It is crucial to think about the potential effects on selling your products in the future, even if it is understandable that keeping all of your equipment in shipping containers might become cumbersome and expensive to store. Given that they project an air of quality and professionalism, expensive shipping boxes can increase value and appeal to potential customers. If storage costs are a problem, though, you might look into other possibilities. One option is to downsize or repurpose the boxes, disassemble them, and store them in a more compact way. Additionally, you might think about purchasing shipping containers, which offer an economical and effective way to store items—including your equipment boxes—while lowering costs.

Currently saving original boxes and packing but wondering how much abuse can cardboard boxes take before they no longer protect the contents? I double box esp if the original box has seen better days.

Also can anyone comment on replacing or supplementing packing material with expandable foam?

Don't get rid of the factory boxes.....there are a lot of people that will refuse to consider buying used equipment without the factory box....unless it is sold at a big discount.  If you need service work some companies require you to send your unit back in the factory box or if you don't have one will sell one to you for hundreds of dollars.  

My experience with buying and selling is that items that have original packaging make the market broader and in general garner a higher price and sell quicker. Many buyers won't consider buying without it. It is not because material is not available to pack items correctly. It is that you have to trust someone across the country that you don't know to properly pack an item for shipping without the original packaging. There are far too many that can't or won't properly package an item for shipment. It is not cheap to package delicate electronic equipment properly for shipment.

I am lucky in that I have a large, dry storage building and keep all packaging no matter how long I intend to keep an item. When possible, it is best to have it on hand.. 

Also, it's like buying a car. You are not putting the thing through an X-ray before you to assess if it was properly taken care of, so you assess the condition based on a lot of little things. Preserving the box is one of those and as said before, it boosts the price. 

The "original box" thing is overblown for most things. it is something people have made up over the years and it makes no difference in most cases. Paying storage fees means you need to think about rearranging your life instead of throwing money away on storage fees, that's ridiculous. If you feel like you may sell your gear in a short time, yeah, save the boxes. I do save some boxes until I'm certain the devices work properly, but toss them soon afterward. McIntosh will sell you proper packaging if ever needed. For other brands you can pretty much just pack them properly if needed. In my case I have an authorized repair facility in town for all my brands so will never be shipping anything out for service. There is nothing on this planet that can't be packed properly for shipping with materials other than the original. This is not 1890, and most everything we deal with is not and will never be collectible and have the box matter.

I acquired most of my equipment second hand. 
 

I never gave thought to whether or not it came in it’s original box. Most of the time, it did not. 

I'd say sensitive equipment boxes and packing should be kept for shipping unless selling locally. I'd never discard the box and molded styrofoam inserts for my tube integrated amp.

I would add: original packaging is generally safe but easy to use new packaging that is just as safe. It just takes time and material, and likely ends up a bigger volume due to double boxing which will cost more. I boxed porcelain figures that you could drop from the 2nd floor without a scratch. Lastly, most plastic used for packaging are very harmful, never decomposing staff

For $300.00 a month I would not $3600 a year, are you going to lose $7200.00  off the average secondary market price if you sell in 2 years? I fortunately have plenty of storage space, being am empty nester, well for now see if I have any boomerang back.  

I learned the hard way to keep the original boxes wherever possible.  Not only do the original boxes perfectly protect the equipment and have styrofoam inserts that perfectly fit and therefore protect the equipment, but to have expensive gear, especially speakers, packed in new boxes and bubble wrap is pretty pricey itself.  And if it isn't done right, you get a mess when delivered. That has happened to me twice, (receiving and selling) when I lived in a condo with minimal storage space.  Now that I am in a house, every box has a nice storage spot on shelves that I built along the ceiling of the garage.  I'm not sure that I would pay less without the original packing, but it is definitely a selling point.

Can I discard high end shipping boxes, and still sell in the future?

Yes, but you will get 10 cents on the dollar instead of 15 cents on the dollar.

I have struggled with this question for the last fifty years. My observation has been that space available increases over time as one becomes more wealthy. My conclusion has been that keeping high end audiophile component boxes is appropriate. 
 

You can toss the microwave box, the LCD TV box but audiophile gear lasts a very long time and should be kept. I would not rent a space for them, but I would carefully stack them out of the way. If you have chosen high end audio, I am guessing you have not chosen a dead end career… so over time you will be rewarded and space will become available in your life. 
 

I now have a huge storage area where I keep all my audiophile boxes. When I need them they are there. Every 7 - 10 years I trade up and the components are boxed in their original containers and traded in. 

"You cannot ship insured without the original boxes. I’ve seen manufacturers charge $400 for a replacement box."

Say what? Where did you get that information from? I've bought and sold gear many times without original boxes and always insured!

I buy nothing without all boxes,packing,paperwork etc...too many used pieces with it to deal with incomplete units

You cannot ship insured without the original boxes. I’ve seen manufacturers charge $400 for a replacement box.

I recently bought a nice used pre-amp and although it arrived in great shape, it was not the original box. I spoke with the manufacturer, who is an excellent human, to order an original box in case I moved or needed service, etc. He informed me that he pays $200 per shipping box. He laughed and noted it is a custom sized box, but otherwise was mostly 8 foam corners. Says his price (he does not mark-up his resale price) has skyrocketed recently. He recommended I keep box it was shipped in with the molded foam and not spent the $200.

I keep all original boxes. It's extremely difficult to ship equipment safely without. Oh and if anything gets damaged in shipping, good eff'ing luck getting FedEx or UPS to pay the claim. 

I keep everything, including huge speaker boxes.

I've got a bunch of other stuff in outside storage, so I keep all my audio component boxes there, too.... 

