RetroCole

@ThePhleo I actually spoke with Kenneth and plan to send it in to CGC for him to take a look. I have already had manual and inserts pressed/cleaned and cart cleaned as well. Was expecting at a minimum an 8.0 CIB 1st print. These photos I posted were taken before it went to be cleaned and pressed. I also plan to add the cleaning service + w/ CGC for my submission. If they think the sticker is a repro then they’ll have my permission to remove it and at least we will know people are now starting to add repro stickers to things. However with that said I will say I’ve looked it over for a good while and it appears to be aged on there and a legit sticker. Just my humble opinion though. It was shipped back to me in an Inconclusive baggy from WATA.

I have not tried to play it however cart and all inserts all check out. My understanding is the guy who previously owned it is a collector like myself so he did not either. I also forgot to mention not sure if this is pertinent that the original owner said the little bit of info he was able to find on it is it might come from a NESI distribution which was stopped in a few months for this one.

Hello everyone, First time here on the forums however I was recommended here by a friend because I was told there are a lot of older collectors here that have been collecting a long time vs the Facebook groups. So let me start off with how the item was obtained. I originally purchased this 1st Print Casette Zelda from Catawiki. Had never seen a 1st print US version with a Nintendo Sticker Seal. Obviously I knew the risks when doing so but decided to take the leap of faith anyways since it was such a nice CIB figured it would grade around 8.0-8.5. I reached out to the seller who was based in France. He had been collecting for many years. When I asked about the item he said it was purchased from an Nintendo Employees collection who lived in Great Britain who had games he was selling between $1k-$30k. He has had it for many years and decided to part with it to try to chase a grail of his he had been after a long time. So there is the background story. Here is what happened next. Well I received it and checked it over and was legit obviously that was a worry of mine however everything checked out all the way down to the Casette manual. The sticker was the only thing I obviously I could not verify. So first I sent it to a friend of mine to clean and prep everything for WATA submission. He pressed and cleaned the inserts as well as the manual and cleaned the cartridge for me just so I had a chance at the best grade possible. Anyways it’s been about a month roughly I would say WATA has had the game at this point and I just received it back along with an email when it arrived today. Email stated that they were unable to authenticate the sticker seal (keep in mind it was submitted as CIB Plus bc seal is broken) and they were unwilling to authenticate because there were no other examples and I could call their customer service for any concerns I might have. So I picked up the phone and called them long story short they said sorry we aren’t gonna authenticate it because we haven’t seen that before and can’t tell. So I made a follow up post on FB and I plan on sending it in to CGC for Kenneth Thrower to look at. However I wanted to reach out here and see if anyone might have any clear cut information on this piece. So far I’ve heard it’s a fake sticker, it’s a US print with a CAD sticker, it was potentially a early Canadian release where they used US print boxes and used Nintendo seals, it was returned like some games were that were thought to be defective and were actually fine and resealed with a sticker, it was an employee copy and that’s why it has the sticker since it came from the guys collection. As you can see I’ve heard it all and just wanted some other people’s opinions before I submit it to CGC and they potentially say sticker is not legit and don’t get it right and they remove it. I am attaching all the photos I can from original listing and a few I have before I shipped it off. Thanks everyone for any help provided in advance!