Why open a sealed box? I thought I had explained why in the original posting. My question may pertain mostly to electronics, or items with specific serial numbers.
I have no way of knowing that a sealed box is really sealed by the manufacturer or simply re-sealed by the seller. And, when I sold a scanner last year which I thought was brand new (it was sealed, after all), the buyer came back to me a month later, saying it was used and missing components. I could see through a small opening/hand-hold in the box, that the item was wrapped plastic packaging, so at the time, I assumed it was brand new, sealed, unused, etc. When the buyer claimed it was used, I then had no way to confirm whether he was lying or whether whomever bought from him was pulling a scam. That, in a nutshell, is why I think you should open a sealed box.
Yes, I get that eBay always takes the buyer's side. It's a risk of doing business. It seems to me that opening a sealed box to confirm an item is indeed new and to get a Serial No, can be a way to mitigate some (certainly not all) of that risk.
What I've done is post the Serial in the original listing, both in the description and by photo; and I've provided photos to the buyer of the box contents. So maybe I screwed up here, but I'm interested to hear what other sellers do when they encounter a brand new item that's got great resell potential.
