Hi,
I am currently clearing my garage and will benefit from getting rid of a load of boxes for synths and other music equipment packaging. What are people’s thoughts on keeping vs disposal?
Thanks in advance folks
JC
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You will need some of them again in case you are sending gear in for service / repair.
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I’ve always been quite bad at this, but for whatever reason I held onto my Digitakt box and I was very thankful of it when I recently sold it. If you have then space, they’re probably worth holding onto.
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I always keep them in case I want to sell it or send for repairs.
I really hate it when I want to buy something second hand and the original box has been discarded. I want to buy stuff as it was sold in its original state 
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Keep the boxes of larger instruments for the duration of the warranty, makes life much easier if you need to send something in.
Toss the boxes of smaller instruments immediately, as you can generally find something else to stuff it in.
I at least don’t care if second-hand equipment has the original box or not.
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I keep em but I hate it, would love to throw them all away, but the warranty and resell thing stop me every time. It’s not like I’ve done either much, so really I want to get rid of all of them, so much space for nothing…
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I keep for a while (esp. with more expensive gear), but ditch at some point
for things Ive sold, (or bought) , never had an issue with if there is original packaging or not.
I think the exception is if you need to return due to a fault/warranty, or if selling ‘nearly new’ gear… so I think a year would be my cut off point, if I was clearing out the loft… which I really do need to do 
(another exception, would be, if it’d be difficult to package… e.g. due to size etc)
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I respect my boxes as much as the gear. All neatly stacked. I learnt this from collecting toys. People want the box undamaged.
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I used to throw all of mine away to spite my toy collector step dad, but I move so regularly that I started keeping them so they don’t get damaged in the moves. I don’t sell mine on reverb or anything though. I trade them for other gear to local shops.
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I usually end up keeping the box for the first six months or so. rarely because of warranty, because I rarely buy things new. it’s just because then I don’t have to search for a box to send it to someone else if I decide it’s not for me. but I simply have too much gear and too little storage space to keep boxes forever, for all of it.
these days we buy enough crap online that I can usually find a box to ship something without too much trouble. when I’m starting to feel like I want to go on a selling spree, or even just sell off one particular item, I’ll start keeping an eye out for boxes and packaging that’ll work. sometimes I’ll have to buy packing materials, but I’ve never purchased a box.
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…it’s always worth it, if u got the storage space…
good for repair travel and quite some people love to pay u better 2nd hand resale prices if u can say, comes in original packaging…
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Absolutely useful for moving… besides that, some boxes need to stay no matter what.
Though keyboards, small gear and rackable stuff isn’t so precious re packaging.
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I’ve figured out that I can hide the boxes into the air gap between acoustic panels and a wall behind them.
I have my panels standing on floor standing shelves I have around the room to keep all the cables and stuff in.
So the boxes provide support for the panels, that would otherwise only stand on their shortest side and fall on one is other side.
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Seeing what the difference is in old video games pricewise, I keep all boxes of anything with any resell value.
But it‘s also depending on the box. I wouldn‘t keep a box of a grand piano 
And if it‘s just a grey box with a sticker I also wouldn‘t keep it.
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A tough question. Boxes frequently look quite cool and it’s so difficult to dispose or destroy them. Nice to have for selling. But I have limited space. So it’s painful all the time tbh
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People tend to forget that you can cut or peel tape with a hairdryer, then unfold and flatten boxes which makes them much more storage space friendly (back of a closet, etc), not that I do it.
The reality is that unless you keep things forever and will never move, the boxes will be useful one way or the other.
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Keep 'em. Also, flatten them for storage.
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I keep them for resale and to keep my gear in check. I have one shelf that I allow for boxes. If I can’t fit another box I don’t purchase any gear or sell something to make room. Works well!
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Keeping the flat boxes is easy. What’s a pain is keeping the custom-fit styrofoam “ears” that hold the synth still in the box. They can’t be flattened and I also have to label them so I know which ears go with which box.
While I see the benefit of keeping packaging, gotta also say that the whole synth subculture has this fussy hoardy quality that I never encountered among people who played in bands—they appreciated having a good instrument to play, but they sure weren’t tripping about saving the box. And now that I’ve become a synth person, I’m as much of a fussy hoarder as everyone else, lol…
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You’re absolutely right. Not to stereotype toy collectors, but the toy collector mentality has definitely become the prevalent mindset.
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