Is this a reseal? Jet Grind Radio Dreamcast

[retro.magnus | 136]

Hey all, I'm not super knowledgeable on Dreamcast. Just got this in and there is some wear on manual (top corner of spine & front where the plastic bumper that hold the manual in is). Anyone have an idea if this has been resealed or not?

https://imgur.com/a/hSdiCAG

[OptOut | 8,881]

6 hours ago, epiczail said:

Hey all, I'm not super knowledgeable on Dreamcast. Just got this in and there is some wear on manual (top corner of spine & front where the plastic bumper that hold the manual in is). Anyone have an idea if this has been resealed or not?

https://imgur.com/a/hSdiCAG

I've seen a little corner wear like that on sealed DC game manuals before. It can happen when they shake around in the case.

I can't say whether this has been resealed or not, as I can't see the whole thing, have you got a picture of that?

[retro.magnus | 136]

13 hours ago, OptOut said:

I've seen a little corner wear like that on sealed DC game manuals before. It can happen when they shake around in the case.

I can't say whether this has been resealed or not, as I can't see the whole thing, have you got a picture of that?

I added a bunch more to the Imgur

[OptOut | 8,881]

10 minutes ago, epiczail said:

I added a bunch more to the Imgur

Hmm... Honestly I'm not liking the look of a lot of the random folds on the spine there and some of the other places... It's hard to tell and obviously the seal is looking pretty rough in general. But I've never seen a Dreamcast seal like that, not in my experience.

Then again, I will admit I only collect sealed Japanese Dreamcast games, not US ones. So maybe they do the seals differently in America, you may need another opinion!

[retro.magnus | 136]

56 minutes ago, OptOut said:

Hmm... Honestly I'm not liking the look of a lot of the random folds on the spine there and some of the other places... It's hard to tell and obviously the seal is looking pretty rough in general. But I've never seen a Dreamcast seal like that, not in my experience.

Then again, I will admit I only collect sealed Japanese Dreamcast games, not US ones. So maybe they do the seals differently in America, you may need another opinion!

So I took a look at other sealed DC games I have and there seems to be 2 diff types of seals. One has the Y folds on the left & right sides of the case & the other has the Y fold on the top of the sides then on the bottom. This lines up with a few Jet Grind Radio's listed on eBay right now. AFAIK WATA only notes DC seals as First Party Y seam (at least that's all I've seen on heritage). 

Added 3 pics showing the 2 diff types

[dr_orangejuicer | 20]

I would guess that's legit. Hard to say without seeing in person, though it could also be hard to say in person too! Some thoughts:

- Brand new games can have some manual wear. I've seen manuals with a faint bend that runs vertically through the entire manual in games that I pulled from a factory case myself. 

- Faint folds/bends at the spine of a Dreamcast manual, generally near the center, are not uncommon in factory sealed games. I've seen it countless times on countless different games.

- That weird little bit on one side where the Y-fold is kind of funky does not concern me either. Seen issues like that many times.

- There are several different Dreamcast seals. Most Chu Chu Rockets were sealed with a vertical overlapping seam down the back, Shenmue has the more gummy type seal with vent holes, Acclaim titles often had both Y-fold seals and shrink wrapped horizontal seams, etc. 

I think it's important to remember in sealed game collecting that (1) factories are not perfect, weird anomalies happen and (2) that nobody at the time of production gave any consideration for consistency in how games were sealed. Many games have multiple seals that are still 100% factory sealed. 

Back to your JGR: the corner wear is maybe a little odd, but I don't see any red flags otherwise so I'd assume it was just...one of those things. I also don't recall ever seeing a convincing reseal of a Dreamcast game, but I've also never had suppliers who tried to dupe me. Does the wrap feel like other first party Y-fold seals, give or take?

Source: my experience selling sealed games for over a decade, have handled and sold thousands of Dreamcast games (among others) in that time, most of which I pulled from manufacturer's cases. Could always be wrong though!

[OptOut | 8,881]

8 hours ago, epiczail said:

So I took a look at other sealed DC games I have and there seems to be 2 diff types of seals. One has the Y folds on the left & right sides of the case & the other has the Y fold on the top of the sides then on the bottom. This lines up with a few Jet Grind Radio's listed on eBay right now. AFAIK WATA only notes DC seals as First Party Y seam (at least that's all I've seen on heritage). 

