You have a sealed Elite Trainer Box in an acrylic case on a shelf and you want a number on it. The box is out of bounds, because adhesive on factory shrink film is the one thing the guide on sealing wax tells you never to do. The case is not out of bounds, and that is the whole point of this one. A display case has one face you actually look at and five you never do, and both decisions below come out of that: which panel can take a mark without spoiling the view, and which joint the lid has to cross.
Why the case and not the box
The case is a third-party object you bought. It carries no set, no artwork and no premium of its own, and it comes off the shelf without the wax inside being handled. So it can take the adhesive.
The box cannot. An ETB is printed cardboard under thin film, and for sealed product that untouched film is the authenticity claim. Adhesive that has sat on shrink wrap for a while will, on removal, either delaminate the film, lift ink off the box under it, or leave a ghost across the artwork. There is no careful version of that.
Keep the two layers separate in your head. The factory wrap is the authenticity layer for the box. A Serial Seal™ on the case is a custody record for the case. The second does not upgrade the first.
Where the Serial Seal™ goes
Find the parting line first. On the two common designs — lift-off magnetic lid and sliding lid — the lid is a cap or a captured plate, and the joint is a horizontal line running around all four vertical faces near the top. Press-fit and screw-together cases have no designated opening: the joints are the tab lines up the corners and the screw heads.
Then pick the panel. The front face is why you bought a clear box. Nothing goes there. Work on the back panel or the back vertical corner, where the lid line crosses.
The seal is 0.75 x 1.77 in (19.05 x 44.958 mm). Two ways to use it.
SINGLE, flat across the lid line on the back panel. Nothing is wrapped, so the 1.77 in splits evenly: 0.885 in either side. Maximum contact, no fold to lift. The default on a lift-off lid.
FOLD around a vertical back corner. Both wings land on adjacent side faces and both cross the lid line. Landing per face is (1.77 - T) / 2, and on a rounded corner T is the arc the seal travels, (pi / 2) x r. Worth the fuss on a display shelf: a corner wrap puts a wing on two visible faces, so the number reads from either side of the case without spending a second seal.
The one thing not to do is fold over the top edge of a capped lid. The skirt is shallower than the wing, so the film runs off the skirt and across the step where it meets the base wall — it tents on that ledge and starts peeling in ordinary handling. On a flush lid plate the top edge is a clean corner and the fold sits fine.
| Where you put it | Style | T | Landing per face |
|---|---|---|---|
| Back panel, flat across the lid line | SINGLE | — | 0.885 in each side |
| Rounded back corner, 2 mm radius | FOLD | 0.124 in arc | 0.823 in |
| Flush lid plate, 4 mm | FOLD over top edge | 0.157 in | 0.806 in |
| Flush lid plate, 8 mm | FOLD over top edge | 0.315 in | 0.728 in |
| Capped lid, 6 mm plate + 12 mm skirt | FOLD, bridging the skirt | 0.709 in | 0.531 in |
Acrylic here runs 4 to 8 mm, mixed within one case. Read the "8mm + 5mm" listings carefully: that means 8 mm on the two magnet-bearing panels and 5 mm elsewhere, so working from 8 mm is wrong on four faces out of six.
The seal is indifferent to all of it: one size, 0.75 x 1.77 in, whether the panel under it is 4 mm or 8 mm. Cases vary, the strip does not, so what changes between orders is the design and the number it starts on, both set on the builder.
Step by step
- Seat the box the way you want it displayed and close the case. Re-opening later to rotate it means pulling the seal off, and the second one will not land on untouched acrylic.
- Identify the mechanism — lift-off, sliding, press-fit, screws — and note which way the lid leaves.
- Measure the edge you are wrapping and run
(1.77 - T) / 2. In our own handling, a fold stops holding on gloss acrylic once landing drops below roughly 0.55 to 0.58 inches per face — bench experience, not a published spec. - Test one seal somewhere hidden, like the inside of the base, first.
- Clean the landing area with a dry microfibre and nothing else. No ammonia glass cleaner, no acetone, no solvent cleaner: they craze acrylic. Skip paper towel, which micro-scratches.
- Lay the first half, then burnish the edge band before setting the second wing. At 8 mm that band is a flat land rather than a crease, and the seal will tent across it.
- Photograph the case with the serial and the date legible, then write that serial down against the set name.
What this does and does not do
A seal on an acrylic case is printed thin film with adhesive and a number on it. It does not prove the ETB inside is factory sealed and it does not authenticate anything.
The specific version for this format: the case is built to open by hand, and that easy, non-destructive opening is a feature you paid for. Somebody can peel this seal off the back panel, open the case and press a different seal on. What they cannot do is produce the serial you printed and photographed. You pick the prefix and the starting number, the run prints in sequence, and no two seals in it share a number. That number plus your dated photo is the whole of the value.
