I call fake; he is doing this for a very clever marketing strategy. Would I ever stand up a mint black lotus so it can be in perfect view of the camera and risk it falling or being bent especially after I carefully opened the wrap with a razor blade and while wearing gloves?  No.  His reaction was fake too; not to mention his shaking hands deviate more than typical "nervousness". 

Also, all of those cards can easily be faked and look genuine from a distance.  It does take some effort to wrap a bunch of fake alpha cards or cut CE cards with plastic (perhaps some cards are indeed real) but even if he spent $1,000 on making the fakes and repackaging, it was well worth it.  He got just what he wanted... a whole lot of publicity and a front page story on Yahoo.  No telling how many emails are flooding his inbox from folks who want to buy that lotus, and this all happened just in time for his new website!

Even if you got all of the cards graded for free, the odds of someone making money on opening an old starter deck is so low (basically, you have to open one of the top 10 rares) and that you would be pretty stupid for even thinking about it.

Are there any tale-tale signs that a "factory-sealed" Revised booster box has been tampered with and re-sealed? I own several boxes and the seam on one of the boxes goes beneath the box on one side whereas the seam goes around the sides for my other boxes. Other than that, the seal around my boxes are basically the same.

Were all boxes sealed in the same fashion? Any other way to verify that the factory seal is legitimate?

Hey Everyone,

I'm glad to be joining this forum in hopes of finding some original magic artwork that I love.  I'm 33 years old, live in Greenville, SC, and am an environmental engineer (P.E.).  I've been playing since 1995 while I lived in Germany, but mostly played casual with my friends.  I have recently started drafting which I find very enjoyable and began building a large cube of 1000 cards + basic lands. 

For those in the original artwork forum, I hope to be making good contacts soon. 

A1phaMale