Do you keep your cardboard gun boxes?

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Yes, I keep both rifle and pistol boxes. I store my spent brass in them, they are already labeled with the caliber. When I reload the brass, I use the boxes, put a label on it and write down the load. This works great for me.
 
Anything cardboard gets tossed, but of course the plastic cases that some rifles and basically all pistols come in I keep. Even though I prefer soft cases.
 
I've been keeping gun boxes for over 20 years. I just stick them up in between the floor joists in my basement. They are out of sight and out of mind....I initially didn't do it for investment purposes, I just did it because I'm a pack rat...Now that boxes, especially Colt boxes, are bringing upwards of 200 bucks, I'm glad I did.

You guys can toss you cardboard if you want, but not me...Even the cardboard sleeve the later Colt plastic cased guns came in are commanding a premium.
 
I've been keeping gun boxes for over 20 years. I just stick them up in between the floor joists in my basement. They are out of sight and out of mind....I initially didn't do it for investment purposes, I just did it because I'm a pack rat...Now that boxes, especially Colt boxes, are bringing upwards of 200 bucks, I'm glad I did.

You guys can toss you cardboard if you want, but not me...Even the cardboard sleeve the later Colt plastic cased guns came in are commanding a premium.
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I'm not sure that the cardboard boxes for my SW MP15X and T/C Bone Collector Triumph will ever command a premium price or any price at all.




Right?
.
 
I'm not sure that the cardboard boxes for my SW MP15X and T/C Bone Collector Triumph will ever command a premium price or any price at all.




Right?
.
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Only time will tell...I have talked to more than one gun dealer who cries the blues over throwing out old Colt and S&W boxes years ago when a customer bought a new gun and said trash the box...I probably wouldn't go to any hardship to hang on to new gun boxes, but if I had a place to tuck them out of sight and out of mind, I certainly would.
 
If you buy a mass produced gun you'd be dead before it would turn valuable.
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Maybe, maybe not....They mass produced a lot of Colts and S&W's. Nearly all Colt boxes are valuable. Most of the older S&W boxes are worth a fair amount....Nearly every time I'm around a shop/show and see some one with an older handgun they want to sell/trade, the first thing the dealer asks is "Do you have the box?.
 
I just started keeping the boxes about 10 years ago. Couldn't figure out why, then I realized that the ones with removable foam padding were great for transporting ammo to the range.
 
Have everyone that came with a box. Boxes will generally add 10-to-25% depending on the gun. Have one rifle that if someone could produce the original box with correct serial number, you'd be $1000 richer.
 
I keep as many of the boxes that my guns come in as I can. The plastic ones are best (usually lockable and airline approved), but I also keep the cardboard ones. Good for small parts and posterity.
 
Oops, I thought you were referring to the cardboard ammo boxes, those I keep for brass storage. The rifle and pistol boxes, no, I toss'em. I do cut off the section with the model and serial #.
 
I keep them all. It feels like the right thing to do, and I dutifully pass them on if I sell. Remember a pre-64 Winchester was likely considered a plain-jane "commodity" gun by the first owner when he bought it.
 
Some. If the pistol boxes came with the pistols. And if the rifle/shotgun boxes came with them and have those cut-outs on the inside. A typical ak box has room for the rifle, five mags and a sling, and are pretty strong for cardboard, or so I have been told. Ant. Roadshow always says, keep the boxes.
 
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Quote: Texas Gun Person
I keep all boxes ... Not sure why I keep them all.
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Ditto.
Only ones not pitched are those boxes that were too flimsy on receipt (or torn up in getting access). Do have to admit to a certain fondness for the old Colt boxes with the fake wood grain on the cardboard.
Been good and bad over the course of time and passage of history.

For those of you pooh-poohing saving in case of needing to sell; learn from my experience. I never thought I'd lose it all; job, assets, retirement, house. But, I did. I culled the safe over and over again. I want every one of those back, and will never see those old, dear friends again.

It can happen, and it can happen to you.

Few things as bitter as the taste of broken terra cotta in one's mouth and the kharmic ring of "Ozymandius!" in one's head.
 
I think I've got a pistol box floating around, but I don't make a habit of keeping the boxes of anything I own. I pack the pistols in hard cases anyway.
 
I keep them all. It feels like the right thing to do, and I dutifully pass them on if I sell. Remember a pre-64 Winchester was likely considered a plain-jane "commodity" gun by the first owner when he bought it.
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So all I have to do is save my box for 47+ years and I'll turn a nice profit? Nice.
 
I'll try to keep the ones I have room for. I don't own a warehouse, so empty boxes aren't a "hold" item when time comes to clean out the storage shed.
 
In 1966 I purchased a Colt SAA. It came in a cardboard box with a stage coach pictured on the box. IF I had kept the box it would be worth almost as much as the Colt SAA that came in it...And together, well...Live and learn.
 
Keep all my boxes as I have room to store them. I will move to a smaller house and at that time I will get rid of some of the rifle boxes. Handgun boxes make for orderly storing of some of the handguns.
 
I recently sold a CZ 97B that was part of a unique set of 60 satin nickel pistols made for RSR Distributors. The pistol isn't marked, the plastic box isn't marked, the only indicator is the end flap on the cardboard box. That box added at least 20% to the value.
 
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