What do you do with the LEGO boxes?

[atmail35]

I've been buying Lego sets for my daughter (and some for husband and I) for just over a year now. Up to this point I've been saving the original boxes. I'm not sure why but I felt compelled to put them in the basement.

So I'm wondering is there any value in saving these boxes? Should I just recycle them? Cut out the pictures and save those in a binder?

I orignally thought it would be good to have the box for potential resale when she is done with them, but lets face it they aren't getting sold!

I'm curious what serious Lego collectors/enthusiasts do with the boxes.

Thanks!

[slacker]

I save the box in case I ever decide to sell. It seems on ebay that people pay alittle more if the set is complete with the box. Problem is that they do take alot of room.

[koromo]

Back when the larger sets had flaps on the front of the box to peek at the pieces I cut off and kept these.

Now I just recycle the boxes. If I ever felt like trading or selling a boxed set I'd never open it.

Though it is interesting you can purchase boxes from some bricklink sellers independant of any sets they are selling.

[Everybody]

I always save them. Like you I feel compelled.

[hatcher]

When I first got back into LEGO, I kept them. But eventually they were taking up more room that the LEGO itself was. Now I just keep the front of the box. But even that is starting to get out of hand. The pile of box tops must be close to a foot high.

[Brickbuilder0937]

If the box opens on the ends I toss it, but if it's a top open box I keep it for storing and sorting pieces.

[ncbarrett]

I collapse the larger boxes so they don't take much room at all.
the boxes from the smaller sets i toss.

[Mantisking]

I just break them down, then toss 'em. I'm not going to resell, so there's no point in having them take up space.

[vynsane]

I have all the boxes from the sets I've purchased since I got back into the hobby a year ago, flattend. I don't really know why I'm compelled to keep them. When I was a kid my brother and I saved all the boxes for storage of the individual sets, but that was when they had the pull-out tray and window/flap type boxes, so it was a bit more of a 'thing' than the current end-flap box types. I have been thinking about recycling most of the boxes except for a handful (like any SW or IJ boxes). The Agents "Robo Attack" set had one of those top-open boxes which don't flatten well, but it's a great looking box so it's in the attic right now. The rest of the flattened boxes are under the futon in our office.

[oocaleb101oo]

I have all my boxes and in the original state. The problem I have.. is that I buy the sets and then I don't open them. Eventually i'll open them up but for now they are sealed. There definitely is a space issue that can probably happen. One thing I also save are the plastic bags the pieces came in. Fiance wonders why I keep those if anything. -shrug- Now that I think of it, I could always flatten the boxes if I opened them up and find some place to store the pieces, but man that would be a super pain to try to sort through and find pieces you needed.

I just don't think i could open up my batman legos right now.. or spiderman sets..not with the going rate of them on ebay. Yeah I don't think i'll sell in the future.. but still.

[BobaFett2]

I keep telling myself that I keep them because I can sell them on bricklink. Sooner or later. Mostly I keep them for completeness.

[legitimatealex]

I actually used to keep mine as decoration for my dorm room. Had some shelves that were out of reach so I stored them up there. Looked pretty good actually.

[atmail35]

Thanks all for the feedback!

[natelite]

open all the flaps and flat pack them. that way they don't take up too much room. i have attic and basement space to keep them anyway. and if you ever want to dispose them, you can simply tie up the cardboards and dump them on the sidewalk.

if you dont expect to sell your collection, i would suggest downloading the instructions and selling the instruction books and boxes. that way you keep digital copies in case you need to reconstruct the original sets in the future. and in the future, tablet pcs (or ipads) would be very common to view them on.

[dr_spock]

I saved most of mine and go back to look at them decades later.

[Bricksnapper52]

if you dont expect to sell your collection, i would suggest downloading the instructions and selling the instruction books and boxes. that way you keep digital copies in case you need to reconstruct the original sets in the future. and in the future, tablet pcs (or ipads) would be very common to view them on.

Great idea. On some of the larger sets, this could get you an extra 10-15 off of your purchase.

[MrDisco]

I always save the boxes!

[mrfootball]

I always save the boxes. I do that because a) I love to look at them every once in awhile and b) if I ever do sell them, they'll be more "complete" as I don't buy any used sets myself unless they have a box.

[Opus]

I do now. While clearing out my parent's basement I found a box from one of the space sets I got as a child, and that gave me such a rush! It was great to just look at it. I hope to do the same for my son, now 7, so that when he looks back at them he'll feel that same sense of happy nostalgia.

Or maybe he, like my wife, will wonder why I kept all that junk...

[Bricksnapper52]

I do now. While clearing out my parent's basement I found a box from one of the space sets I got as a child, and that gave me such a rush! It was great to just look at it. I hope to do the same for my son, now 7, so that when he looks back at them he'll feel that same sense of happy nostalgia.

Or maybe he, like my wife, will wonder why I kept all that junk...

That's why I am keeping the boxes against my wife's wishes. These toys don't break or decay, My (distant future) grand kids will be able to open up the same boxes and play with the same toys that my kids played with. How cool will that be?