I never realised there was a market for...

[rickshaw]

I never realised there was a market for Empty kit boxes.  I must try putting some of mine on Evilbay.   

[The Rat]

I long ago ceased trying to figure out why people collect things. Most of us do it, and those who collect kit boxes probably think that people who collect barbed wire are strange. Yes, I knew someone who collected barbed wire, he also collected maple syrup spiles, which are the things you bang into the tree to collect the sap. Never knew there were so many different types until I saw his collection. As a Christmas present one year we gave him some barbed wire that had come from the top of the Berlin Wall, he was almost in tears.

But if there's no kit inside it, the box doesn't mean a hell of a lot to me.

[Alvis 3.14159]

I used to work in a camera store back in the 80s. I kept a lot of the boxes customers didn't want, and eventually, had to throw out the styrofoam inserts as they were taking up too much room, but I flattened the boxes and kept them. Every time we moved, my wife would question my sanity more and more for hauling empty carboard boxes around.

Then, one day, after moving to Victoria, I was selling off some stuff at a camera swap, and I put out the now older boxes for cameras that were no longer in production. I sold them all, and made a tidy sum that paid for dinners out for a while after that.

Go figure.

Alvis Pi

[Nick]

This reminds me, I've got an empty box for the Matchbox 1/72 Westland Lysander in the loft. I kept it because I liked the artwork and it was one of the first kits I built (the biggest ever too!).

Wonder what I'll get for it on Ebay? 

[marek]

I have just sold ancient 1:48 Lublin R-XIII on a local polish auction portal. Originally, the kit is abt 25 years old and currently was re boxed by Mirage Hobby. Nothing special, but it is the only kit available.
The one I sold was still in original box from the late 80's, with a box in a  pretty good condition.

I was surprised that the buyer was from Polish Army Museum. I was even more surprised to find out that he actually bought the whole kit for the box. He collects old plastic kits to create a collection that one day may be displayed in a museum as an additional exhibition.

Who knows? Maybe one day I will take my grandchildren to the museum and show them the kit I have owned

[Mossie]

Some people collect the boxes and art themselves, (the Classic British Kits SIG often have a display with old box fronts) but I think the boxes mean the most to a kit collector.  If he has an old kit in just it's bag, or with a battered old box it's worth so much.  Put it in a mint condition box and it's value goes up several times.  So it's worth paying a few quid for an old box, a kit that was worth ten pounds is now worth fifty for spending five.

Quite a lot of us keep old boxes in a pile because 'they might come in handy' only to throw them in the bin on the inevetible clear out.  Might be worth popping some of the more classic ones on ebay, make yourself a few quid and make a collectors day.

[The Wooksta!]

Not quite the same thing but there was a Lego set on ebay a few years back that I bid on (and won).  The set wasn't complete but the box was in reasonable condition and I wanted it for the photos.  Plus it was a set I wanted as a kid but never did get.

There's a few kits that I want in specific boxings.  Not for any intrinsic value, just because they were kits I enjoyed and want an example for nostalgia purposes.  My recent search for the Airfix German Reconnaissance Set in the late 70s/early 80s boxing with the oval logo being just one example.