Do you keep your O gauge building boxes? Menards boxes?

"What's in the big box hon"?

"Boxes"

John

BOXES...

Which reminds me.

One of my clients befriended a long time acquaintance he had not seen for years,  housing and feeding him for a period of months while he got his feet back on the ground.  However in the mean time this "guest" withdrew many trains from the host's scores of boxes and sold them for drug money.

So weigh your boxes, and check the contents.  Make sure the weight and actual contents of stored stock is real.

The "guest" wound up in government housing for five years.

I keep train and building boxes for re-use in case of selling a piece. Most buyers expect the original box as a condition of the deal - or a discount if there is no box. BTW, East Coast Train Parts is a good source for repro boxes. Although not "original," they are the next-best alternative.

I'm now 82 and have left instructions to my heirs about selling the collection (with the matching boxes) via an auction house.

I don't store boxes under my layout because I occasionally need to get under the layout when troubleshooting a wiring problem or adding a new accessory or lighted building. I gather boxes in black garbage bags, identify the contents of each bag with ID labels, then store the bags in the attic. (Many homes in central Arkansas don't have basements).

I have 30+ DEPT 56 buildings on my layout, and I saved every box and the sculpted styro. There's no better protection for these fragile porcelain buildings when the time comes to sell and ship one to a new owner. When buying a DEPT 56 building, I require the original box and protective styro -- so it will survive handling while in transit. No box, no deal.

I just bought a MTH Alco DL109 loco; thankfully, its original box, protective styro, and owner's manual was included. I hope UPS will treat the package with respect!

Many train boxes have a clear acetate "window" that shows the product. That acetate panel is often the first thing to come un-glued, but it can be re-glued in place.  Next likely box problem - torn (or missing) end flaps. I once found an online vendor who specialized in repairing boxes - a cottage industry.

Mike M.    LCCA 12394

Lots of interesting posts here.

I found using these rolls of cellophane available at the big box stores in the moving boxes aisle are really helpful for wrapping up to 6 O Gauge rolling stock boxes together for storing the boxes.  Any more than 6 risks them falling apart.  By grouping them in bunches, it's not only easier to carry up into my attic, but they stack well in batches, too. 

Mike

Keep the original packaging of structures?  Why?

Here, I'll let my humility and humbleness show...just for a few sentences...  Some of the very best structures on my layout were built from a kit, scratch, or freelance.  Take, for instance, that humungous Gloor coaling tower.  That box of multi-pages of drawings/instructions, wood sticks and sheets galore, die castings, et al was fairly 'thin', not very long or wide.  I guarantee you that that huge coaling tower, loaded with details, time, sweat (no tears, though), will NOT...I repeat NOT!...go back into that kit box should I wish to store or ship it to somewhere else far, far away.  Ergo, if that box is now worthless to the future of that building, why would I 'treasure'...and store...the packaging of a (as Martin calls it...) "Drop & Plop" structure made in quantity by cheap labor in a far, far away land who had nowhere near the passion for that assembly effort that's in my coaling tower???

Ditto my Berkshire Valley, Ameri-Towne, Bar Mills, Design Preservation, Gloor, AMB, etc., etc., etc. structures, bashes, and freelances.

Nope.  Not in the same category as engine packaging/boxes, or most often for passenger/freight cars.  Actually re the latter...freight cars...I've built a lot of my fleet from kits...Ambroid, Athearn, Gloor, Quality Craft, All-Nation, et al...and have purchased storage boxes (ref. other threads of THAT subject) for them after their construction...the mfrs kit box having no storage/shipping relevance thereafter.

Actually, all that useless packaging stuff will only make the whole house burn more fiercely or pollute the neighborhood following the tornado in case those sorts of tragedies befall.  Hey, it could happen.

Besides, it's a frequently a sore point in the household discussions...both pro and con.

Whatever...

I would love to save all my boxes. I use to save all my HO boxes when I was a kid. But now that I’m into “G” scale it just takes up 2 much space. I just can’t do it.

Nope, wish i had the room. What I can save is under my layout. Mostly engine and freight boxes.

Two years after the move I'm trying to clear up space in the train room to get a layout started.  I'm currently taking buildings and accessories out of boxes and displaying on shelves.  Keeping the empty boxes in the garage attic.  My current thinking is to keep the boxes for a potential future move or if I sell some of it.  Not for value but just ease of packing.  Assembled kits like my Rico Station and Single Stall Engine House were a pain to pack and no matter how much shredded paper and or packing peanuts and bubble wrap were used i seems like half of those items need some degree of repair.  I'll keep the boxes in the attic with the Christmas decorations until the space is needed for something else.

I had all my empty along with unopened in the attic for years but it took too much room and its really not the safest thing.