I could care less about the box and papers, I'm a shooter and I collect service revolvers like 581's, 10's 64's, M&P's, etc. None of mine sit in the safe, I just got done digging around in the guts of a beat up shooter grade M&P made in 1919 to replace the rebound spring, to make it a better shooter! Happiness to me is a wheelgun covered in black carbon, with deep burn rings on the cylinder face and a pile of smoking brass at my feet.
With guns like this, do you really think I care about the box and papers? =)This one looks much better in the photo, really it's hard to tell the frost and pitting from what's left of the bluing. Someone also did some strategic filing under the barrel to "fix" a bent extractor rod as well as widening the rear sight. Today it got a new rebound spring to replace the one somebody clipped, some collectors would be aghast at a modern rebound spring being put into an M&P.It shoots to the left, so I plan to add a Wonder Sight and use it to shoot BP .38's and Cowboy Loads in my backyard. I like to use my guns for what they were intended for, I'll let the people I put in my will worry about the value.
Everyone's interests are different, some like to play "curator" and have unturned, unfired NIB Registered Magnums buried deep in a $5,000 safe in the basement. If that makes them happy, I'll leave them to it, no competition from me!
Some may call me a "bottom feeder" because I'll buy the rusted busted's and turn them into range beaters, or the ones that rode in a holster for 30 years. It doesn't bother me, most of my guns have been "out there" in the real world, working, not weighing down a safe since 1952. I have guns some "condition collectors" probably wouldn't even be in the same room as.
I'm also a Ruger fanatic, and the newer ones come in soul-less gray plastic anyway, I've got a pile of them. If someone offered me $20 a piece I'd sell those boxes today.......and I have yet to buy any Ruger that still has the yellow cardboard box.
If I have to sweat blood handling it, or if it's too rare and minty to be fired, you won't find it in my collection. I also don't go for the "exotics", no pre-29's, RM's, Beakart custom K-32 Target Masterpieces, I don't concern myself with these, a RM doesn't shoot any better than my ex-PD M28.
Shame on you, Stantheman, for getting all those solid but homely shooters before I found them to really appreciate. As you can guess, I feel pretty much the same way you do... The last couple of Smiths I bought have been a little "condition challenged," but with a little TLC they will be ready to go right back to doing what they were born to do and I won't feel the least bit guilty doing it with them! I've been a bachelor all my life, so when my nieces and nephews inherit what little is left after my demise, it won't matter... I'll be gone and will have already had my fun with this stuff! 
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
