Comments on: What scam are these macbook box bandits running?

Question: What scam are these macbook box bandits running?

miniminimarket — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:38:03 -0800

We've had to buy five macbooks in three years because of a couple of apartment break-ins. Now we're moving (because of apartment break-ins). I put up the old macbook boxes up for free (seem too nice just to recycle) on Craigslist and got a surprising number of takers. Is there a scam here?

We ripped off the old serial numbers on the boxes, so that's useless for them. But I don't want to find out I'm giving away boxes so some jerk can sell his freshly stolen macbook (possibly my macbook) as "new in box." Is this something people do? Or do nice people need macbook boxes too? Thanks in advance.

By: lalalana

lalalana — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:40:48 -0800

...could be, but in terms of takers on craigslist, I find it very useful to save (or procure) the original computer boxes for the purposes of moving and storing them.

By: crapples

crapples — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:42:10 -0800

How much are people willing to pay? If it's $5 or something, they might just want an easy way to store/move their own computers. If they are paying more than that, it sounds like a scam of some kind to me.

By: barnone

barnone — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:45:35 -0800

I was just looking for one, so that I could send my old Macbook to a friend across the country. It went into a larger box but I wanted the original box for security inside the peanuts. Here's one vote for pretty innocent purposes.

By: PhoBWanKenobi

PhoBWanKenobi — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:52:17 -0800

If you're so worried about it, I'd do something like write your purchase date across the front of the box with permanent marker. People who want it for innocent purposes like shipping aren't going to care.

By: porn in the woods

porn in the woods — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:53:06 -0800

Another point to consider: I bought my MacBook refurbished from the Apple Store (along with my last two Macs - comes highly recommended) and they ship in a plain brown cardboard box with an Apple logo. Might be people looking for a nicer retail box.

By: Science!

Science! — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:07:22 -0800

When I bought my MacBook I saved the box for a while since there was a chance I might've been moving. Apple's packaging is phenomenal and very strong. If these boxes also contained the original styrofoam supports I would jump on one if I was moving. For people who haven't unboxed a new Apple product, the don't just include packing peanuts or a couple of styrofoam supports, these packages are very, very well designed. I'm sure it's mostly for appearances, Apple wants you loving the machine from the time you open the box, but damn, they're good boxes.

By: stumpyolegmcnoleg

stumpyolegmcnoleg — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:12:13 -0800

Its almost certainly for the purposes a re-using the box themselves or alternatively selling them on eBay. If you take a look at eBay listings for Mac products you often see empty apple boxes being sold for between 10 - 20 dollars. People want them either for posting their macs or when selling their own used mac which no longer has its original packaging. People are snapping them up from you for free because usually you have to pay hard cash...

By: stumpyolegmcnoleg

stumpyolegmcnoleg — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:13:46 -0800

In short - Original Apple boxes have intrinsic monetary value.

By: kmennie

kmennie — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:21:32 -0800

If I got five MacBook boxes I'd be really happy to round out my collection, which're used for storing Xmas ornaments. I expect them to last until the ornaments are handed down to the next generation; them's just plain good boxes.

By: miniminimarket

miniminimarket — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:24:14 -0800

@sickinthehead No, I don't think the same people will get the boxes. I just hate the though of giving boxes away to the kind of people who break into apartments.

Whoever did break in kicked in my door 20 minutes after I left the apartment, 3:30 PM on a Monday (I work from home). So maybe I'm paranoid, but having people watch when you leave your apartment will do that to you as well.

By: wingless_angel

wingless_angel — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:27:24 -0800

I just sold my old iBook on eBay and kicked myself that I didn't keep the original box. It was hard to find a substitute that worked right. I ended up using the styrofoam out of my MacBook box and a Dell box. I vote +1 for innocent.

By: rokusan

rokusan — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:34:44 -0800

Ripping the serial numbers off your boxes doesn't help with much. Would it not be better if you left them on? That way someone selling a (stolen) laptop has a non-matching serial number.

By: rokusan

rokusan — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:35:10 -0800

I bought a box for $5 once on eBay. It was because I lost mine and wanted one for shipping.

By: SirStan

SirStan — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 17:06:14 -0800

"Comes with box" usually adds ~5/10% to value for items being resold in my experience.

By: hooray

hooray — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 20:27:45 -0800

Tekserve, a large Apple reseller shop in NYC, has a trade-in program that specifies that having all original accessories (including the box), can raise the resale value by up to 35%.

By: gnash

gnash — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 20:32:45 -0800

Fanboys building a Mac box wall next to their pizza box towers.

By: Dipsomaniac

Dipsomaniac — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 21:14:01 -0800

At home we like the boxes for moving stuff like books around. They're tough and hold a surprising amount of weight, but they're not big enough to overload.

Plus you can break them down and then put them back together inside out, so that it doesn't have pictures of an expensive Apple computer all over the outside.

By: nosila

nosila — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 05:52:56 -0800

I second writing in marker on the box. Maybe something like "A new computer does not live in here" in Magic Marker.

By: wreckingball

wreckingball — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 07:46:48 -0800

Exceptionally cruel fakeout gift packaging? That's why I've kept mine, at least.