Should I throw away the box to the set I just opened?

As I have been opening sets lately to build them and increase my display, I have come across a problem: What do I do with the boxes to my used sets? It takes up room to keep them, but I am afraid if I ever decide to sell one of my display sets, I will be disappointed with how much money I lose for not having the box.

I decided I had to find out because I am quickly running out of room in my downstairs closet for all my open boxes.

This was a very difficult venture with a ton of information. Unfortunately, I have to do it all by hand so I can't use an incredible amount of information because there is no way I can process it all. So I decided to categorize sets into three different levels: Medium sized sets, Large sets, and Massive Sets.

First, you may wonder “what about small sets?”. Generally I feel those won't have very relevant data because they are very cheap. With the way Ebay data goes up and down, I felt it would be difficult to get a good read on data. Also, those boxes are very easy to store. These were going to be negligible to the data I wanted to see for set boxes that actually take up a decent amount of space.

Since I am using Ebay listings for my data, I had to have a control. In this case, my criteria were this:

• Must be sold in last two months
• Must include instructions
• Must clearly state or show box/no box
• Auctions only – Buy it now only takes one person to jump so I feel auction data is more relevant
• In line with the last point, any prices considerably higher than my other findings that only had 1 bid were excluded.
• Listings that were poorly listed (no pictures, no description, etc.) were excluded at my discretion.
• Listings with a considerably damaged box were not included.

Once I had these criteria, I decided to figure out what sets to fit in my three categories. In general, I am assuming when you decide to sell your used sets, they are well retired and you either don't want them any more, or they are worth so much you are willing to part with them. So I tried to find three semi-similar sets, that were retired, in each category to collect data on. I tried to keep the piece count and minifigure count reasonably close, the used value close, and growth since retirement close. This is what I came up with:

Medium Sets:

• The Burrow 4840
• SW AT-AP Walker 7671
• Indiana Jones Flight of the Flying Wing 7683

Large Sets:

• SW Imperial Shuttle 10212
• HP Hogwart's Castle 4842
• POTC Queen Anne's Revenge 4195

Massive Sets:

• Taj Mahal 10189
• Eiffel Tower 10181
• SW Star Destroyer 10030

Note: Some of my choices came from trying to find enough Used set data as well.

So as for the results? Let's make sure we go over a few things. First of all, this data should be used as a aide when deciding. I do not have the tools to show anything majorly conclusive, but I do have enough data to help you understand what could happen if you don't keep the box. Make your own decisions as you wont find anything absolutely definitive here. I will give my analysis and recommendations after the data is displayed.

Medium Sets:

• The Burrow 4840:
  • Average Used price with box: $107.15
  • Averaged used price without box : $94.50
  • Percent loss: 11.8%
• SW AT-AP Walker 7671:
  • Average used price with box: $61.87
  • Average used price without box: $50.53
  • Percent loss: 17.4%
• Indiana Jones Flight of the Flying Wing 7683:
  • Average used price with box: $80.70
  • Average used price without box: $69.79
  • Percent loss: 13.5%

Analysis: This is very interesting. The average percentage you lose by throwing that box away is 14.24%. Luckily, these sets aren't that expensive, as the loss would be between $11 and $13. That tells me that throwing one away won't break the bank. But throwing 30 of them away means I may have lost $300+!. This is assuming all of your sets increase in value and you can create good sales listings, etc. when you decide to sell. Either way, we learn that it definitely does have a decent effect on the price.

My Suggestion: Neutral – Completely up to you. If you think it will be a super winner and you have room, keep it. If you aren't confident in the set, chances are you can make up the money by making an excellent Ebay listing. If you don't think you will ever sell it, who cares?

Large Sets:

• SW Imperial Shuttle 10212:
  • Average Used price with box: $301.02
  • Averaged used price without box : $279.58
  • Percent loss: 7.1%
• HP Hogwart's Castle 4842:
  • Average used price with box: $221.72
  • Average used price without box: $194.60
  • Percent loss: 12.23%
• POTC Queen Anne's Revenge 4195:
  • Average used price with box: $161.51
  • Average used price without box: $158.31
  • Percent loss: 2%

Analysis: These numbers are a little tougher to examine. One one hand, with the Hogwart's Castle your box was worth about $25 which is pretty substantial. However, with the POTC Queen Anne's Revenge, your box was only worth about $3. The average percent loss here is 7.1%, but its tough to make a final call since the numbers are not very similar.

My Suggestion: More data is needed here to make a true educated guess. I would lean towards keeping the box just because I wouldn't want to possibly lose $25. But, on the other hand, these sets are still most likely worth way more than they were purchased for, so if you are out of space it may be worth eating the money – especially if you can store a new set for investing in its spot. I will most likely address more sets in this category for further analysis at a later date to get more conclusive information.

Large Sets:

• Taj Mahal 10189:
  • Average Used price with box: $878.65
  • Averaged used price without box : $834.15
  • Percent loss: 5.07%
• Eiffel Tower 10181:
  • Average used price with box: $734.82
  • Average used price without box: $681.02
  • Percent loss: 7.32%
• SW Star Destroyer 10030:
  • Average used price with box: $682.47
  • Average used price without box: $589.97
  • Percent loss: 13.55%

Analysis: The percentage loss is lower than the medium sized sets, but because these are worth so much money, these boxes are pretty expensive to a builder. The 10030 box would cost you almost $100 dollars. Though these take up more space, it would be hard to part with them knowing you lost this much money just for throwing something away.

My Suggestion: Keep it. You will find somewhere for it and you will enjoy that extra money if you ever have to sell it.

So there it is! Hope everyone enjoys the data. I may expand on this in the future as I know this is just the tip of the iceberg. If anyone has any suggestions, put them in the comments and I'll take a look at it!

If anyone is curious, I can send you the raw data as well.

Note: All of the information here are my own opinions and are pulled from my experiences. You may or may not have success with these methods.