Anyone keep the plastic "clam-shell" packages that structures come in these days?

It's a pain to keep them but I know pretty soon this will be dismantled by my kids when the house goes up for sale, Fortunately the garage here has a empty second floor so I keep all those and mark them so they'll know what goes where. I think if I had to look at them everyday they would be gone.

No I trash them.

Checking my list of things to worry about, and apparently this isn't on it.

I hate clam shells. I cannot imagine that they would ever fall into the category of WTB.

Except for the locomotive boxes, I throw EVERYTHING away!

No but I do keep engine and rolling stock boxes. It's getting harder to find storage though.

I keep all of my engine, rolling stock, and building boxes, but I think it has more to do with my OCD than actually having a need for the boxes.

All my building boxes are gone, threw em out. I'm going to get rid of all the freight car boxes when I decide which freight cars to get rid of too. I don't collect boxes and freight car boxes take up too much space. I'll keep all loco, passenger car and caboose boxes, cabooses are special.

For now I have space in the house to store most of my boxes, so I do. But, if I had to pay for storage they would get trashed ASAP. 

I would try to save all your engine boxes, then special set boxes, spacial car boxes, followed by accessory and  buildings. If you have to choose rather then pay storage fees eliminate the above packaging in reverse order.

To pay storage fees just to save boxes is just plan dumb. For what they are charging for even a small bin, about ninety dollars a month the cost quickly out weighs any gain five or ten years down the road.

This annalist holds true for stored product as well, if your not enjoying it dump it, because it only becomes a boat anchor to your psychic. 

I absolutely abhor blister packaging.  To think that packaging "experts" get paid to come up with ideas for packaging is beyond my comprehension.  The only thing I dislike, more than blister packaging, are the plastic tool cases for just about every power tool sold today.  

One, in particular, comes to mind.  My Milwaukee 1/2" right angle drill.  Once you open the case and take out your brand new drill, have fun putting it back in.  The cord has to be squeezed in so that it is extremely possible for it to become damaged near the entry point of the tool.  Don't even think about adding any accessories, like drill bits in the case.  It's absolute stupidity.   

I keep them. As much as a pain it is to keep them the fact is items hold their value better when re-selling when you have the box.  At some point, I expect the vast majority of my items will be re-sold. I'd like them to bring as much as possible to my wife and son when that inevitably happens.

-Greg

Lots of interesting thoughts, and it's a topic that I'm starting to think about as I acquire more of the buildings from Menards.

I strongly doubt that the clamshells will add much value when reselling these items, but having them will make packing the buildings a bit easier.  With or without the clamshell, you're still going to need to protect them in an outer box for shipping or deep storage.

Really hate to toss them, as they aren't biodegradable.  With the low price of oil these days, it's not cost-effective to recycle plastic, so they probably will end up in a landfill even if sent for recycling.

Looking back, the old Lionel packaging amazes me - the idea that flimsy cardboard boxes (which can be stored flat) protected the trains sufficiently.  Of course, they weren't traveling thousands of miles in a container on a barge, but they were bouncing cross-country on trains and trucks.

I suppose I could jam the plastic shells in large boxes and store them in the attic, yet there's something inherently junky about these things, and the fact that plastic will burn easily with high Btu content makes me not want to put them there. I don't imagine that the importers packaged these things with re-sale in mind - their probably cheap and that was all they cared about. I really hate contributing to landfill with junk like this.

I have the room for the boxes so it is easy for me.  The only reason I keep boxes is to make this easier for family to box up and sell.   

Once these items must be moved or sold (and they will) , you (or your family members) will find them to be INVALUABLE in protecting them.   Each is custom made to protect your product.  I make it a point to keep them for buildings, rolling stock, anything.  You will be unable to get another one if you wanted to. 

I use them for mixing paint or epoxy glue.  The flat ones I use for windows in buildings.  I have a box of clear plastic and one for other plastic parts.  I especially like to keep plastic spruns from models and make items that needs rods like model horns, smoke stacks, etc.

Charles

Keep them Paul. Even if you get 10 or 15 they would seem to stack pretty well in a corner or under something. Too nice and delicate of a structure to toss the packaging.

I pitch 'em out. They take up way too much space and serve no purpose for me.