Retail or Re-furb?

Only one of my two (definitely new at the time) NVX units came with the outer box. The outer box may only be used by Netgear when shipping less than a certain amount, and above that a larger shipping carton with several units. The boxes should be blue and white and fairly colorful. While I have never seen a refurbished Netgear NAS in a box, I have purchased plainly labeled a refurbished router (WNR2000) and a refurbished wireless adapter and both came in the plain brown box with just the word Netgear and a sticker with what was in it. The retail box is intended to draw attention, listing features and a picture of the item on it. The refurbished box has none of this.

Any signs the package with the CD and registration card has been opened? Was the package with the screws opened? Any sticky areas where the security circles could have been?

If I may ask, which vendor shipped you the units?

Had a family that I am good friends with buy a Dell computer from Wal-Mart a few years back. They were having problems setting it up. When I went over, it was suspicious because it already had a user set up on it. I advised her to register the unit and she was unable to because it had already been registered (it was also randomly restarting) so on my advice they took it right back. So it does happen with some retailers. I know that if Newegg gets an item back, they will resell it for a reduced price (not if returned as defective) and plainly identify it as an open box item.