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I am trying to decide what to do with my train boxes as they are driving me crazy. It would feel most satisfying to just get a dumpster and be done with them. However, I know it’s a practical necessity to have the original packaging in case I have to sell or ship something.  I will definitely keep the locomotive boxes.  I have questions.

1. Would it be a mistake to trash boxes for cars other than engines?

2. What is the best place to store the remaining boxes? Right now many are in the train room making a mess. I could keep them in the basement (it is an old Michigan basement so we have spiders and higher humidity than would be best), or the attic which is hot in summer and cold in the winter.  Would you go basement or attic?

Thanks,

Ben 

 

Last edited by banelson
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Bill DeBrooke posted:

Attic certainly before basement.

I agree, Bill.  My 2026 and its accompanying cars arrived at Christmas, 1951, and between Christmases, they were all kept in my parents' attic until I reclaimed them in the mid-Seventies.  The cardboard (and the rolling stock) were all undamaged.

My parents' house was in Pennsylvania, where summer humidity can give the tropics a run for their money.

--John

I don’t have room to store all the boxes. Honestly, I don't think having  boxes for items results in easier or more profitable sales when/if you do that. I save boxes for the more expensive items (mostly engines) and pitch the rest. It’s sort of a gamble, I guess. 

I wouldn’t get hung up over saving boxes, though. If you have the room, fine; if not, let them go.  I sell stuff on Ebay and don’t notice any reluctance to purchase my offerings without boxes if the price is right.

What I did was to store my boxes in the three foot high space over my bed room celling. You can cut an access trap door through the celling or build cabinet doors through the sky light soffit in the bathroom, as I did.

You will need a ladder to get to them and I stored them in heavy duty builders trash bags and sealed all with duct tape. Use a marker to label each bag and record the contents along with each bags location in the celling in a log book.

Or you can just get the dumpster!   What ever is more fun.

Dave Warburton posted:

I don’t have room to store all the boxes. Honestly, I don't think having  boxes for items results in easier or more profitable sales when/if you do that. I save boxes for the more expensive items (mostly engines) and pitch the rest. It’s sort of a gamble, I guess. 

I wouldn’t get hung up over saving boxes, though. If you have the room, fine; if not, let them go.  I sell stuff on Ebay and don’t notice any reluctance to purchase my offerings without boxes if the price is right.

Having an item in its original  box - many times enhances its "sale ability".  I first learned that boxes have value the time I sold a set in separate pieces - only to have a guy offer me nice bucks for the set box I was about to trash.  Also, consider that my ex-wife once told my children that: "your dad never met a box he would not have a home for.  So, go figure!

Long ago I quit saving boxes for rolling stock except for engines and quality passenger cars.  I never pay extra for an item with a box.  I think most rolling stock ships better without the original box, engines being the exception. The saved boxes are in the attic above the garage. 

falconservice posted:

How can you have so many items that the boxes would be a problem?

These O gauge and O scale items are expensive and therefore limited in amount produced.

Andrew

You must be new to 3RO.

As to being "expensive" and "limited" - they are expensive mostly when new, and it's mostly the locos; after that, the majority are just like used autos (as it should be). They may be "limited", but that can still mean thousands of an item produced, multiplied by hundreds - thousands - of individual items produced by each company, times decades of business done....times millions (net) of customers times multiple transactions per customer over those decades....

Yeah, boxes - like locusts.

Mostly, with me, once a piece of rolling stock is out of the box, the box goes. Locos and sets, no. To the attic. I do not store equipment in the attic, just boxes.

There is a different approach to this problem.  Everyone knows that their trains are worth more if they are in the original box when it is time to sell.  Therefore, instead of dealing with all the current problems discussed on this site involving non working, wrong paint, bad sound, I have decided to throw out the trains and keep the boxes.  Now all those guys that need boxes when they go to sell can come to my 'boxes are us' store.

 

Think I am joking?  Well maybe.

