Yes, they look to me as if they have been in a box for years. Surprises me, because regardless of cam specs these are the "generic" mopar Comp cams lifter. They must sell more than a couple of cams a month so I would think the lifters would be going out to customers on a regular basis. Pretty disappointing and another reminder of why after 40+ years of doing this stuff, I'm really running out of patience with the older car scenario. Years ago you could go to the local NAPA and get things like lifters and not have to worry about quality. Now, it seems the vast majority is second rate and it's a crap shoot if you can use it or not.
I thought about the scotch-brite and lube clean up, but it really deflates me to thing I even would have to do this.
I bought the cam kit from Summit Racing, so I think I will call them and see if they can ship me just a set of lifters since the cam is already installed and lubed and the timing cover is back on.