Welcome to the Forum....hang around and we will help you spend your money...but we do need pictures, they are obligatory when questioning value of anything S & W.
My 27-2 with 3-1/2" bbl is the real deal and you won't get it from me for $1,600. Mine is 1976, s/n N 377xxx. No box, no docs, no presentation case, tools, etc.
Actually no story whatsoever on mine which is fine with me as I really don't want to hear the usual stuff about how a friend of a friend got this gun given to him after Elvis used it to demolish a TV one night, but sorry...lost the photo of the King doing the deed.
There is a seller on Fleabay (starts with a Blo...) who sells boxes and blank labels for Colts, S & W and just about anything you want. He's still in business so somebody sucks into this stuff all day long. Also as posted there are other sellers putting out repro's of manuals, parts lists, etc. but these items are 100% worthless in my opinion as a collector (well junior advancing accumulator in training).
Don't know what the circle RE stands for, maybe Reengineered and applied by the seller
Like others I'd say for sure discuss at length with the seller.
I guess decide how nice a shooter it is and negotiate accordingly. If you feel the gun alone is worth whatever (and they ARE sweet shooters, a major tad heavy for Concealed Carry)...then dicker with the dude, but trash the box...it ain't worth squat, even if someone could read the old serial number and had a matching gun...it has still been FAKED, no honest "mistake" in my opinion.