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Well, I'm only one person, but for what it's worth, I like buying trains in their original boxes. Other things being equal, I will always buy the train with a box before the one without a box. I just think it's fun to get something new (or new-to-you) and take it out of its box. It's like Christmas! Many on this forum proclaim that they have matured beyond having fun of this sort, but not me. And I suspect I'm not alone.

So I keep all my boxes, but I flatten them and store them in plastic tub(s) (just one so far, but will be starting another soon). Flattened, they're just a stack of cardboard, and you can get a lot of them into a small space. I have reconstituted a few, and they were just fine. Since I already have an inventory of my collection, it is trivial to add a note of whether I have a box, whether it has been flattened, and what number is on it (since that is not always the same as the number on the car).

nickaix posted:

Well, I'm only one person, but for what it's worth, I like buying trains in their original boxes. Other things being equal, I will always buy the train with a box before the one without a box. I just think it's fun to get something new (or new-to-you) and take it out of its box. It's like Christmas! Many on this forum proclaim that they have matured beyond having fun of this sort, but not me. And I suspect I'm not alone.

So I keep all my boxes, but I flatten them and store them in plastic tub(s) (just one so far, but will be starting another soon). Flattened, they're just a stack of cardboard, and you can get a lot of them into a small space. I have reconstituted a few, and they were just fine. Since I already have an inventory of my collection, it is trivial to add a note of whether I have a box, whether it has been flattened, and what number is on it (since that is not always the same as the number on the car).

Nickaix, I think your idea of flattening the boxes and then, if neessary, reconstituting them later, is a great idea. That saves a lot of room. I'm going to do it. Thanks, Arnold 

Arnold D. Cribari posted:
nickaix posted:

Well, I'm only one person, but for what it's worth, I like buying trains in their original boxes. Other things being equal, I will always buy the train with a box before the one without a box. I just think it's fun to get something new (or new-to-you) and take it out of its box. It's like Christmas! Many on this forum proclaim that they have matured beyond having fun of this sort, but not me. And I suspect I'm not alone.

So I keep all my boxes, but I flatten them and store them in plastic tub(s) (just one so far, but will be starting another soon). Flattened, they're just a stack of cardboard, and you can get a lot of them into a small space. I have reconstituted a few, and they were just fine. Since I already have an inventory of my collection, it is trivial to add a note of whether I have a box, whether it has been flattened, and what number is on it (since that is not always the same as the number on the car).

Nickaix, I think your idea of flattening the boxes and then, if neessary, reconstituting them later, is a great idea. That saves a lot of room. I'm going to do it. Thanks, Arnold 

This makes ZERO sense You still have to deal with the styrofoam insert AND keep track of what insert goes to what broken down cardboard box.. If you're going to throw the insert out, it makes zero sense to  save the box. Nick

Last edited by rockstars1989
Bill DeBrooke posted:

There is a different approach to this problem.  Everyone knows that their trains are worth more if they are in the original box when it is time to sell.  Therefore, instead of dealing with all the current problems discussed on this site involving non working, wrong paint, bad sound, I have decided to throw out the trains and keep the boxes.  Now all those guys that need boxes when they go to sell can come to my 'boxes are us' store.

 

Think I am joking?  Well maybe.

Bill,

From the photos, it appears that you have more room in your box storage room than I do in the entire layout room.  You even have extra space for old computers.  Now, those will be really valuable in their original boxes.  Lucky you.  NH Joe

dkdkrd posted:

Between joists, under tables in the basement, closets here, there, everywhere, in the attic....

I'm in there somewhere.  Guilty as charged.

My biggest concern is a visit by my home insurance agent or the local fire marshall!!!!  After all, what we're really dealing with here is.....k-i-n-d-l-i-n-g.

Or, at the very least, it takes us to the brink of qualifying for a reality episode re hoarding!!!???......maybe?  At least for some of us?

