Boxes? We don’t need no stinking boxes.

[OldK22]

The rash of recent threads about “where can I find a box for my S&W” got me thinking. I know thinking is dangerous. It kind of goes along with the “where can I find stocks” and “where can I find hammers, triggers, etc”. All that “stuff” is out there, but you have to look for it, build a network of friends/pickers, and buy it when you see it. The stack of empty boxes in the picture was purchased November and December last year. Not all at the same time but in three different buys. There were three more but I needed a 28-2 and two 27-2 boxes and have paired them with the guns that needed boxes. Sometimes you even get lucky and get the paperwork/tools with them.
Kind of rainy and cold today so I was sorting and putting them in the lidded plastic totes I store boxes in.

[Neversink n Klapperthal]

years ago I used to toss all the boxes immediately. In the trash they went. I`m talking 50 years back. lol

[gmborkovic]

I started working in shops that sold guns in 1966 and very few customers wanted to take the boxes with them. I had stacks of boxes in the back room and use to give them to the school kids for pencil boxes. Im watching boxes sell for $50 that I use to throw in the dumpster. Times they change.

[delcrossv]

Any boxes get wrapped up and put...where else...in a box.

[OldK22]

Can you imagine what would happen to a school kid today if they showed up in school with a S&W box full of pencils?

[delcrossv]

Originally Posted by OldK22

Can you imagine what would happen to a school kid today if they showed up in school with a S&W box full of pencils?

Depends on the school. Public? No Way.

[SFIDEC]

That K-38 Masterpiece box looks as if its been carried a lot but shot very little.
Nice collection!
Ray

[BloodyThumb]

By far the nicest Colt 1903 Hammerless box I have I found at a yard sale in a very nice upscale neighborhood close to home. The serial number on the bottom dated to 1915 IIRC. It was full of very old marbles. Again, IIRC there were 32 or 33 in the box. The owner said that those old marbles were collectors items and were worth at LEAST $1 each. I told him the box was worth more than that, so he shot me a price of $40 for the marbles AND the box.

My thumb on my right hand still hurts me when it gets cold from breaking it getting my wallet out. It is still in my safe with my nicest Colt in it.

[Kurusu]

I have all the boxes of all the guns I bought new.

Of those I got "not new" I only have them if they happen to come with the gun.

Is the box a price factor when buying?

Not one red cent.

Do I care if the gun has no box?

Not one bit.

Will I try to get a factory box for the gun?

No... way!

I have always heard(and I follow that), "buy the gun not the story", and I will add not the box either.

Personnal opinion only.

Everybody can do whatever floats their boat.

[Sevens]

Originally Posted by Neversink n Klapperthal

years ago I used to toss all the boxes immediately. In the trash they went. I`m talking 50 years back. lol

That’s what most folks did for years and years and years. The market, interest and activity today is the result of that. If all those old boxes were easier to find then it wouldn’t be such a hot topic of discussion now.

[pharmer]

Most of my best revolvers came without boxes. Folks just toss them I guess. Sellers complain when I offer $100 less because of no boxes/ acc's. Works most of the time. This 25-5 had 3 "charge holes" discolored on the cylinder when I got it in 2010. Guy came down a total of $300 off his tag price after I explained the "nature of just such a peculiarity." Joe

[Kurusu]

Originally Posted by pharmer

Most of my best revolvers came without boxes. Folks just toss them I guess. Sellers complain when I offer $100 less because of no boxes/ acc's. Works most of the time. This 25-5 had 3 "charge holes" discolored on the cylinder when I got it in 2010. Guy came down a total of $300 off his tag price after I explained the "nature of just such a peculiarity." Joe

How somebody does not have the box of a gun he never fired is a mistery to me.

[Model52guy]

Nice stack!

[SF VET]

On another forum, devoted to 1911 pistols, with a smattering of other makes, there is always a similar discussion about "boxes" which are now usually plastic. I have kept the "containers" of my rifles and pistols for about the last 40 years or so, no real reason, but really nice guns are often advertised as coming with "box" and hang tags and manuals and such.

I have the room, so no issue for me. All the best, an stay safe. SF VET

[gmborkovic]

Colt and S&W had neat boxes pre-war. They were kind of hefty and
really showed off the product. When all the gun companies went to **** boxes with Styrofoam, they lost me because quality declined.

[Gunhacker]

This thread got me to thinking... for all of my firearms, I made up a spreadsheet for my wife that's among the files and info making up my "upon my death" documentation for her to know exactly what the valuations are for my firearms accumilation, so she's not taken advantage of by bottom feeder estate buyers.

I should do the same for my stash of boxes, indicating which box goes with which of my guns, especially important for my M53 as it has all of the goodies (cleaning kit, paperwork, inserts, that accompanied the gun) in the box, or the PC aluminum cases up on my closet shelf, for my PC guns.

And for boxes without a matching gun, indicate why I have it and anything special about it, like the one for a highway patrolman.

It has an atypical end label, and on the bottom with the serial number, it has what looks to be a LE inventory marking.... likely Texas Department of Public Safety since they did issue HP's.

I don't have a gun for it, I bought it at a small local gun show 6 years ago, I would like to see it reunited with it's occupant one day. I posted pics of it here asking if anyone had the gun, but no one claimed it.

