Also posted this on reddit today, but just trying to do my due diligence and get as much info as possible.

Somewhat new VB collector here. I’ve picked up my first few games cib, and like the idea of one day owning the whole set compete. What worries me about this vision is the prospect of the higher end games. Looks like there are a lot of repro options available. For those more experienced than myself, is there a way you can tell you are buying the real thing?? I hate the idea of paying a few hundred more dollars for some cardboard that isn’t original.

Also, noticed the shade of blue on some boxes are lighter.. Is this anything? I got these 3 games with the virtual boy console, and the blue shade on Red Alarm is different than the others. Notice this on some auctions as well.

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Pretty certain it’s just the lighting. I highly doubt anyone would go through the trouble of a repro Red Alarm of all things.

You can also check the interior of the box and see if it’s the same gray cardboard material as the other boxs and not something else.

tokushimavortis wrote:
Also, noticed the shade of blue on some boxes are lighter.. Is this anything? I got these 3 games with the virtual boy console, and the blue shade on Red Alarm is different than the others. Notice this on some auctions as well.

Yea, Nintendo wasn’t too consistent with the Virtual Boy boxes. Some are darker, and some have a different green line pattern.
I think Baseball is probably with worst when it comes to the darker blue? Unless you count the Mario Tennis display box.

Like Levine said, you can just look at the inside of the box and see if it’s more of a brown cardboard color. Those are originals.
Most repros I have or know of are made with a white card-stock.

Personally, the only NA reproduction I’ve seen floating around is the Mario Tennis box. But, that one is pretty noticeable by the fact that it’s missing the yellow “For Display Only” box at the bottom right.
(There are plenty of NA style Japanese exclusive games out there. These are repros and are generally made for $70-$100… so don’t go buying a $1,000 version of these!)

Hope that helped.

Happy collecting! 🙂

Japanese repros?? That’s new to me. Do they have the same difference to the originals on the inside of the cardboard as the US repros?

Thanks for the replies so far, guys.

Here is an example of a repro box on Etsy:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/223144916/virtual-boy-jack-bros-usa-repro-box-no?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=virtual+boy&ref=sr_gallery-1-6&organic_search_click=1

At first glance, it looks spot on when comparing to box scans I’ve seen, but I could be wrong? What I would be afraid of, is someone buying a box such as this, putting an original game/packaging inside it, and make a few hundred extra dollars in a sale.

Yeah there are some that are made to look basically identical to the real deal. It’s unfortunate, but there is a market for them.

It might be at the point where you should probably ask for pictures of the inside of the box before buying a high profile game. I can easily tell my repros from original Nintendo boxes just by opening them. At least the card stock they use is different.