When I sell my 5 year old flagship phone I’ll get $30 more easily if I have the box and the stuff that came in it. People see that and subconsciously think “this person has their shit together. buying their used phone isn’t a risk.”
Same goes for other stuff, too. I recently sold a synthesizer for $150 over the market rate because I had the box, manual (even though it was out of date due to firmware updates) and the stickers that came with it.
I like semi up-to-the-minute tech, so keeping things in good shape and giving someone the unboxing experience keeps my costs down at the cost of a little space in my closet.
+1 to this- I was about to comment the same thing before I saw your comment. Phones with packaging definitely sell better.
What no. What? No.
ಠ_ಠ
…i second this…
NEVER!
Hey it actually helps if you ever want to resell it. Prices around the same which listing are you going to pick? The one of some reseller who has the same generic photo or the one with the complete box and even the original cable still sealed in it?
Sold my old electronics at easily a 20% premium because I had all the box and packins. My xbox with the box, materials, and everything (all nicely cleaned) sold for more than I paid for it - inflation being what it is, that was quite nice.
So, this is poor advice.
Not entirely true.
Several times aIready I have been glad having kept them when I had to return devices because of warranty stuff.
So it makes sense to keep the boxes for half a year or so.
Real problem is, in reality I still have smartphone boxes dating from 2005 lying around which I am just too damn lazy to sort out… 😒
you don’t need the original box for this, I usually throw it away after a month (the delay for full refund in some shop)
Much easier to send back and no discussions about completeness.
Full refund period over here is 2 weeks, but very customer friendly warranty regulations after that.
You don’t have a smartphone box from 2005.
Still severely lacking in features that define a smartphone.
You are somewhat right, I just looked up the phone I was thinking about, it is from 2006.
Which phone? The word “smartphone” has been bandied about since the nineties, but 2007’s iPhone was really the first of the species we now typically refer to as “smartphones.”
Siemens EF81.
Feature-wise roughly comparable to the first IPhone.
Internet/Mail/Office stuff, installable apps, multimedia and camera, gaming.As you already said, smartphones have been around since the late 90s/early 00s, with constantly increasing functionality. Even if people today wouldn’t directly recognize them as such, as the typical formfactor has changed during the late 00s.
No full Internet access, extremely limited selection of applications solely provided by the vendor, keypad input. Cameras and audio playback were already standard on cell phones by then. Definitely wouldn’t call that a smartphone.
My Motorola Razr Maxx V6 from 2006 was better and smarter than the original iphone in just about every way except screen size. It ran Java applications that I downloaded and could do things like copy and paste text from one text message to another (something that the iPhone couldn’t do when it was released). I could surf the web (what there was of it that would display on any phone) and even talk on the phone or listen to mp3s at the same time I surfed. I even had a secondary camera for selfies and video calling (not that I had anyone to call who also had video calling).
The original iphone was revolutionary, but it wasn’t really because of its features, it was actually a pretty mediocre phone for the time, but it broke the strangle hold that mobile networks had on your phone and its features. Plus it also provided a single platform for 3rd parties to supply software allowing everyone to stop chasing not just each and every phone but each and every variation of each phone at each mobile provider.
Ffs, at the time the iPhone was introduced to Motorola had 11 different and unique operating systems that they were supporting and putting on their different phones worldwide.
The things that made the first “smart phone” revolutionary weren’t really in what it could do, it was more about who controlled what it could do.No full Internet access, extremely limited selection of applications solely provided by the vendor
That’s not true. Full internet access, also for installed apps and unusual protocols, and any app supporting the right Java features could be installed (I had some OSS ones and even ones out of the competing Nokia store - I think they had a nice calculator app…)
Actually, these points would apply much more to the IPhone 1, as you could only install apps from their store and it had crippled connectivity (vividly remember a friend who had it constantly complaining about the speed because of missing UMTS, among other things).
You are right insofar, as I would not tread it as a smartphone by todays standards.
But neither would l tread the IPhone 1 as one.
And yet both were in 2007.
Standards change… 🤷♂️Like its contemporaries, that phone only had limited support for websites, handling only those that presented XHTML-MP.
The iPhone pretty clearly revolutionized the whole market, with the App Store opening the following year.
But that’s where I keep the little pokey thing that I use to open the SIM card tray!
You mean your paper clip?
I put my phone back in its box when I upgrade. It’s like a little phone coffin…
Sounds like a good way to fuel a fire when the battery eventually expands and explodes
Aren’t batteries pretty harmless when not used? It just slowly discharges and loses all its energy so it doesn’t have any left to explode.
Every time I throw out a box i have to end up returning the item for some reason and then I’m screwed
The box usually has the IMEI and serial number and stuff on it. Can be very useful when it gets stolen or something.
Take a picture and keep it in a place you know, like an organized digital document collection.
Take a picture and store it in the phone.
Wait…
Take a picture of the box and put it somewhere you can access also by desktop. That clear enough?
organized digital document correction.
Where do we store the original, uncorrected document?
In the box, neutrally.
Since I am Gen X I can safely ignore this and sit comfortably on my throne of old phone boxes.
Since I always keep stuff forever, I’m not sure I can comfortably sit on the 6 phone boxes I’ve accumulated in my lifetime.
I believe in you
Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. I will have a use for the box one day.
- mouse coffin
- store cool dried flowers
- drugs
- smaller boxes
I could go on
Go on
Mine has phone repair tools in it
You can take my phone boxes, but you’ll never take my game console boxes
It’s always sensible to keep the boxes for the stuff you’re currently using. If you sell something, it’ll fetch a better price with the original box. If you give it away, the recipient will also appreciate it more. Just make sure to throw out the boxes from stuff you haven’t had around in ten years. Don’t ask me how I know.
But where will I keep my assorted lengths of wire, tiny drill bits, and interesting mineral formations?
This.
Also useful for warranty/returns.
For larger items like TVs, there’s specialized packing material, which if used correctly, can better protect the TV from damage during a house move.
There’s a lot of good reasons to keep this stuff… Just, put it in a closet somewhere and forget about it. Every time you add anything to the collection, go through what you have and throw out any boxes for things you no longer own. Maybe they were damaged, maybe they were stolen, who knows, but if you’re adding to the pile, something can very likely be taken away from the pile too.
Just, put it in a closet somewhere
Sure.
In the house I can’t afford
Sounds like a gen Z problem I’m too gen X to understand.
…i threw the box out after 12 years, and the next day I had to wrap a new <something> that fit perfectly in that box…
Lesson learned, never throw anything out.
I sell my old electronics and I get good used prices compared to others. I think it is partially because I have the original box to sell it in.
