So as christmas passed by I decided to get my little cousin a PSP. I went to target to purchase to get the PSP due to obvious return reasons (they have a good return policy).

When he got the chance to open it (last week) We realized two things. (1) The seal for the box was previously broken and a new seal was placed on the old seal. (2) It had a TON of dead pixels.  We quickly went to Target and asked for a trade. But we wanted to check the box before we traded. Turned out all 37 boxes that the Target had that just had been shipped FROM SONY, had broken seals that had been resealed. (you could see two layers of tape with the bottom seal being cracked).  The seal was the extra thick tape which comes from Sony so it was obviously coming from them. We returned the PSP to Target and moved on.  Bestbuy had new boxes but they were all \’G\’ meaning version 2.01. Then we visited Circuit City where we found 2 boxes. 1 had a broken seal that was taped over and the other one seemed to be new, so we quickly grabbed that one.  Luckily that one turned out perfect. But for people that dont know (for ex. most parents) this is something that they would get ripped off on!

How does this NOT qualify as refurbished?? I dont know but this is seriously some sort of fraud. Repackaging PSP\’s with dead pixels??! 

Tips:
(1) Look at the piece of tape (seal) that keeps the box shut. If there is two pieces of tape this has been REPACKAGED.
(2) If your book, memory card, and cleaning wipe bag is not melted shut but rather closed with a piece of tape this package is REPACKAGED.
(3) From the research we did it seems that the newer PSP boxes version G and up are mostly not repackaged. But EVERY version C except for the 1 we found in the very back at circuit city were ALL repackaged!

If you got a repackaged item there is a GOOD chance you have dead pixels.

Here is how to check for dead pixels:
(1) Download This
(2) Put it on your memory card like this-  DRIVE:/PSP/PHOTO/
(3) Go to PHOTO on your PSP and cycle through the colors (using the top l+r buttons) and check for dead or stuck pixels.