The Box Dilemma

It's trash day here and my pile of need-to-be-opened models has been getting pretty big so it seems like a good day for some more general unboxing.

This is probably some kind of ADHD symptom but unboxing is weirdly something I have struggled with over the past few years. The first problem is that I procrastinate it until there are too many and I feel overwhelmed. This is largely because I tend to buy my NIB models in groups rather than one at a time - like when the Collectors Club Appreciation event is on, or the big sales like the Warehouse Sale, or through grab bags, or at Breyerfest.

So I gather up the models I want to open. Then I start to sort them... this one has some cool or important things I want to make sure I cut out from the box to save. This RR maybe I'm not sure if it's The One I want to keep so let me put it aside to really look over. This one has a really cool box maybe I should actually leave it in and/or photograph the box first for my records. Now these I am ready to open - let's get the scissors.

Then once I'm opening them I feel guilty about the trash and waste so I make sure to separate and flatten the cardboard for recycling and the other part of the box is so bulky and annoying you can just put it in a garbage bag so I have to cut it up or try to fold it down and now suddenly this is a big project...

Just me?

Anyway, you've seen my recent unboxing posts and I'm trying to make a point this year of opening them when I get them. This is good because it gets it done but also the newer something is the less likely my inner collectability nerd is to intervene and question whether or not I should leave it in the box.

A box from 2003 - peak yawn

When I was a kid like most of us I would be opening that box practically before I even got it home and tossing it without a second thought. Then as I started to become more of a collector I became very interested in Breyer history and the early boxes. This made me think more about my new models how few people saved their boxes back in the 50s and 60s and would future me wish I had kept these in another 40 or 50 years? So I started saving all my boxes. Ironically this was during the time in the late 90s and early 2000s when literally every box was identical except for a tiny sticker with the model name and number. Of course I suppose you could say the same thing about the earliest mailer boxes... they're just a plain cardboard box with a model name and number stamped on the top.

However, after awhile it did start to feel a little much to be keeping all these identical, boring (and surprisingly fragile) boxes. Plus they were taking up a ton of valuable storage space... so eventually I tossed them all. But first I did do what many collectors were also doing as a sort of compromise and that was to cut out any interesting or unique stickers on the box to keep with the model.

I've essentially kept doing that to this day. For awhile, once they switched to making more unique boxes for each model, Breyer put really nice little info cards on the back of the box. I enjoyed cutting these out and saving them - they were a nice size, easy to keep and store in a binder, and filled with fun information. More recently they have started making the entire back of the box the info card and I'm back to not really wanting to keep that big a thing. Sure, it's still flat, but the size is much less convenient. I have cut out and kept a few of my favorites but I do miss the smaller ones.

My binder of info cards - these were the BEST

Has it been the right choice? I would say the old yellow boxes haven't exactly become a collectors item. Will they ever? I'm not sure. There are one or two people who collect them but they don't add much value if any - and many people see them as a negative because they were prone to leaving big yellow stains so if you DO want to buy that NIB 90s model and take it out, you run the risk of a gnarly box side. What makes the 70s boxes so collectible is that the artwork is unique and they fold up so nicely for storage. Even if you do save and fold up the 90s and 00s boxes, they are a weird and inconvenient size, the inner cardboard doesn't fold well, and the outer plastic gets brittle.

Yellow box stains on my McDuff

All this to say, I shouldn't be so hung up on taking them out, even 30 year old still boxed models. The vast majority are better off without the box. However, I have kept a few things NIB and I will share them and my reasons why in a future post.