Sealed Black Label Final Fantasy 7

Written by Link on 2nd June, 2008

This post started off as a comment about about the popularity sealed game collecting seems to be gaining. Whether or not this can be contributed to the VGA, it’s hard to argue that the controversy sparked by grading definitely brought a lot of attention to this specific aspect of our hobby.

Anyway, I was looking at a bunch of sealed auctions and I ran across this little gem.

A sealed Playstation 1 Final Fantasy 7 Black Label for a $275.00 BIN. Now, this looks legit to me, but I have no experience with PS1 sealed games and probably couldn’t spot a reseal from a mile away. There’s a little puffing on the left side shrink that looks a bit odd, and might be a indicator. Hopefully someone will weigh in on via the comments.

If this is legit though, it’s quite a steal. This guy has recently sold for prices ranging from $360.00 all the way up to $510.00.

Great opportunity to add a game cheaply to your collection, or to flip it for some very nice profit.

Add Your Comments

18 Responses to “Sealed Black Label Final Fantasy 7”

jointhiway on June 2nd, 2008 9:07 am

Link,
That copy looks a little suspicious. I have had quite a few sealed PSX games over the years and they have always had folded corners (much like the plastic on New PS2 games). In the pics it looks like a re-seal. However, the interior seal looks legit. I would ask for some better pics.
scogon on June 2nd, 2008 9:20 am

yeah, the corners should be folded for sure, this has been shrink wrapped, as jointhiway states the sticker seal could be legit, but the shrink doesn’t look like it is.
Photoboy on June 2nd, 2008 10:37 am

I think it’s overpriced, the seller says it has a tiny hole through the case, but looking at the pictures it seems someone has punched a hole right through the case from the front to the back! If that is so, then even if it’s sealed it’s still in a damaged state and couldn’t be considered pristine.
duh on June 2nd, 2008 12:32 pm

It’s definitely a reseal. The shrinkwrap is terribly obvious.
Armandino on June 2nd, 2008 12:32 pm

I have a few sealed FF7 Non-GH that look just like his….Factory defect?
jointhiway on June 2nd, 2008 1:27 pm

A factory defect is possible, but unlikely. Where did you purchase the FF7s that you are talking about Armandino?
scogon on June 2nd, 2008 2:03 pm

if a hole is punched right through it then it was likely a promo game given to a retailer or something. It would have been the retail copy, with a hole drilled through the case. I am not aware of the shrink being different in these cases.
jslay on June 2nd, 2008 2:45 pm

No doubt this is a re-seal. Look at the seal on the bottom. It isn’t right. I worked in EB from 96-01 and am pretty familiar with the seals on PS1 games.

Also, if you are a seller and have something like this, you take a ton of pictures. The blurry, awkward photos used to advertise it are pretty telling IMO.
Armandino on June 2nd, 2008 7:25 pm

I got mine when they originally released… got them from one of the numerous batches purchased thru the official canadian distributor of the time(Beamscope i believe..) Some have it some do not… and i got ALL of these at the same place(Beamscope Canada)
duh on June 2nd, 2008 8:05 pm

Maybe they took off the outer wrap, drilled the hole, then sealed it again. That’s looks like the best case scenario for this auction. Otherwise, it might be a complete scam.
scogon on June 2nd, 2008 8:58 pm

hey Armandino, Beamscope is a distributor yes, but the official distributor in Canada is and was Sony Canada. Beamscope and other companies bought from Sony and sold to smaller stores.
I worked at the HQ for EB Canada around this time, I am pretty sure that the only ones that had the drilled hole were freebies given away by Sony.

The official seal for every PS game I have ever seen (while working along side the EB Canada Distro Centre) had the folded seal when original. Perhaps Sony took copies that were returned as defective, replaced a single scratched disc and resealed them, passed them out as freebies. So this could be a “sealed” copy from Sony to Beamscope…. but it would be tough to prove that and it wouldn’t be the original factory seal.
ota on June 2nd, 2008 9:26 pm

Seems like a reseal and the “hole” is a bit problematic. The seal could be strange due to a number of issues along the line and it may be a factory seal, although I doubt it and personally wouldn’t want to take the chance on it.
Armandino on June 2nd, 2008 11:01 pm

Once again, I wanna to point out that these were sold to my company on NUMEROUS occasions… I was skeptical myself a few years back and opened a few up just to see… They were ALL NEW(never Used).

They were sold at regular price.

Were they re-sealed by Beamscope? Sony?

Bottom Line is that these were spread out for sure in Canada… to what extent? I will go thru my “crap” and figure out the % of them that are like that and check for other 1st party sony games of same area…just to see if this was a “pratice” of that time by Beamscope and or Sony…
jointhiway on June 3rd, 2008 5:59 am

Armandino,
Are the copies that you have double wrapped (for the purpose of including a French manual)like a lot of the Canadian sealed games that are available?
j.m.ratkos on June 3rd, 2008 6:08 am

I don’t believe that it’s a reseal. (my copy, direct from SCEA is a heat shrinked seal, and not a y-folded copy).

scogon is correct that the “hole” represents a [promo] copy of the game, however most promotional copies had a hole drilled so that it impacted the barcode on the back (it’s called ‘cut and burn’ in the industry).
buyatari on June 3rd, 2008 9:36 am

Not all holes go through the barcode. I’ve had promo copies which did not. They were sometimes sent to the press.
Link on June 3rd, 2008 8:55 pm

Great comments here guys, Truth be knows I didn’t notice that hole, but it definately looks like it goes all the way through. Not cool.

Seems someone did decide to buy it however.
Joseph Finnigan on June 7th, 2008 10:53 pm

I have one of both a y and a seal like this one. I guess we will have to wait till VGA does there research.