BTW...flattening the boxes and storing them in a tub is a great idea, I gave it about 30 seconds of thought once.  But, it's the turkey 'stuffings' I couldn't figure out how to retain......You know, the Styrofoam, cardboard 3D jigsaw puzzles, vacuum formed sheet plastic clamshells, etc., etc. that cradle the product....and give the cardboard box some form.    So, for those who flatten boxes, what do/did you do with the guts? 

What a conundrum!

KD

I flatten the ones with no guts, the others I keep as is.

 

New Haven Joe posted:
Bill DeBrooke posted:

There is a different approach to this problem.  Everyone knows that their trains are worth more if they are in the original box when it is time to sell.  Therefore, instead of dealing with all the current problems discussed on this site involving non working, wrong paint, bad sound, I have decided to throw out the trains and keep the boxes.  Now all those guys that need boxes when they go to sell can come to my 'boxes are us' store.

 

Think I am joking?  Well maybe.

Bill,

From the photos, it appears that you have more room in your box storage room than I do in the entire layout room.  You even have extra space for old computers.  Now, those will be really valuable in their original boxes.  Lucky you.  NH Joe

You never know when you are going to need a pre Y2K computer like a KAYPRO, Commodore or a Trash 80.

Last edited by Bill DeBrooke
Bill DeBrooke posted:

There is a different approach to this problem.  Everyone knows that their trains are worth more if they are in the original box when it is time to sell.  Therefore, instead of dealing with all the current problems discussed on this site involving non working, wrong paint, bad sound, I have decided to throw out the trains and keep the boxes.  Now all those guys that need boxes when they go to sell can come to my 'boxes are us' store.

 

Think I am joking?  Well maybe.

Bill 

now that’s what I’m talking about I save all my boxes also if they’re in good shape

I save every good box I have specially Lionel and Weaver  boxes and a few old AHM. I’ve sold lots of rolling stock to a secondhand hobby shop in St. Louis and if you have the original box and good shape it adds at least 5 to 10 more dollars on your item so if you got the room to store your boxes in a safe dry place I would definitely recommend saving your boxes. Plus I will pay more for the rolling stock or engine if it’s in the original box VS no box that tells me what kind of person that is selling the item by keeping the box and the care of the item when not in use just my my theory but most the time when I buy something in the box it’s always in good shape

No basement at sea level & promised the wife no more trips to the attic (infirmity).  We emptied the attic of all stored items four years ago and now use part of my ground level attic (a.k.a storage shed) for the boxes I do keep (loco and passenger in plastic totes). I don't keep shipping boxes as the vermin here love to eat the cardboard glue. I do keep a few postwar boxes under the layout . As to value without the box, that's my daughter's problem when she liquidates. 

rockstars1989 posted:
Arnold D. Cribari posted:
nickaix posted:

Well, I'm only one person, but for what it's worth, I like buying trains in their original boxes. Other things being equal, I will always buy the train with a box before the one without a box. I just think it's fun to get something new (or new-to-you) and take it out of its box. It's like Christmas! Many on this forum proclaim that they have matured beyond having fun of this sort, but not me. And I suspect I'm not alone.

So I keep all my boxes, but I flatten them and store them in plastic tub(s) (just one so far, but will be starting another soon). Flattened, they're just a stack of cardboard, and you can get a lot of them into a small space. I have reconstituted a few, and they were just fine. Since I already have an inventory of my collection, it is trivial to add a note of whether I have a box, whether it has been flattened, and what number is on it (since that is not always the same as the number on the car).

Nickaix, I think your idea of flattening the boxes and then, if neessary, reconstituting them later, is a great idea. That saves a lot of room. I'm going to do it. Thanks, Arnold 

This makes ZERO sense You still have to deal with the styrofoam insert AND keep track of what insert goes to what broken down cardboard box.. If you're going to throw the insert out, it makes zero sense to  save the box. Nick

Well, if the stuff I buy in came with styrofoam inserts that would be true. But it doesn't

Only the engines do, and there are not nearly so many of those to worry about.

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