I have only been collecting Hot wheels since 2014, I cant imagine that this will interest many of you if not anyone at all but I have only just realised that "Factory Sealed” Cards are a stand alone card just like the USA long cards, International Long cards & the European short cards.
I had just thought that maybe the dealers or the retailers in the USA were applying the stickers to boost sales, it turns out that the "Factory Sealed” cards come from quarterly Limited Edition box sets that contain all the different Hot Wheels Mainline, Treasure Hunt and Zamac cards that were made available in a single year.
I now know that the quarterly released box sets are made available to the main dealers and Redline Club Members and they are the people that are responsible for opening up the "Factory Sealed” box sets and selling the cards individually on eBay etc.
The box sets are limited to just 500 a time so the cards are actually rarer than the other three different cards, the model is the same on all four cards so it’s not going to appeal to many people.
2018 Hot Wheels '16 BMW M2 "Factory Sealed" cards
2018 Hot Wheels "Factory Sealed" box set 1 of 4