@dodgealum

@lloydc 

+1

Original boxes worth about 10%-8% of the used market value. I recently saved $2k discount as seller didn't have original boxes for a $15,000 pair of speakers. I spent around $400 to pack them myself and ship from North Florida to Seattle.

Does anyone know the dimensions of the Goldenear Triton One.R speaker shipping boxes?

Boxes deteriorate in un-air-conditioned storage. The foam snd packing is more important than the boxes themselves. 

fortunately it's no issue for me to keep all my boxes (and I certainly do), but considering I've had most of my main gear about 4-5 years, the thought of having spent $12,000 to store the boxes...

Another consideration is that the boxes come in handy for your own moves from one residence to another. For me, this has involved several cross-country relocations. But they do take up a lot if space. 

Will never be worth paying several hundreds/mth in storage fees for original boxes

Flattening a sophisticated dedicated packing is often impossible.  Where it is possible it will certainly reduce the integrity of its structure and invalidate any warranty given by the manufacturer, thus probably negating the benefits of having retained it.

I am fortunate to have ample attic space, but the problem is that boxes for big kit do not fit through the entrance door.  I keep the wooden crates for my Krell KRS200s in the gargen shed.  They have moved with me through three homes.  Where you have no space to store this is indeed a big problem.  Being unable to create space, I cannot assist.

Save your boxes if you can. It is very important for selling and shipping. I have mostly McIntosh and the boxes are critical. 

Flatten the boxes cleanly and if there's custom foam bits just stick 'em in a labeled  bag and store it all at your cousin Shirley's house.

I have kept original packaging for all my equipment except, as someone already stated, those things that cost less than $500.  I don’t have room in my house (not even in my “junk room”), but I have a one car garage and I put the boxes out there.  Yes, they take up some room, and I can’t park a car in there because of all the things I want to keep, but I think that is better than getting rid of the boxes.  I have an attic, but I don’t want to risk rodents chewing through the cardboard to make their home.  I think this question involves priorities, unless you truly don’t have anywhere you could store them. 

In my experience and I’m paying storage fees ($190AUD/month) to save my boxes… because the foam inserts and boxes cannot be easily replaced esp for gear that is over five years old. Manufacturers are not always a reliable source. Values can drop 20% because of this at resale.

And if you are shipping, then nothing replaces original packaging. FedEx total destroyed my ARC D240 amp when asked to pack and ship. They didn’t pack it, they sent it as is then denied the insurance claim on it too.

You can use room space or attic space to store provided you control pests…

But keep your boxes and inserts. If you want to sell and ship safely. I’ve shipped so much gear all over the world UK EU USA AUS Middle East Singapore and original packaging is the only choice that’s secure for components.

Resist doing it. Major pain in the neck to figure out- and to purchase enormous amounts of packing material- and not having the factory boxes makes shipping them virtually impossible. So, you're then left with only being able to sell them very locally. It's practically worth keeping them in storage somewhere.

I tend keep the boxes for gear that would require freight/pallet shipping.

Having the original box and packing materials from my vantage point are important from selling or buying standpoints. I keep all of mine, but I have room to do so. I don’t generally buy used gear but if I do  and the seller doesn’t have the originals I pass. What someone thinks suffices for internal packaging vs what the manufacturer does to limit possible damage can be 2 very different things

Original boxes are all about getting maximum protection for shipping. Nothing hand made can mold to the specific equipment quite as well. Hence the value of it if you plan on selling it down the road.

Agree with all of the above

If you get rid of the boxes you are possibly restricted to local buyers, which might be OK

I live in an apartment, and don't have much space to keep the original boxes.  I sold my last pair of speakers and subwoofer on eBay, but for local pickup only.   I don't think it's worth it for me to rent storage space just to store the boxes.

If you try and ship the gear in anything but the original packaging and something is damaged, it is really hard to sustain a claim from the shipping company.  Even with original packing these companies deny claims.  It is getting worse with time.

I’ve heard of companies wanting $200 for replacement boxes and packaging, so it is worth trying to find a place to keep that stuff.

The original boxes are nice to have but not a deal breaker when I buy used gear. If you don’t have the room to store the original boxes what other options do you have? Paying for storage is ridiculous!

It depends on the quality of the gear you have. Do you have a dedicated listening room? Do you own or rent? Do you have a garage? Do you live in a large metro area where cash and carry re-sale is possible?

keep the foam. With the flattened boxes, you’d still save half the space. The biggest reason to keep the boxes is to be able to safely ship them then or take the pieces with you when you move. But of course, I would not keep the boxes for cheaper items under $500

Any time I ship something and I don't have the box, I double-box it and spend 30 min on making it sure it's safe and I wish I had the original box

Been buying and selling equipment for years. Absolutely keep the original boxes and any associated packing and paperwork. When I buy I'm looking for this as part of any equipment purchase and would expect a significant discount if the original packing is not available.

If I flatten the boxes and discard the original foam, will the resailability be as adversely affected? In thebfuture I can ship the equipment in the original boxes, but with new bubble wrap or other internal material.

Possibly cut them at the seams and flatten them for storage. Repurchase packing material when you sell.

you must have a lot of equipment if you need to have a storage unit for just the boxes. Don't the boxes have a lot of air in them, can't you collapse them?

I used to store all mine in the attic, but now I keep everything locked away in an empty office at my job. A fringe benefit of being the Building Operations Manager.

People value the original box more than it's worth from what I've seen.  You take a BIG hit without it.

certainly not worth thousands over a few years...many can be purchased from manufacturer...and except for speakers and turntables, not so important...l keep all mine, but no cost...