Without getting into all of the details of what you should and shouldn't have done, I'll say this much: if I bought what I thought was a "new" reel and it turned out to be 4 years old, no, I wouldn't be very happy. I think it is safe to say that "new" implies that it is a recently manufactured item (emphasis on implies... no, new doesn't have to be defined as "just been made", but in today's society, I think it implies that it has just been made). I wouldn't call a 2007 truck that had never been sold before and never been driven a "new" truck; it's an older model than the "new" model. It's UNUSED, but I wouldn't really call it NEW, since I would expect a NEW truck to be the latest, most recent model. So yeah, I'd have to go back to the seller and say "Why didn't you say this thing was 4 years old???"

This post certainly makes me think twice about buying something without asking some pretty detailed questions. Never thought I'd have to get a definition of what "new in box" means...