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good morning digi.
When I used to sell lenses on another ID I would ask a higher price on Buy-Now listings for lenses with original packaging, but this would include the cardboard or foam inserts and not simply a box that let a lens free-ball all over the place IYKWIM. For lenses that were auctioned, I would include ‘+box’ in the title as a way of ensuring that bidders would know that the item would include the box.
I have plenty of empty lens boxes here. This is partly because I didn’t include the boxes in sales I made to schools when the lens was affixed to a camera when I sold them, and I would hang on to the boxes in case I bought an eBay item that did not include the box for a lens.
When photographers, both amateur and professional, carry multiple lenses around they do not carry them in their boxes. Many camera bags have soft padding and all that is needed to protect the lens is a mount cap and a lens cap. When Canon sell cameras with bundled lenses they usually include a soft pouch to put the lens in. Boxes are very cumbersome to use to protect lenses due to them being much larger than the actual lens.
As far as lens boxes being collectable, I wouldn’t think so . . . . . . but then again, I have seen empty/flattened breakfast cereal boxes listed for prices much higher than when purchased new (and full of cereal) so what would I know!
Spoiler
I come from a large family so we went through plenty of cereal. We had drawers full of those little trinkets that would come inside the cereal boxes. I mean, we had hundreds of them over the years growing up. Those little trinkets can now get good money on eBay as collectables.
@lm-entertainmentwrote:.. or what's that other word digi? hoarding?
I've actually been accused of verging on hoarder status, but the thing is, I have no particular attachment at all to the stuff, I'm just really lazy and let things accrue until I do a big cleanout. 
Plus, some stuff I have because other people seem to think I should be sentimental about it. (When I was young, a close relative passed and I was gifted all these things from their house people thought I'd like to hold on to. Op shop mix n' match crockery and cutlery - i.e. stuff they had no real sentimental attachment to either, just bought out of necessity, while books, albums, and such (the stuff I really would have liked) went goodness knows where. 😕
I'm nowhere near as bad as this person I used to know - they weren't just an "everything's collectible" person, but an "everything's useful if it's cheap enough" kind of person, too (they bought every kind of imaginable rubbish on clearance you can think of, especially if it was branded with a TV show in some way - a plain notepad? no need for that, but a RRP$5 notepad discounted to 20c and 'Home & Away" slapped on it? Score! They had a full set of their own teeth, but bought denture cleaning tablets because they had a clearance sticker on them, saying 'they'll come in handy one day'. Said tablets sat atop the fridge for years, unopened). I can laugh about it now, but I also had a full on argument with them once because I said that in a post-apocalyptic world, where people are just fighting for survival on a daily basis, Toranas (while a very nice car) would not retain their "collectible" value and still sell for tens of thousands of dollars, even in non-working condition. They maintained that Toranas will always be worth up to 90k, no matter what. I just...couldn't even 
We no longer speak. (True story, but that argument isn't the sole reason, though it's very nearly reason enough. ).
@sirsales. Cereal box collectibles are different, tho! I still have all the Lion King stuff that came with the Kellogs cornflakes back in the early 90's. I don't even like corn flakes, but I had to have the little Rafiki in the meditative pose, the yellow plastic spoon with Simba on the handle - that stuff will be worth a goldmine one day. Or, at least $10, anyway. 
(PS many thanks for the extra info 🙂 - sounds like whatever value they do have is kind of on the negligible side, particularly in terms of collectibility).
