Keep cardboard gun boxes?

[KodeFore]

Getting ready to move, the bangsticks are locked safe, I'm wondering if I should hang on to the cardboard boxes some of them came in, does that add future value?

 

[KevininPa]

From what I've read here and other places, having the original box does add value in a resale situation.

 

[Hartkopf]

I like keeping the original box in case the gun has to go back to the manufacturer for any reason.

 

[CDW4ME]

Keep them or wish you did.

 

[JDeere]

In all my years of shooting I have never had to return a firearm to the mother ship until now. I keep mine and when I sell one the box goes with it. Keep them imo.

 

[Hartkopf]

In all my years of shooting I have never had to return a firearm to the mother ship until now. I keep mine and when I sell one the box goes with it. Keep them imo.

I keep the boxes so I don't have to return the gun to the mother ship. If I throw the box away then sure enough it'll need repair/rework.

 

[dieselchief]

keeping boxes is a great idea. however not on top off the safe, in a adjacent room, or in the shop where the torches, grinders and diamond tip cement saw is. do think about where you keep them folks...

 

[Bartojc]

I just threw out a number of boxes this past weekend. Most were for guns I really do not think future value will be added.... example a Ruger American, Shield, or a misc AR. I still have some, and esp the hard plastic ones that Ruger pistols used to some in .... maybe still do ?
Maybe I'm odd man out but I throw them out if the firearm value is not going to be a concern.

-Jeff

 

[jmorris]

I have a bunch of them, they will probably be thrown away when I die, with lots of other “junk” as Mrs. Morris puts it.

People do buy old ones though, I have thought about selling some of them, to get something out of them while I can.

 

[GHinNH]

One store I go to says yes, the other will take it if you have it but doesn't change anything. I'm sure not going to pay more for used because of a meaningless cardboard box.

I suppose if it were something high end or potential collector value that I wouldn't shoot, then I could see that, but I'm not buying a shooter for the box it came in or just to turn around and sell it.

 

[bangswitch]

I can't speak for non S&W guns, but the boxes for older S&W revolvers sell to collectors from $50-$100 and up, depending on gun model, age and box condition. An original box included with a S&W revolver in a sale always increases the value (and price).

 

[earlthegoat2]

Resale value has never concerned me even though I buy and sell all the time.

I Chuck em unless there is a quantifiable collector value associated with it. So basically, nothing made in more recent times that I have will usually have an original box.

 

[JCooperfan1911]

Id pitch them.

 

[Targa]

It just depends, the monstrous cardboard box my BFR shipped in is gone but I kept the pristine Ruger box that my 1995, also pristine Redhawk came in. Not for resale value, I just think it is kind of neat..

 

[doubleh]

I keep them until I decide there is no need for the gun to return to the factory. Then they take a trip to the trash cart.

 

[troy fairweather]

Keep them.

 

[AlexanderA]

Keep them or wish you did.

This. Object lesson: When I bought my 2nd Generation Colt SAA, in 1974, I threw away the box it came in, because the box was shopworn. Today, Stagecoach boxes like that are selling for hundreds of dollars, even if in poor condition. Someone was even making reproductions of the boxes, which themselves were selling for hundreds of dollars.

There's a thriving market for gun boxes on ebay. If you want to get rid of a box, sell it. Don't throw it away.

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

I keep them.And pistol boxes too.

 

[bannockburn]

I keep both the cardboard boxes and the plastic ones as well. The cardboard ones do add some value to the gun if you decide to sell/trade it, especially if it's an older S&W or Colt. The plastic cases make for fairly decent containers to use for transporting guns to the range.

 

[Madcap_Magician]

Ideally I'd keep all the boxes. Many guns of course now come in cheap cardboard boxes, but they're also exactly the right size for guns, go figure, so if they ever need to be sold or shipped to a smith or the factory, they come in handy. I like the plastic cases as well, for the most part, but I store them in pistol rugs that take up less space in my gun cabinet. Unfortunately the boxes are all so bulky that keeping them all is hard to justify despite their usefulness.

 

[horsemen61]

I keep mine I like having them

 

[3Crows]

The boxes do ad value. If you plan at any point to sell the guns the boxes will increase your price. If you plan to pass them on after your death, dunno, pitch them I suppose.

 

[wayneinFL]

I just moved into a smaller place. First real move since 1990.

I moved a car load of gun boxes. I can always throw them out later.

 

[silicosys4]

I tend to keep all my boxes, modern and antique because you never know.

I have a few boxes that are worth big bucks.
My most valuable is the plainest one. Having it with the gun increases the value of the gun by a few thousand dollars. It's so valuable precisely because it's a plain brown cardboard box and most of them were thrown away decades ago.
But its the one that the gun shipped from the factory to the military in.

 

[BreechFace]

Cardboard firearm boxes, get trashed after taking the serial number stickers off the box.

I know I'm not ratholing cardboard for 50 years until it's worth an extra $50 on a firearm sale.

The .00001% of examples where the price is appreciable to keep the box is irrelevant in my decision to throw the cardboard away.