Brand New Lionel CW-80 Watt Transformer- suspicious whether it is actually new

I own of of these. It's a pretty safe bet this is used, perhaps it was returned and they failed to open the box and check it to make sure everything was new. Probably an honest mistake. When I bought my new it came with a plastic bag over it, had instructions and a two strand cable to wire it to the track. Not sure it had a seal on the outside of the box.

BTW, I grew up in Tallmadge, lived there from grade school all through high school, until my family and I moved to Stow in '81. Back in the 70's I often rode my bike down to the Erie tracks to watch trains roll through town. The Erie went bankrupt around 1980 I believe. Fun times though.

It should be in a sealed box with instructions. They should have checked it before shipping. 

Should be a date code on the label on the bottom of the transformer...

Should be in a plastic bag AND have a protector on the blades of the plug.

Plastic bag, sealed box, no marks on it.

Stuff Happens. The seller is taking care of it.

i have started checking "is this a gift?" whenever i see one offered.  so far i haven't gotten one box shipped to me that either looks like it has been opened before, or has been kicked around the store's storage area to the point where the packaging is in less than mint condition.

I would expect it to look like this:

No fancy orange box or instructions.  Still considered new.

Steims posted:

I would expect it to look like this:

 

No fancy orange box or instructions.  Still considered new.

Right, and if the green seal on the box is broken like in the photo it was at least opened if not used.

I just sold 2 used ones on the forum for less than half the price of a new one. Neither one had scratches or loose parts.

What RickO and Steims have said and picture; I own 4 brown box CW80's (don't ask) from Hobbyspeed and Model Trains&Stuff; all were sealed by the unbroken green sticker ; on the box near the green sticker (to the left) was a date of manufacture; transformer was pristine with no marks and wrapped in a plastic bag; protective plastic on AC plug; 2 conductor red/black track wire; owner's manual.  Those manufactured after 2006 were an upgraded model.

Just a heads up. That version of the CW-80 is being discontinued by Lionel, per @Dave Olson elsewhere on this forum last month, and will be replaced in Lionel’s line by another CW-80 (but with a different SKU number) with modified electronics that require no internal cooling fan.

That’s why the existing CW-80 wasn’t listed in the Lionel catalog issued in January.

Large dealers may be running low on the current version, but I honestly have no idea how many they routinely stock or how many units Lionel had left in stock to ship to large-volume dealers in recent weeks.

I find the CW-80 to be useful, but the quality and performance a little variable. Some fans are noisy for example. One thing, if you part one out, the transformer inside is super and capable of about 8 amps by itself as a brick...if you're into building your own.