Mountain Biker

I'm selling on Ebay a factory sealed WMNW Box Set I purchased from Overstock.Com several years ago. The only thing odd about it is one of the DVD cases is visibly without shrink wrap. According to a potential buyer (could be a fellow DVDTalker for all I know), that is giveaway that it is a bootleg. Since he was scammed previously, & before placing a bid, he is asking me to open it to check for hole punches in the barcode's (another indicator) & see if the unshrinkwrapped dvd has "Made in Taiwan" on the disc.

I feel fairly confident in knowing I purchased this from a reputable US based online store this isn't a bootleg, but I want to be sure.

Can anyone confirm one way or the other?

Living Dead

Is the unrapped film Notorious? If so, it is not a boot, as my set came the same way, and I bought it at Best Buy. It had no shrink wrap, only the security sticker on top of the case.

EDIT: That's a stupid question actually... since if I recall you can't see the DVD titles since the set opens from the bottom. But I can at least say that mine came with 1 unrapped film.

souvenir

I'm sure it's not a bootleg. I purchased mine from Overstock as well nearly three years ago. I believe it was The Lady Vanishes that was without shrinkwrap in my set and apparently in others as well. It's not a sign of it being a bootleg at all. In fact, my copy also has "Made in Taiwan" and the barcode punch. Criterion left it unsealed and did the barcode punch so that retailers wouldn't buy the sets at a discount and then sell the titles individually for full retail price. Where would Overstock even have gotten bootleg copies of the set three years ago anyway?

Living Dead

^^^^
Interesting. I just took a look at my set, and none of them have barcode punches. But I distinctly remember Notorious being opened. I guess there must be different versions out there.

CrumpsBrother

No barcodes punched and NOTORIOUS is sealed in my set (from Amazon). Can't remember if LADY VANISHES came sealed, as I've watched it since buying...

RKillgore

I bought mine just before it went OOP from the December DDD 20% sale. All of mine have barcode punches, can't remember about the individual wrapping. souvenir is right about the punchouts to prevent selling or returning individual titles from the sets, done by the distributor and not an indication of a bootleg.
I remember some DVDTalkers raising a hissy about the punchouts. Didn't bother me any, in fact, I sliced up the side of the slipcase and pasted a bottom onto it so that the DVDs wouldn't slip out every time I picked it up.

Johnny Zhivago

Yeah, this one is weird... I got my set from Best Buy and there were no barcode punchouts but I think Rebecca might not have been sealed. !?¿ Maybe a search will pull up the old thread on this... But, that's not a bootleg set, your potential buyer is wrong.

edit - Here's the old thread on the punchouts > http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=408033

yeldarb367

My legit one has barcode punches too. I always went with souvenir's reasoning...

eedoon

I got mine from Barnes & Nobles some time ago just after it went OOP, and as far as I can remember, all of the DVDs are shrink wrapped separately - including Notorious. Could be wrong though.

g

Mine all came un shrinkwrapped with a whole punch on each.

legend42

So did two separate sets that I bought several years ago when it was widely available. I don't think that's any evidence of a bootleg at all.

the big train

Wouldn't the booklets and slip case be proof enough that it's not a boot?

It seems to me that if someone went through all the trouble of creating such an elaborate reproduction of discs, disc art and inserts; they wouldn't be so daft as to leave a hole punch in the barcode.

Criterion is not one of the huge studios, so their packaging/wrapping will always be a bit more inconsistent than something from Fox or WB. Store wrapping irregularities are hardly an indicator of authenticity anyway.