The motherboard and graphics cards seem to come without either plastic wrap or tape on the box. Is this normal for new products?

Been a few years since I ordered parts but mine have always come wrapped. These would be OEM parts though, not retail.

I recall getting one motherboard eons ago in just the box. Don;t recall what happened with it.

Sounds like the box has been opened to me. Especially the motherboard. I've never bought a motherboard that wasn't sealed in some way (usually it's tape instead of plastic though that "seals" the place where you open it).

If it is from a box, yeah that's pretty normal. I don't recall my keyboard coming in a bag, either.

A chat person said they come like that. Anyone else know?

What exactly do you mean? Do you mean like, does the box come shrink wrapped? If so, no. I've never had any PC parts come shrink wrapped at all.

Now if you mean those dark gray bags some items come inside of, in my experience most do, but some do not, and it seems rather random. Like, I've had all my graphics cards come in plastic bags (the kind that's supposed to help keep static away,) but the last one just came in the box without a bag. I've never had RAM sticks come wrapped on anything other than their box either, and I'm not 100% sure my mobo came in one. My SSD (I got it last year) didn't come wrapped either.

So no, they don't ALWAYS come with plastic wrap.

Yeah, I don't think I've ever bought a graphics card or motherboard shrinkwrapped, but I've never bought one that wasn't TAPED SHUT in some way. In other words, it wasn't a matter of simply opening the box when it arrives. I usually have to cut a piece of tape first. Or maybe I'm misremembering again. (Why is misremembering showing up as misspelled? How the hell do you spell it then?)

For me, the graphics cards generally have a piece of tape with the manufacturer's seal (usually sapphire) on the ends of the box so you know it hasn't been tampered with. Same with RAM sticks I believe. But I don't think Motherboards do, since those use those larger boxes where you open/close them by moving a little flange in or out of an opening on the box. But I might be misremembering :P

no electronic part leaves the MFG without protection, ususaly the silver ESD bag if you open a package and find no protection, it's been previously opened, don't take a chance, get another item.

Huh, newegg said the motherboard wasn't supposed to taped shut. But the GPU was actually taped shut when I looked closer. I don't think I have ever gotten a sealed motherboard and many others report the same.

I can see the motherboard not being taped if they were going to test it before shipping.

Oh and just to mention, we buy our memory in bulk and they come in plastic trays of I believe 48 chips. Shows up in one of those black plastic bottom and clear top trays with the memory wedged into a black poly something packing. That was just taped up but again that was OEM and bulk.

They all come in soot grey ANTI-STATIC BAGS if they don't THEN SOMEONES FIDDLED with it

THIS:

Antistatic Bag

Almost all parts I ordered on Amazon came with their original boxes.
However, only a few of them had also a plastic wrap around.

Back a few years ago Dell, before they aquired Alienware, was slapped with a class action law suite for selling used parts as new, it was quickly burried and now days you can't find a trace of it on the web. the whole reason someone noticed this and brought it to the media's attention was the motherboard he bought was unwrapped and damaged, Dell refused to replace it so the guy went to the media and it exploded. I'm not saying "Just because" your's wasn't wrapped I'm just saying if it didn't have protection, Don't take the chance that 6 months fron install date it fails because of a damaged component.