Open box should mean exactly this: the product is new and unused, but the packaging has been opened. Nothing more. The item has not been owned, used, installed, or returned after use. Someone opened the box — often the retailer, sometimes us — and that is the entire difference from a sealed unit.
The term gets abused because it sits in a comfortable gap. It sounds better than "used" and costs the seller nothing to claim. Plenty of listings use open box to describe items that were genuinely used and returned, which is a different thing entirely, and one that should be priced and graded differently.
On our listings, open box is folded into Grade A alongside Sealed and Like New, and it carries a 5% condition discount. If we open a box to verify contents — which we do routinely, because a sealed box with the wrong item inside is a real and common problem in liquidation — the item becomes open box even though nobody has touched the product itself.
What open box does not mean: it does not mean refurbished, it does not mean the item was repaired, and it does not mean parts may be missing. If accessories are missing we grade it Incomplete Lot and say which parts are gone. If it was used, it is Grade B or C. The word does no work in either case.
When buying open box anywhere, ask two questions. Was the item used, or only the box opened? And is the accessory list confirmed? A seller who cannot answer both has not inspected the item, which means the condition claim is a guess.
