Xbox 360 E305 Limited Edition Faceplate - E3 2005 - Used but Genuine.
I received this in a bundle of limited edition OG Xbox consoles from an AssemblerGames seller in early 2007, beforre the 360 had launched in Australia yet. he said that it was provided by Microsoft as well as a bunch of other unboxed/prototype looking faceplates for promo purposes (designs he never saw again,) as well as the Demo Kiosk, posters etc for his store. I knew they were 1/5000 at E3 but didn't really think that much of it.
I found it recently and had a better look at it. despite therre being fakes or homemade faceplates in tribute to it - those one has all the correct identifying factors to either make it an E305 faceplate that was a spare that never made it into a box, or it could have been a prototype.
Yes the USB flap is missing. that was the style at the time.
The injected mould plastic shows a date stamp of May 2005. Below the recycling triangle is X802967 (same as my PGR3 plate which was 6 months newer than this and the oldest retail plate I have). May 2005 was the dumb Xbox TV Unveiling as well as E3 so the timing is right. (My PGR3 has JAN 2006, which was actually after the game release).
it also has black behind the power button, which these plates have.
and when you shine a light from behind the IR transmitter, it's splotchy - which checks out as people complained their DVD remotes wouldn't work with the E305 plate .
and if you want to get silly, the springs on the flaps match the Xenon revision rather than the later Falcons.etc. when they fixed the broken port cover issues.
Finally, the print has been transferred and is pearlescent.
So it's either 1/5000, an extra one left from the print one, or a prototype. I'm guessing the first two.