Definitely on the boxes. I at least never threw away a manual, as those seemed useful to me. To this day, I'll read through a manual cover to cover before starting a new game (if I own the manual), and back in the day, before looking up game info online was an option, I did refer to some manuals throughout playing a game. It didn't help its condition any (though it's still not bad), but my Chrono Trigger manual was often splayed open at my side. I didn't stop throwing away cardboard boxes until '98, I believe, so that's a lot of SNES, GB, and N64 boxes that went in the recycle. What really stings is that even in my mid-teens I had pretty niche taste in games, so it's not like I was throwing away dirt common boxes that I could easily replace without spending too much. I mean, like, I threw away the boxes to Lufia II, Harvest Moon, Castlevania Legends, etc.

As for passing on buying stuff, probably the worst was passing on Earthbound for like $20 or $25 in the early '00s, instead getting Arcana and Illusion of Gaia for a few bucks less combined. That was a standard price for Earthbound back then, so it's not like I was passing on a great deal, but I still don't have Earthbound, sooooo......yeah. Also passed on Tales of Destiny for around the same price, similarly getting a couple other PS1 RPGs for less. Still don't have Tales of Destiny either. Also passed on Conker's Bad Fur Day many times over, at prices that ranged from $20 (for a complete copy) to $5 (for a loose copy) and loose copies of Mario Party at $5. Yet again, I don't have either. What's great is the rare occasion that I get to make up for passing on something. Like back in the day, I was choosing between buying Mars Matrix or Raycrisis, and I went for the latter, as it was a little cheaper. A complete copy of Raycrisis isn't super cheap these days either, but it's like half the value of Mars Matrix. But just a few years ago, I stumbled across a complete copy of Mars Matrix for like 3 bucks, so all's well that ends well.