Courtesy of Evan Erwin, who made a phone call as I did to verify for himself:
“Spoke with someone at Kidforce Collectables in Ohio.
I believe him. This is real.
Some questions I asked:
Why put it in a sleeve?
He wasn’t thinking about being called a liar, he was thinking “Oh my God, this card is valuable and there are a lot of kids here at the store” etc.
Does it looked “newly” reprinted, or “repackaged”?
He says it is DEFINITELY repackaged, as the printing is noticeably lighter (as you would expect with Antiquities cards) and he would mark it as “Near Mint” meaning there were still a few imperfections present.
I asked him to go on the record for the Magic Show this week (it’s going to be late as hell anyway), and he refrained. With all of this attention, he’s now afraid of Wizards coming down with the smack, either legal-wise or punishing the store for opening packs in some fashion.
FWIW he said he _would_ talk to me tomorrow after speaking with Wizards, but that’s way after press time and doesn’t help.
This is real boys. Holy crap.”
This better not be BS! I just ordered 5 more boxs!
Here is one indication that it might be true: The MTR have received an update that goes in effect on October 1., but two of the updates are effective immediately; section 7.3 and 7.5. Now compare the wordings of those two sections in the two versions (both versions are available from wizards.com). Here is the essential added text in 7.3 "Card use in limited tournaments":"Other than basic land, only cards from the expansions of the boosters opened (and only cards opened in that player’s pool) may be used in a player’s deck. For example, in a Magic 2010 Sealed Deck tournament, any card in a booster other then the Magic 2010 game cards received by the player and basic land may not be used in a player’s deck during that tournament."And here is the essential added text in 7.5 "Sealed Deck Swap":"…Any card in a booster that is not a card from the expansion of the opened booster is retained by the player that registers the cards…"