Filed under: Cult of Mac
Apple Box Pack Rats
A while back, during the great McNulty move of aught five, Scott asked everyone whether he should keep or toss his Apple boxes. Wired has an article up today tracking the behavior of Apple box pack rats, who tend to hold on to their old Mac boxes and say things like, "I can't imagine throwing them away . . . It's more than a record of a serial number; it's a record of a good event that happened in my life."Every time I read that line, I hear "I'm cuckoo for CocoaPuffs" reverberate through my skull. I mean, wow.
I keep a few Apple boxes, of my most recent machines, for selling on ebay. How about you? Are you a hoarder?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Bigfat said 5:07PM on 9-15-2005
I kept my Mac mini box, only because it's still a pretty handy way of taking it around with me. Although I don't see the point of keeping something like an iMac G5 box or the like.
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mike said 9:10AM on 9-15-2005
i keep most of my boxes, because in a year or two a lot of the electronics get replaced and i sell the old ones on ebay. it's a form of recycling.
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Alan said 9:10AM on 9-15-2005
Em, I have ALL of my Apple boxes still!!
PowerMac G4 from Nov 2002
17" Display from Nov 2002
1 GB iPod Shuffle
Mighty Mouse
Granted that's only four items, but I probably should've thrown away the stuff that's 3 years old :)
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Brian said 9:13AM on 9-15-2005
I keep all my Apple boxes, then my wife goes through the basement every few months and asks why we have so many damn boxes. I acquiesce and toss out the ones that I'm sure I'll never resell, and keep the monitor and computer boxes. I am sure if I ever sell my 23" Apple Studio Cinema Display the box will come in handy. Same for the G5. And the Minis. And the Powerbook.
Ok maybe it is a problem.
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froopyloot said 9:19AM on 9-15-2005
Yeah, I'm a nut. I keep everything. The boxes, the reciepts, everthing.
~m
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Bloggator said 9:27AM on 9-15-2005
My precious...I mean my BOXES are in my garage.
Ohhhhh...my precious.
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Sean Flanagan said 9:31AM on 9-15-2005
I have the boxes for every Apple product I have ever bought. To me, it isn't about collecting or obsession; they're just too nice to throw out. Plus they inevitably win design awards for packaging from ID magazine.
And I plan on keeping the box AND the bag from my nano...
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Travis said 1:25PM on 9-15-2005
I have all the boxes and all the bags from my apple store purchases. Boxes on a shelf, bags in the drawer. Crazy? Yes. >_>
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Dan said 9:39AM on 9-15-2005
I've kept all my apple boxes (even my girlfriend's boxes) but I keep just about every box that contained a neat gadget. I'm sure I got a PS2 and some old cellphone boxes somewhere...
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narco said 9:42AM on 9-15-2005
I still have all the boxes for every Apple product I have ever bought. It is essential for selling on ebay because it really does help get more money on ebay, plus people will trust that the item was taken care of more.
Right now, I just throw all of the smaller boxes inside the large G5 box. This eliminates all that clutter -- plus I store it at my mom's house because I can hardly fit my G5 into this tiny LA apartment.
Fishes,
narco.
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Roger said 12:02PM on 9-15-2005
I hang onto the boxes for the iPods because of how unique they are. I have a whole bunch of powerbook and ibook boxes only because they are very sturdy and great for storage needs in the utility room.
The only reason my Macintosh SE box is still around is because my mom has been using it for storing Christmas ornaments since 1988 after I used it to haul my stuff out of college.
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Scott Stafford said 10:04AM on 9-15-2005
I bought the iSight totally based on packaging (about 2 years ago now). I have yet to use the darn thing.
And yes, I keep all my other Apple boxes, manuals, ... on my office (home) self where I can see 'em. ;-0
How about software boxes, hehehe
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Galley said 10:18AM on 9-15-2005
An item which is "like new, in box" has more value than one without a box on eBay.
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slomog said 10:29AM on 9-15-2005
I keep for at least a year. Then, if I know I don't wan to sell it on ebay or the price has gone down to where it does not matter....gone. But my box for my g4 powerbook is a work of art.
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Jason said 10:23AM on 9-15-2005
No, but it is hard throwing such nice packaging away. And for the record, hoarding boxwa is not crazy, hoarding animals, that's another thing.
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Tracye said 9:50PM on 9-15-2005
I keep all my Apple boxes, but really, I don't know why and never really thought about it for now. I've never kept the boxes for my PCs... maybe it's because they're always such nice boxes. I never sell my computers on eBay because I nearly always find a way of repurposing them in one way or another.
Maybe I'm just a freak.
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iKen said 10:29AM on 9-15-2005
I keep all my boxes, and when my PowerMac box (that I had had for 4 years at that point) got ruined in a basement flood, I almost cried.
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harry said 10:30AM on 9-15-2005
Kepp em all, I even have a box for a Powerbook 1400 CS that I bought years ago, haven't even used the damn thing in 5 years...
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Sebastian said 10:33AM on 9-15-2005
I have my original powerbook box (12 in. 867Mhz) that now holds my xbox and cables. I also have the Tiger box in top of the shelve, because I deemed the box "too cool" to throw away.
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Robin said 10:45AM on 9-15-2005
I have two apple products: Apple iPod, and iPod dock, of which I still have both boxes sitting on the shelf. As a windows user, I was amazed at the precision of the packaging (nothing for PCs has ever met the apple standards.) It's hard to throw away something that obviously had a lot of thought and effort go into it.
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