Vision Booster box - Outer seal without WOTC logos?

[Appel]

Hello everybody,

Recently I acquired a factory sealed Visions box (as shown on the pictures) The box is in really good condition but very quickly I discovered the seal has no WOTC logo's anywhere. (The box is printed in Belgium!)

So I start doing some research myself and I can't find anything about a batch of Visions boxes that don't have the logo on the seal.
I do have found in my private collection two Homelands boxes that have a similar (thin) seal. (And I don't mean the more common thicker circle seal)
Anyway, as far as I know, the WOTC logo seal was first being used on Mirage boxes (on both Belgium/USA and full and circle seal boxes) and Homelands is from before that and Visions was released after Mirage.

So yeah, it's a bit tricky with Wizards doing all these experiments between 1994 - 2001 with their seals in both Belgium and USA. I therefore hope someone can tell me more specifically about Visions boxes and the different types of seal used on different batches so I can assess better if I am dealing with a tampered / resealed box here.

Thank you very much in advance!





For pictures of all angles see: https://imgur.com/a/fAPN5nv

[l0qii]

There are several photos of sealed Visions boxes on ebay and all of them have logos. I can find no evidence of Visions boxes without logos either, so this box maybe resealed.

[Appel]

Yeah I browsed for a long while already on Ebay and Google pictures and such but so far I haven't seen any boxes without logo's on the seal. It could have been a really small batch though... Quality control of Wizards wasn't up to standard back then.

What I do wonder, if the box is indeed resealed and the packs inside have been messed with... why would anyone do all that effort on a Visions box that never really had much value in it?
Especially before the reserved list buyouts there were maybe 3 cards that would be interesting. Natural Order which now has dropped to be worth 16 bucks, yikes! Vampiric Tutor which went up a lot the last years, and maybe Undiscovered Paradise. The rest wouldn't have been worth more then 6 dollars or so. So I think it is really strange!

But yeah, let's keep searching for more info. I for instance just found out there also exists something like "Dark Visions" Could this be the small batch of cards that also got it's booster boxes sealed differently compared to the rest? I am just shooting in the dark here...

Hmm, anyone in contact with (or know how I can get hold of) for instance Daniel Chang from Vintage Magic or Rudy from Alpha investments? (I am not a patreon) Surely they have seen pretty much all there is regarding sealed product and have an answer.

[Appel]

Problem has been sold!

After the seller gave me some guarantees we decided to open the box live on camera. So we did so while having a Skype video call and we had a lot of fun. Everything was in order, perfect packs with perfect seals and I even opened one and all the cards are perfect MTG cards. Including the
indistinguishable original card smell!

So yeah, if anyone ever runs into a Visions box like this without the WOTC logo's on the seal, just know it can be a legitimate box. I guess it really must have been a small batch though that was produced this way.

[GlobalBoosterHunter]

That is good to know, glad it turned out ok!

[BillBo]

perfect packs with perfect seals <SNIP> Including the indistinguishable original card smell!

I'm very happy for you!

[Appel]

Thank you guys!

I did came with another theory though... The box could have been mapped and resealed. (With the missing packs being replenished with other packs from other mapped boxes. So this way, there still would be 36 packs inside the box) However, Visions boxes never really had a lot of value in them so I don't think there ever has been a point in which it could have lead to a significant profit, making someone doing all this effort (including sealing the box in a really professional manor like the way my box was done) highly unlikely.

Either way, always be careful guys! Keep your eyes open and keep enjoying our mutual hobby by avoiding disappointment. I am glad it all worked out in the end for me, but it could have easily been different if I wouldn't have paid attention.

If any of you guys have some questions about sealed product I do own a vast collection so maybe I can return the favor one day and share some of my knowledge here on these boards. I gladly help out!

[cataclysm80]

I suspect that mapping Visions would be difficult because of how many different sheet layouts there are.
The collation is very strange on that set, with half of the rare sheet being 7 copies of 7 different commons, combined with the existence of different sheet layouts.