Can anyone out there help me. I have recently purchased a 24 box set, seasons 1-5. Its seems to be a little bit special, as in it comes in a rectangular black velvet box. It says on the back, 20th century fox 2005. There are 33 dvds in total,housed in a red velvet flip book.I have tried to research it on the net, nothing comes up regarding a black velvet box. Also, the first showing of season 5 was in january 2006, but mine says on the back 2005?
All the writing and logos are in silver/chrome.
What on earth have i got here?

Where did you buy it from--a legitimate retailer or a private purchase of some kind?

A UPC number would be useful. Plus, you can look at the discs, IIRC if they aren't silver they're burned rather than pressed. The 2005/2006 error is pretty telling.

In the United States, there isn't any season 1-5 box set. I cannot speak for other countries.

The different releases in the US are listed here:


http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/releaselist.cfm?ShowID=4971


Major props for listing the promotional discs too

That is going to be key. It's possible that there was a "box set" of the first five seasons that a place like Amazon sold after the fifth season came out. It would have been a collection of the previous season releases shrinkwrapped together and wouldn't have had a velvet overbox though.

The season five "prequel" came out in 2005, but the season aired in 2006, as others have said. Could just be a typo, though. That does happen.

I had to look it up, but I remembered a season of 24 ending the day or week before it came out on DVD. I thought it might be season 5. Turns out that was Season 7. The finale was on May 18, 2009, and the DVD came out on May 19, 2009.

Anyway... sounds like OP has a bootleg.