NewEgg or one of their suppliers got taken on a load of fakes. The people posting in this thread obviously have no idea how far people will go to fake CPU's these days. Anyone remember back in the days of the Pentium II how there were groups buying the CPU's and using lasers to alter the CPU's into the higher bin speed? Basically taking a $300 CPU and turning it into a $600 cpu with very little work?
This was an intentional scam, one of Newegg's suppliers is buying from questionable channels. Someone at one of those suppliers bought a load of product from outside the normal channels. Maybe they have a history of buying from outside the proper channels and dealing with stolen merchandise and rather than hijacking a load the group decided to simply produce a fake package to sell. The take on this single Pallet was $75K, I sincerely doubt that the 300 claimed are the only ones produced, they likely spread these fake loads out to all their clients. Consider a truck load of these would have been worth millions. Organized crime has been expanding to high tech theft because such small loads can be worth millions.
Don't buy the press line, these weren't demo's, they are FAR to elaborate and missing key things to be a demo. Real Intel demo boxes would have used real boxes and sealing tape and would have simply had a plastic replica in the box. These boxes (they even printed text on the box so the sealing tape looks like the real deal) have a fake sticker with a photo of a fan on them made to look real with a supporting fake fan that's made of spray insulation. No, this screams intentional fakes, probably made by organized crime. Newegg is trying to cover their ass here but the reality is they have been buying from suppliers or their suppliers have been buying from suppliers outside the ordinary and approved supply chain. It's scary to think NewEgg (or their suppliers) has been buying outside the normal channels and potentially exposing all their clients to stolen or fake goods.
Anyway, don't buy the CYIA press line of these being demo boxes, they aren't, there are simply to many things indicating fakes IMO.