Does The Box Matter?

not me. s a club runner, I have all ,my rolling stock in bubble wrap stored is east to transport Rubbermaid containers. The only trains I do keep in boxes are the engines.

 

I have purchased a few engines w/o boxes and just crafted my own. I have sold and multiple swap meets as well as here on the forum w/o boxes and no issue selling, albeit, I figure I have gotten my entertainment value form the trains so ok with me when I sell at a discount.

engines only.......

rolling stock I keep or chop up.......

I keep the Boxes just in case I would like to sell something, as well as saving the engine boxes because engines will need to be repaired and I have no patience repairing my own Locomotives. I pack all my trains in puppy pads and tub ware bins except for my Big Boy, Atlas tank cars and a Lionel BSA Caboose. Big Boy sits in foam cut outs and the Tank cars and Caboose stays in their original box.

I have purchased a few things without boxes over the years and will continue to do so if I run across things I want. That said, I prefer boxes and will always opt in favor of the person that includes the box if given a choice, even if I have to pay a bit more. For some reason I tend to trust the stated condition more when the original box and packing material is involved. I admit that whether this is a statistically sound reality or not is another matter.

 

As for me, I keep all rolling stock boxes and boxes for larger accessories. Everything else goes to the chopper.

I always keep the boxes. Most of my engines are in a display case. Just about all the cars that I'm not running at my club are in their boxes. Whenever you decide to sell or trade something having the original box(es), especially the high end stuff, does matter to most people. 

In my wing of the hobby - boxes rule....

I keep boxes for moving.  My train stuff has been shuffled through four houses in the last fifteen years and having the boxes has been great protection.  

I am an operator but primarily look for postwar. I'll pay a little more if it has a box with it. Plus, the boxes look kinda neat.

     I was always told to keep the box even the outer shipping box so I will say 98% of what I have is in its original box and shipping box. Choo Choo Kenny

I keep all locomotive boxes. For everything else, if the box is orange, I keep it. Otherwise it's broken down and recycled.

 

- RICH

I keep all the boxes for engines, rolling stock and pre-assembled buildings and accessories and some boxes for other items as well. We moved almost 2 years ago and the boxes really came in handy for that, not one item got damaged. Also very nice to have if you sell something and need to ship it to the buyer.

Boxes 100%. I feel the box is part of the product.

I don't have the luxury of storage room for all boxes so I save boxes for expensive locomotives, all postwar items, and special edition/club car issues -- anything I think might need a box to sell someday.  The rest I pitch, especially all regular new rolling stock. 

 

I sell things on Ebay from time to time and don't think I have a harder time moving product w/o boxes. If I am competing with someone who has a box for an item and I don't, I drop my price by $5 or so below the other fellow and that seems to work out OK.

 

When you think about it, boxes take up a lot more storage room than their contents.

Yes, unequivocally yes!

 

Chief Bob (Retired)

The value drops on this stuff so fast i dont think it matters. Im sure you bought them to enjoy, so why worry if you will loose $10 missing a box.

I save all the boxes. My collection is in flux; at any given time I may have 100 items for sale. ANY item brings more money and is easier to sell in the original box. I also buy most of my trains on the secondary market and there are some items that I won't even consider if they aren't in the box, simply because things like Atlas woodside reefers are so fragile that nobody without special skills can pack them securely for shipment. I can do it - but I spent 25 years moving back and forth from the USA to third world countries and there isn't much I don't know about packing. Your average eBay seller ain't got a clue. 

 

Save the boxes, unless you never plan to sell anything and don't care if your heirs get full value. 

Imo a nice postwar piece is enhanced if it includes the original box

I collect the boxes but still keep the trains because the boxes look better with something in them.

 

 

 

 

What, me worry?

Since I buy them to run them boxes are not that critical to me. I understand that some want boxes and there have been a couple of times I have bought a prewar set box, but that is an exception. For my track on my layouts the boxes go. For some cars the boxes go. I usually keep the engine boxes. Most of these have values that drop so fast it is a joke. Better to run them into the ground with a smile on my face.

You betcha your bippy, they do! 

The boxes matter on the recent production of FRAGILE O Scale freight cars. Those cars can be crushed without the boxes.

 

For Postwar and MPC the boxes are a nice reminder of when they were built and will keep the corners from being chipped while in transit.

 

Andrew

If you do not keep the boxes for new rolling stock, you are asking for a disaster when the car will fall to the floor and snap into 20 parts.

 

Andrew

It depends on the box; $10 can be a steal of a deal. Or you may wait just to give them away.

 

 Plastic- delicate, or with protruding detail? I save the box for sure.

9 of my engines do, and 11 do not, have boxes

Three of nine are set boxes.

 

 I have a couple of PW General gift set cardboard boxes I found in the garage attic.

 I use them for my mpc Generals vs squeezing them in and out of the foam of their original boxes. One still had the Super-O track in it, unused.

