. Also, you gotta think all the sales from Amazon that go unpictured and even local sales. They're out there tho.

Like I said, I had every Wii title that was up and just left it at that. At a time, Pikmin 2 Wii was selling for $45+ used, Punch out Wii was selling for $35+ used, skyward sword too, and Nintendo had "refurb" copies that came sealed for $15 - 20 shipped. I made a killing off of listing them on eBay. Nintendo only let you buy 3 of each at a time but I easily spent around $1k on refurbs from Nintendo and sold em all.

Last summer I sold the Wii Mini for $300. The market is just too hard to say no to. 

[RegularGuyGamer 1,858]

Here's what I have left in the 2DS. This one has the refurbished label printed onto the packaging. I wish I had the Wii Mini pics that clearly had the refurb label as a sticker slapped on. It wasn't even centered lol.

All the contents are packaged like you'd get brand new from the factory. The seals are also the same circle seals seen from the time which Nintendo has moved on from.

The box has the color section printed on and then the color is clearly just a sticker slapped on which changed if it was a special edition to a mini picture of what the decal was. I remember the Smash Bros 3ds having the decal on the corner on a standard blue box.

More pix for the thread. 

Edited May 19, 2020 by RegularGuyGamer

[snes_collector 56]

Just picked up a refurb NES Classic from the Nintendo. Here is the box: I'm sure most of these will get trashed

 

[Koopa64 41]

Those are definitely really cool, I wonder if they ever appear in the wild? I don't own any sadly.

[BirdDogGaming 203]

I remember ordering a copy of the New Super Mario Bros. U / New Super Luigi U double pack from Nintendo refurbished with the expectation that it would have that red refurbished seal, but it didn’t. I still wonder why it didn’t come with it. Here’s an image of what the refurbished seal looks like for that game.

[phart010 1,655]

Just found an image of this one online. I don’t have one yet though

[phart010 1,655]

On 5/16/2020 at 7:06 PM, 0xDEAFC0DE said:

There were three variants of the retail version. Two had shiny gold, the one I linked (which matches the product code of yours) does not.

I just relooked at my skyward sword. The red label is actually a sticker. I didn’t realize that until now, most of the other ones I have are printed on, so I just assumed it was the same.

[bowser 596]

On 7/18/2020 at 6:12 PM, snes_collector said:

Just picked up a refurb NES Classic from the Nintendo. Here is the box: I'm sure most of these will get trashed

 

I saw an SNES classic version of this the other day on Facebook Marketplace.

[koifish 437]

I have bought some stuff on nintendo store, but never the refurbs. Interesting little sub-market. Makes me want to collect some for future prospecting. I figure at worst it's NOS.