[Art Doc]

I used to have wooden boxes. A big gun shop would always separate the guns from the boxes and sell the boxes for $5. Never understood why they did this but I bought about a dozen of them. Don't PM me, all gone now.

I had a few cardboard boxes in the garage and one day my wife threw them in the trash. Two doctorates and she couldn't figure out I was saving them for a reason.

[Peak53]

After reading through this thread, I am making a note to self for whenever I return from my undisclosed location, which might be about April/May:

"Take pics of my amazing antique marble collection, handed down from my Dad who used them in the dirt in the 1920's in central Texas. Don't forget the story about the bear in the clear crystal, the Indian captive, or how I recovered these after a temporary loss."

Feel free to remind me.

BTW, nice stack of wood boxes for Art Doc. Those might have some value if you wanted to go the effort to sell them

[6string]

Originally Posted by OldK22

Can you imagine what would happen to a school kid today if they showed up in school with a S&W box full of pencils?

Haha!
I can tell you firsthand, most kids (I'm talking college kids!) wouldn't know what to do with a pencil. They cannot read nor write in cursive, and have horrible basic math skills.
Symptomatic of bigger problems in our society....

[gwpercle]

I'm hanging on to all these stinking boxes like they were worth money and I know exactly what's going to happen to all them stinking boxes when I'm gone ...
The kids are going to fill up a trash dumpster and off they are going to the Devil's Swamp Land Fill.... Boxes ...I don't need no stinking boxes !
Gary

[PeteC]

Ok, one MORE thing to worry about in the second Pandemic year in a century: What will happen to my boxes after I am gone, and will someone attempt to reunite the mismatched ones with their orphaned revolvers, wherever they may be... sigh.

I admit I am reluctant to throw away something another person saved since 1955, even if it is a little distressed...

Another box in search of its revolver, this one thrown in by a dealer who no doubt wanted to do me a favor:


(I like boxes with labels that are stuck on right side up)


In this case, the revolver that came in the box left the factory a good decade later, and a Model 17.

[Jason Demond]

I keeps all my boxes, but I don't know what the point of hunting down a box for a used gun is.

I know that an original box adds value to the gun, as well as papers and tools. I also know that some boxes are so rare, that there are some worth hundreds of dollars.

You buy a used gun without the box, hunting a box is pointless. It would have only been original once.

[BloodyThumb]

Originally Posted by PeteC

Ok, one MORE thing to worry about in the second Pandemic year in a century: What will happen to my boxes after I am gone, and will someone attempt to reunite the mismatched ones with their orphaned revolvers, wherever they may be... sigh.

I admit I am reluctant to throw away something another person saved since 1955, even if it is a little distressed...

Another box in search of its revolver, this one thrown in by a dealer who no doubt wanted to do me a favor:


(I like boxes with labels that are stuck on right side up)


In this case, the revolver that came in the box left the factory a good decade later, and a Model 17.

Hmmm I have the right revolver for that box.. except for the fact that the box is in a lot better shape than the gun. I picked it up a few years ago, dirty, well worn finish and stocks, not properly stored, but cheap. Since then myself and my grandkids have done our best to wear off the rest of the finish and keep my 22 supply lean. Still a good shooter, but obviously loved and ridden often.

[SF VET]

when I went off to college, my folks cleaned out my room, and threw away my big box of war comics, and my collection of aircraft wreckage. When my own kids left home I was careful to box up their "stuff" for them. Which is still home here.

All the best, and stay safe. SF VET

[diyj98]

Several years ago I helped a family sell off a gun shop's inventory after the owner had lost his FFL. That's a whole wild story in it's self. But on most of the new long guns the boxes were missing. They said the owner was running out of space so just threw the boxes away since most people didn't want them anyway. Personally I never understood how convinced most buyers that the guns were in fact new and he'd just tossed the boxes to save space.

[Tytan01]

I'll still buy the gun if it has no box but do I ask if the box, paperwork and tools are with it? Heck yeah. People do pay more if it comes with all the "fixings".

I've recently started having display boxes made for all my loose guns. A Seller on eBay named GoofyMastiff is making VERY NICE wood display boxes with liners and inserts for many of the most popular handguns and knives. And if he doesn't have a template, I just send him a tracing of what I have and he makes what I need.

It also gives me an excuse to take over a larger room in my house that no one can really argue with. GOTTA have a safe place to store the collection after all. It's a civic duty and all that....

[mtgianni]

Originally Posted by delcrossv

Depends on the school. Public? No Way.

Depends on the public school.

[gmborkovic]

Back in the 1950s, The guy that owned the town drug store, would save all the cigar boxes for the kids to use as pencil and crayon boxes. Now all the
kids have unicorns, rainbows and kittens on their plastic boxes made in China. I really did Like Ike!

[lrb1200]

Sorry No Box guys.

But having the original box, especially with the price tag
on it is a way "cool" factor.

[6string]

Originally Posted by gmborkovic

Back in the 1950s, The guy that owned the town drug store, would save all the cigar boxes for the kids to use as pencil and crayon boxes. Now all the
kids have unicorns, rainbows and kittens on their plastic boxes made in China. I really did Like Ike!

"I really did Like Ike"!

Amen!