Influencers and Resellers Are Turning Empty Boxes Into Big Cash

Doctor Who, One Piece, Pokémon, Star Wars. Empty product boxes from these popular properties have been listed on eBay for $2,500 and up. It’s not too surprising to anyone familiar with modern nerd-dom that even the empty boxes for these perennial collectibles would command high prices.

But look what they’re joined by in that elite bracket: a Bottega Stardust Sparkling Rosé bottle and box (listed for $8,105), the box for a 1980s Rolex Explorer 1016 ($3,850), a “rare” Hermes Bolide box from Japan ($3,450), and a Suntory Hibiki bottle and box ($3,000).

One big reason for this is that buyers are paying big bucks to acquire the original packaging for an item they want to auction off; selling the collectable with an original box almost always boosts the resale price. For high-priced items—a secondhand Rolex Explorer 1016 sells for between $19,000 and $52,000—spending a couple grand on an original box is a worthwhile investment. It’s not just collectibles either; even for items like a Dyson Airwrap or Nintendo Switch, it can make sound financial sense for a seller to track down the original packaging.

There are currently over 160,000 “empty box” listings on eBay (many under $25), and over 140,000 on eBay UK. WIRED requested sales statistics on empty box sales from eBay, Vinted, and Poshmark; eBay declined to provide data, and Vinted and Poshmark did not respond.

There is also an illicit side to this business: Counterfeiters will acquire and use authentic boxes to ship fake products to buyers, hoping to bolster the illusion that the shipped item is real. Sometimes, sellers will ship an authentic box filled with nothing at all in what’s known as an empty box scam.

Buying Clout

A seller on Vinted with the username wildswhim, whose listings include jewelry packaging (Vivienne Westwood, Michael Kors) deliberately avoids including “actual empty tubes or containers” in sales to deter counterfeiters. The seller also frequently describes listings as being “for props, staging, or storage.”

Yes, props and staging: Often, these empty boxes are going to influencers and video producers who use them to decorate their film set. Independent creators and aspiring influencers will use empty boxes, bottles, and packaging to stage their Instagram posts and TikTok videos to give their clips a whiff of the luxury lifestyle.

There are currently over 1,500 listings on eBay specifically for the search term “empty box decor.” Listings include a “rare” empty Abercrombie & Fitch “PR box” listed for $50 and a “rare” empty Fenty Beauty “multi-tier influencer PR launch box” selling for $245. Both of these were originally sent out to select influencers by the companies’ respective public relations teams, indicating that the OG influencers are reselling the items to the next generation of creators coming up behind them.

The Vinted seller tonym528, who is based in London, sold an empty orange Louis Vuitton box for £23 (around $32) this month. He doesn’t ask his buyers questions but suspects that people are using “those kinds of boxes to show off fake wealth.” Seller MattyHornby, based in York, UK, has resold empty packaging from Supreme, Gucci, Balenciaga, Prada, retailer Selfridges, and skateboard and streetwear label Palace for similar prices per bag or box.

Seller Rafal tells WIRED that the “absolutely crazy” prices are why he started selling empty packaging (Nike, Apple, Puma, Dior) on Vinted. Seller mariaharris1967 also jumped on the trend. “I couldn’t believe it,” she tells WIRED. “I was able to get rid of loads. LV, Burberry, and Hermès sell super quickly.” She is one of the sellers who labels empty boxes and bags with descriptions such as “great for room staging,” “good for social media staging,” “decor, staging, or room props” and “#instagram” to target aspiring creators.

Signaling Success

Branded packaging arranged to appear in the shot—but in the background, not as the central focus —in social posts is often used to imply an association with an aspirational brand, says Tama Leaver, a social media researcher at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. Influencers are doing it, he says, “clearly with a view to making those intended relationships into real ones.”

Platforms like Giggster and Home Studio List, which rent out prestaged sets to influencers, are very good customers too. The Vinted seller wildswhim says “the studios catering to influencers are bulk buyers now” for empty packaging listings.