Be clear about direction, too. A seal on a removable case says something from the moment you pressed it down and nothing about what came before. The box could have been out, weighed and put back at any point before you closed the lid. It is evidence about the case, only indirectly about the box.
What the stock is and is not gets the same treatment on the FAQ. If disputes with buyers are the actual reason you are here, the return fraud page is more use than a placement guide.
How many do you need
One seal per case for the SINGLE on the back, two if you also want a number on a side face. Cases on the shelf, times one or two, plus about one seal in ten spare — these do not reposition, so a crooked press is a seal spent. Round up to a multiple of twelve, which is how they come, at $6.00 a pack.
60 Serial Seal™ minimum · From $30.00 · As low as $0.30 each in bulk. No setup, die, or design fees. Commercial license & copyright included.
Thirty cased ETBs, one seal each, is thirty-three with spares — that rounds to thirty-six in twelves, but the order minimum is sixty, so the starter run is sixty seals for $30.00 at the 50c list rate, with a deeper spare pile than the shelf strictly needs. Number the side faces too and you are at seventy-two, still at list: $36.00. The rate moves as the shelf grows: 120 seals is $54.00, 45c each, and 600 is $240.00, 40c each.
If cases are stock rather than display, count what leaves instead of what sits. Ten a week at two seals apiece is 1,040 a year, rounded up to 1,044 to keep the multiple of twelve. Past 600 the rate drops to 40c a seal, which puts 1,044 of them at $417.60 against the 50c list rate a starter order pays — and it keeps stepping down from there, 36c at 1,200 and 33c at 2,400, until it holds at 30c from 4,200 up. The tier applies itself at checkout, so the quantity you type on the builder is the only lever.
Common mistakes
Wrapping the top edge of a capped lid. The wing overruns the shallow skirt and tents on the step below it, and a tented seal is a spent seal.
Anything on the front panel. The front face is the product. A mark there is a permanent defect in the most-looked-at part of the case.
Super glue or solvent cement near the case. Cyanoacrylate crazes acrylic into fine cracks, and its vapour alone will frost a clear panel without touching it. Solvent cements dissolve acrylic on contact, which is why they bond it. Laser-cut edges carry high residual stress and craze first, and a wrapped seal sits right on one.
Rubber-based tape as a stand-in. It oxidises, yellows and leaves a gummy band. Ordinary acrylic-based label adhesive is inert against the case.
Sealing the bottom. Rubber feet occupy the corners, there is usually no joint to cross, and nobody sees it.
Questions people ask
Will the Serial Seal™ come off cleanly later?
Assume not. Acrylic adhesive cold-flows into the surface over time, so what you get back on a gloss panel is a matte rectangle plus a tacky outline that collects dust. Treat this as a one-way decision and pick the panel accordingly. If you do remove one: isopropyl alcohol at 70% maximum, onto a cloth and never poured on the case, brief dwell, one direction, tested somewhere hidden first.
Do I need a different Serial Seal™ for a Pokemon Center case?
No. The seal is one size and the placement rule is the same. The case is what changes. There is no published spec for an ETB, retail boxes land around 187 to 192 mm tall by 165 to 169 wide by 87 to 94 deep, and case inners read larger because they include fit clearance. ETB Plus and the Celebrations case are different products dimensionally, and sellers say those do not interchange with standard cases.
Can I seal the case and describe the box as sealed?
Describe the box the way the factory wrap supports, and describe the seal as what it is: a number on the case, applied by you, on a date you can show. Collapsing those two statements into one is where listings get into trouble.
How many Serial Seals™ do I need?
One per case for a SINGLE on the back, two if you want a number on a side face as well, plus a few for the ones you set down crooked. The counting section above runs that arithmetic against the rungs.
The case is the only layer of a sealed ETB you are free to write on. Use it, keep the front clear, and photograph the number once it is pressed down. If you also shelve slabs and singles, the format-by-format guide has those placements and the magnetic holder guide covers the small acrylic cases.
You are buying a run of numbered seals, printed in sequence, in your own numbering. Sixty for $30.00 to start, 50c each, down to 30c each at 4,200 and no lower, with the rate applied at checkout and no code to enter. Self-serve runs top out at 10,008; bigger runs are quoted rather than posted — ask us. Take a gallery design on the builder, or put your own logo on one at add a logo.
Serial Seal is an independent printer. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by PSA, Beckett, CGC, SGC, Ultra Pro, BCW, eBay, Whatnot, TCGplayer or any card manufacturer. Brand names are used only to describe the products they make. Nothing here is legal advice.