Added 3 pics showing the 2 diff types

Oh that's interesting. Japanese Dreamcast seals are quite different.

The main kind you get with the Japanese games are the types with the tearstrip that runs horizontally near the bottom of the cover, and all the way around the case. These have the folds of the seal on the tops and bottoms of the case only, never on the sides. There are several different small variations of tearstrip too, some are wider, some are thinner.

Another, less common seal with Japanese DC games is heat sealed. These have no folds in the seal, but a heat seal ridge that extends from the top of the seal where the top meets the spine, all the way around the far side of the case edge and joins down at the bottom of the case again near to the spine. Usually the heat seal edge goes over the far edge, but it CAN go the other way over the actual spine instead. The material of this seal is FAR softer and easier to tear, so getting good condition in this variant of seal is much tougher.

 

Another BIG help in identifying Sealed Japanese games is that MOST of them come with a spine card. If that is missing, or looks funky, that's a big giveaway, frankly!

Sorry I couldn't be more help with the US version, but always I'm happy to learn something new myself!

[drxandy | 3,225]

It looks legit in comparison to your other sealed games, that gigawing has a similar weird seal flap thing going on too.

[retro.magnus | 136]

22 hours ago, dr_orangejuicer said:

I would guess that's legit. Hard to say without seeing in person, though it could also be hard to say in person too! Some thoughts:

- Brand new games can have some manual wear. I've seen manuals with a faint bend that runs vertically through the entire manual in games that I pulled from a factory case myself. 

- Faint folds/bends at the spine of a Dreamcast manual, generally near the center, are not uncommon in factory sealed games. I've seen it countless times on countless different games.

- That weird little bit on one side where the Y-fold is kind of funky does not concern me either. Seen issues like that many times.

- There are several different Dreamcast seals. Most Chu Chu Rockets were sealed with a vertical overlapping seam down the back, Shenmue has the more gummy type seal with vent holes, Acclaim titles often had both Y-fold seals and shrink wrapped horizontal seams, etc. 

I think it's important to remember in sealed game collecting that (1) factories are not perfect, weird anomalies happen and (2) that nobody at the time of production gave any consideration for consistency in how games were sealed. Many games have multiple seals that are still 100% factory sealed. 

Back to your JGR: the corner wear is maybe a little odd, but I don't see any red flags otherwise so I'd assume it was just...one of those things. I also don't recall ever seeing a convincing reseal of a Dreamcast game, but I've also never had suppliers who tried to dupe me. Does the wrap feel like other first party Y-fold seals, give or take?

Source: my experience selling sealed games for over a decade, have handled and sold thousands of Dreamcast games (among others) in that time, most of which I pulled from manufacturer's cases. Could always be wrong though!

Yeah the shrink feels exactly the same as all my other sealed DC games. I had just never seen wear like this copy has on the manual before!

[dr_orangejuicer | 20]

2 hours ago, epiczail said:

Yeah the shrink feels exactly the same as all my other sealed DC games. I had just never seen wear like this copy has on the manual before!

Yeah, I think it's probably legit then. Def a little odd, but odd happens, haha.

[OptOut | 8,881]

3 hours ago, epiczail said:

Yeah the shrink feels exactly the same as all my other sealed DC games. I had just never seen wear like this copy has on the manual before!

Yeah absolutely normal in my experience to find manual wear on sealed DC games, I mean I have a hundred of them and I've got several games with wear and even little tears in the manual where the little plastic tabs hold it in place.

Must have just happened over time when the manual bumps around in the case or MAYBE even when they put it in in the factory!

[Librirox | 0]

I have the same thing going on with my copy, 

 

It has wear on the spine and a scuff on the top left.

[retro.magnus | 136]

On 7/21/2023 at 5:38 PM, Librirox said:

I have the same thing going on with my copy, 

 

It has wear on the spine and a scuff on the top left.

FWIW, I don't think mine was a reseal, I no longer have that exact copy but I've had many DC games graded all with similar condition seals and some with wear on the manual.