The sole reason why I keep my boxes, is because some people won’t buy your phone unless you also have the box with it. Otherwise they’ll rightfully assume that you stole it from some random person and want to pawn it off.
Sold my old electronics at easily a 20% premium because I had all the box and packins. My xbox with the box, materials, and everything (all nicely cleaned) sold for more than I paid for it - inflation being what it is, that was quite nice.
So, this is poor advice.
What about my GBA game boxes? Do I need them?
Legitimately GBA game boxes are much rarer than other game boxes because they were cardboard and not very portable so people more often threw them away.
If you ever sell the games, having the box for a GBA game is a significant bump in value for some games
Those increase their resell value significantly, unlike phone boxes.
You misspelled “just like”
…i threw the box out after 12 years, and the next day I had to wrap a new <something> that fit perfectly in that box…
Lesson learned, never throw anything out.
I definitely need it. I save it and after 3 years when I’m selling my phone for about 1/3 of the original price to someone on the internet, I can present it in pristine condition, with original packaging.
My work pays for my phone I just need to return it after. I keep the box for that. It is very convenient!
That’s interesting, because the boxes of my work phones are the only ones I throw away immediately.
Why should I care to return the phone to my employer in a fitting box?
I managed the distribution of the phones for a while and while most people did what you do,which was fine, I found the people who sent them back in the case made it easier for us to inventory the phones we got returned as well as store them as backups for the users who have a knack for losing or breaking their phones. We also use the old phones as MFA devices for people who don’t want to have their personal phones attached to work related things. Storing them in the case makes it easier to find them in the room quickly as well.
But maybe that’s just me being extra.
As our phones are all inventivized from the start and have barcodes on the back, this is not necessary where l work.
Also, we don’t have much employee fluctuation, so phones are typically only returned when they are broken or obsolete to get de-inventorized (via barcode again).
But when the old phone gets its final resting place in the cupboard, I want it to be in the original box.
Essentially giving it proper funeral it deserves
This is what I do, along with a few other devices I’ve owned. Sometimes I’ve been able to give perfectly decent devices away to friends/coworkers/family who had a sudden problem with theirs and have a hard time affording a new one.
But unlike the old video game consoles that I do the same thing with, I am always a bit worried about long-term storage of devices that use lithium ion batteries. I know failure rates are rare but I’ve heard the horror stories and I know the risk increases each time I take another device and put them back in a box up on the shelf.
Hopefully some day, people will look back and laugh at us using lithium ion batteries like we laugh at lead paint, nitrate film, and asbestos.
Give away, repurpose, or resell. This is the right way. I myself only purchase used phones. No need for perfectly usable devices to become electronical waste.
Exactly.
When it comes to phones at least, I also try to keep mine for as long as possible because there’s honestly no point in upgrading just for the heck of it. Companies don’t release meaningful “must have” features anymore like they did back when people felt it was normal to upgrade every couple of years. No need to contribute to e-waste when it can be avoided.
I’ve been using my current phone for 4 years now, and the phone I had before that I used for 6. I upgraded only because I received the newer one for free from work, but I gave my previous phone away to a friend who needed one because I wasn’t going to throw away a perfectly good phone that I was happily using just fine a few months prior. Sure, the battery life was no longer quite as good, but I didn’t really care (nor did my friend) because we at least remember the days where you were lucky if your phone made it more than 8 hours on a single charge. You just learn to deal with it and bring a spare charger if you’re planning to be out for a while.
Heck, by the looks of it, companies are just making the newer models worse and worse without actually adding anything. They’ll have to tear my current phone out of my cold dead hands.
You can take my phone boxes, but you’ll never take my game console boxes
I keep random small things in the boxes and forget what’s in them until I open them once every year or two.
I sell my old electronics and I get good used prices compared to others. I think it is partially because I have the original box to sell it in.
But it’s such a nice box. Someone probably worked really hard on it.
When I sell my 5 year old flagship phone I’ll get $30 more easily if I have the box and the stuff that came in it. People see that and subconsciously think “this person has their shit together. buying their used phone isn’t a risk.”
Same goes for other stuff, too. I recently sold a synthesizer for $150 over the market rate because I had the box, manual (even though it was out of date due to firmware updates) and the stickers that came with it.
I like semi up-to-the-minute tech, so keeping things in good shape and giving someone the unboxing experience keeps my costs down at the cost of a little space in my closet.
+1 to this- I was about to comment the same thing before I saw your comment. Phones with packaging definitely sell better.
The box usually has the IMEI and serial number and stuff on it. Can be very useful when it gets stolen or something.
Take a picture and keep it in a place you know, like an organized digital document correction.
organized digital document correction.
Where do we store the original, uncorrected document?
In the box, neutrally.
Take a picture and store it in the phone.
Wait…
Take a picture of the box and put it somewhere you can access also by desktop. That clear enough?
I use mine to prop my window open because it’s an old window that doesn’t stay open on its own.
It took me a few years to throw out the many boxes from building my PC. It of course made sense for a while for warranty reasons, but at some point…
I still have one C-64 and 1541 drive in their original boxes. :p