 

 

 

 

 

 

quote:

 Like I said most of my items do not have the box and that is okay with me. It is a bonus if an item I want comes with  a box. Do others feel the same or do you have to have the box when you buy something?

 

I categorize my trains into two main groups. Items I own because I want to run them, and items I own because I want to collect them.
Boxes are not important to me for runner items.

My Collection items that were made after 1969 must have a box, and preferably all the paperwork, etc.

Collection items that were made before 1970 do not have to have a box, but they certainly are nice to have. .
IMHO, the buying and selling of empty boxes have diminished the value of having the box. Unless the item is 100% mint, normally I will not pay a premium to get a box.

On the other hand, there are things in my collection that I have only because they are boxed.

Some common cars of the 1960's were commonly included unboxed in sets, and are seldom seen in separate sale boxes.

I replace all boxes with ones from ULine for standardization and storage; all 4 x 4 so that they stack uniformly.

Most of my stuff did not come with a box. Whether or not an item has a box is not a deal breaker for me. I understand to some folks the box is more valuable than the item that would go in it, but I buy stuff because I like it and want to run it, not store it away in its original box.

I have an MPC era boxcar in its original box and a handful of prewar items that still have mostly complete original boxes.

I will say that having the boxes for the prewar stuff is kinda neat.

I keep the boxes to protect items.  That's the only reason.

Like other have said, keep them if you have them.

I've been in the 3-rail hobby for about 24 years.  The only boxes that I keep are for engines.  Over the years, like most others, I have sold both engines and rolling stock.  The only exception I will make is for the GGD El Cap.  At $3k for a 12 car set, I can find space to store the boxes.

I have to look at this from the buyers point of view.  If two sets were for sale, one with and one without the boxes, I would opt for the boxed set and pay more for the shipping.  As it is, I'm paying $160 for shipping on this set.

I like to get any MPC and older boxes I can with an item, but it's not a deal breaker.

ive got too many items shipped to me damaged because of no ob. [motive power and atlas o switches]. i will not consider a purchase any more unless item is or. box-Jim

I prefer my postwar trains to have boxes, but I don't let the lack of a box stop me from buying a piece. I wish my mother hand'not thrown out the boxes for my father's set. But they smelled musty and she was concerned about my asthma. I am hunting all the boxes for set 1423w now to replace them.   Mike

Great question.  I recently received my first engine that I purchased as new.  When I removed the box from the outer shipping box I was quite disappointed.  I'm very meticulous when it comes to taking care of anything I own.  The shipping box didn't have the same damage as the engine box so it seemed to me that the seller was fully aware of the condition before shipping.

 

Ultimately I didn't purchase this engine with the intent to resell, but if I did I now have a new engine with a damaged box that makes me look irresponsible.  I'm hoping some people can comment on their experience when buying new from authorized sellers.  Do you often receive new engines with damaged boxes?  Is this to be expected?  I'm not attempting to hijack this thread, hoping it doesn't seem that way.

 

That would signal a lack of open and honest communication (or at a minimum a lack of courtesy) to me and would make me wary of that seller in the future (e.g., what else is he or she perhaps not disclosing?). I get that things happen to packaging and the contents may still be fine, but I would want the choice of whether to accept that item or select another. The good news in my experience is that I've noticed most sellers are pretty open about such things.

I once sold a postwar New Haven F3 AB (for someone else unfortunately).  It was not a particularly expensive engine at the time (about 1999-2001) but it ended up going for around $4500 because it had the original boxes and the master carton for the AB.

 

So if it had a box when I bought it, I still have the box.  granted I don't have a particularly large collection and they are convenient since everything is in storage now.  For my postwar stuff if the boxes were falling apart I carefully glued cardstock inside them to make them rigid and to avoid taping them together.  I don't care if anyone thinks that's wrong, but I figured if it was in tatters, it wasn't worth anything and it wasn't serving it's purpose to store the train in.  So now I have functional boxes while still maintaining the original material

When I "inherited" my postwar 2046 train set from my father/brother .... everything was in near perfect boxes. But, I figured I would store them in a more protective way, and I threw out all the boxes.

 

I didn't realize.

I'm mostly into Postwar or Postwar repro trains when it comes to O gauge.   Gotta have the box!  I'll buy tons of PW style repro boxes at the big meets.   Right now, just about all my PW stuff has an original or repro box.  My newer stuff is all original boxes.  The better PW stuff came with the LaRue Schempp toilet paper wrap we're all familiar with, and rest assured, I have a young ton of it !

kmac,

   Got to tell ya I really like having the original boxes, wish my Fathers Lionel Tin Plate 263E Work Train boxes were still around, unfortunately they are a long time gone.

PCRR/Dave

 

YES!!!!!!!!!  I will always buy from someone with a box before I would buy from someone without a box.  As a matter of fact, I have passed on some items because there was no box.  I figure I can find the same item elsewhere with a box.  I only own a handful of items without boxes and some of those I have found boxes for.

 

Rick