Why do people buy/sell boxes on Ebay?

[toomanyparrots4]

Are there really folk who collect boxes?  Why do I find boxes for computer graphics cards going for £20-£30?  It's a piece of carboard with a pretty picture on it.  Hint: the thing which comes inside the box is what does the useful thing.  It's really annoying when I ant to buy something, sort by price, then have to wade through the boxes to find the actual product.  Sometimes it's not even in the title, so I waste time going to the listing.

[papso22]

There are sellers who sell boxes with the intention of deceiving buyers into thinking they are buying the item, not a box, in the hope that the buyer doesn't know about the money back guarantee. 

[plpmr]

adding to the advice already given -

eBay prohibit empty brand name boxes from being listed as they can be used to package counterfeit items.

[toomanyparrots4]

They do say BOX ONLY in the title.  But easy to miss if you're scanning through loads.  The lower price is usually a giveaway though.

[toomanyparrots4]

They're not prohibiting it very well, loads are on sale.  Stupid rule anyway.  If you can make a convincing looking fake, I'm sure you can make a convincing looking box.  I've got "HP" stuff here, inscribed by laser, certinaly not made by HP, but a much more sensible price than HP, and probably more likely to work!

[eastern-lights]

In some catagories, empty boxes have a point. Collectables for instance. Collectables are often worth substantially more if they have their original box. So if you have a collectable and can marry it up with a box then you increase its value and its attractiveness.

[toomanyparrots4]

This I do not understand.  If I was displaying a load of little models or something in a dispaly case, I'd not hide them in boxes!  I wouldn't sit them on the box either, it detracts from the nice ornament to have a piece of cardboard there.

Anyway, I'm seeing things like graphics card boxes for £30.

[unclestein]

How about listings that turn out to be a photo or a flyer and not the actual thing itself?

Another one is 'scale models', often they seem to miss out the important bit. 😡

[237ben]

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@eastern-lights wrote:

In some catagories, empty boxes have a point. Collectables for instance. Collectables are often worth substantially more if they have their original box. So if you have a collectable and can marry it up with a box then you increase its value and its attractiveness.

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Exactly this.

Some collectors want the completeness of an item complete with box; others know that they can resell an item for a lot more if it comes with a box. I own plenty of old games and miniatures whose value, if I ever wanted to sell, might go up by £30-£50 each simply by investing £10-£20 in a box.

People can ask, "what’s the point of having the box?" The plain fact is that other people’s interests/hobbies/activities/collections make perfect sense to themselves and little or no sense to anybody else.

[eastern-lights]

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@unclestein wrote:

Another one is 'scale models', often they seem to miss out the important bit. 😡

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You mean what the scale actually is? Yes, but that is sometimes down to the manufacturer rather than the seller. For instance very few Matchbox toy cars say what scale they are.

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

The same goes for spares or repair items.

Some items are extortionately priced considering they dont work.

I bought an amplifier for spares or repair.

Turned out it needed £50 worth of components to fix and 2 hours of my time.

Add buy it now price and it was seriously not worth bothering with by the time i had finished.

[*knight-rider*]

`People can ask, "what’s the point of having the box?" `

i have 4 different collections myself and how many times have we heard in our lives, `always keep the box`, especially to toys. The boxes are often 1/2 the value of the item and make such a difference to a sale, especially if it`s in good condition.

` If I was displaying a load of little models or something in a dispaly case, I'd not hide them in boxes! I wouldn't sit them on the box either`

Depends on the item, i`ve got some displaying the box and others their just put aside up the loft or something. The artwork on some boxes can be as nice as the item 🙂

[btr.style]

1) to scam people (making them think they get the item boxed and they end up with an empty box. 

2) because some people want to gift things and they might go for a refurbished (sometimes even new) unboxed item and then buy the box separately. 

3) as others have mentioned. Some people are collectors, others want the full package of an item, even the box. 

Certainly many people trying to sell boxes on eBay are doing so with their fingers crossed because a lot of empty boxes are truly worthless, but there's that saying, it's worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. 

[theelench]

Just to add Coins.

I collect silver Britannia 1 oz coins (2 per year, one for each of my nephews).

The difference between two coins from a Royal Mint "roll" and two in Royal Mint boxes with a CoA is considerable.

[bennotbill]

When selling say an old mobile it used to be worth buying the box as it increased the price more than the box cost. And if I had any various empty boxes it was often worth selling them.

But that was way back when mail went by weight not size so it was pennies to post an empty box. Now an empty box is quite expensive to post, so the only boxes in demand are more to do with expensive collectible items.

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

I guess at least they are selling whats in the picture.

A couple of times I have bought items shown as boxed and they werent.

I used to have a competitor show a nice professional looking box for his CD software.

Then all he sent out was a blank CD with name of software written on it in pen.

His feedback rating was about 92% due to complaints about no box.

He just never seems to learn.

[toomanyparrots4]

Somebody sold you a photo claiming it was the actual item?  Easy enough, not as described.

[toomanyparrots4]

It no longer makes sense if you got the box seperately.  It no longer means "has been kept in original box".

[toomanyparrots4]

I always read carefully or ask what the fault is.  "I don't know what's wrong with it" is no good.  I buy things like graphics cards which power up and are detected but crash after 2 minutes of playing a game.  I know what the problem is and can fix it.

[toomanyparrots4]

If the box is as nice as the item, it doesn't say much for the item.