When did Bags and Boards start 2 2

[Bat34]

On 3/24/2020 at 4:38 PM, Robot Man said:

I originally kept my comics un-bagged on shelves in the closet. Then I stacked them rotating the spines in cleaner's bags. Around 1971 I got some Robert Bell bags and used cut cardboard as a stiffiner. When backing boards came out I substituted them. I also remember using Fortress holders (similar to current slabs but removable) for my most important books. It has been a long road to where we are today...

As a kid in the late 70's I sent a few dollars in cash to Robert Bell and had these bags in my collection for a while!  Great to see the flap, thanks for sharing it.

[NP_Gresham]

I ordered some of those Bell bags in the late 70's.

I ordered 1000 and the UPS guy asked "what the heII is here, they weigh a ton".

 

[NP_Gresham]

On 3/24/2020 at 12:35 PM, Black_Adam said:

 As a 13-year old whose only income was a Vancouver Province paper route I knew there was no way I could afford to splurge on pristine, crystal-clear bags for my comic collection, so instead I'd buy the used comic bags (which were sticky and had a sickly greenish-yellow hue) they sold in bulk for 1/2 price at the back of the store. I figured any comic bag was better than no bag at all. Those poor comics. 

Ha ha, I had a paper route as well to fund my comic collecting.

There was a newstand and general store along my route that I would stop in when I knew the new comics were arriving.

To my dismay, I accidently delivered an occasional comic along my route.

I recall specifically losing Hulk #200 in this fashion. The only copy the stores had, there was gap in my run for quite sometime before i got a copy to replace it.

[dzbad]

23 hours ago, shadroch said:

I had struck a deal with a fellow comic store owner to sell me stock from his back room for ten cents each if I spent a thousand dollars. I made the deal with the understanding I'd take 4000 books today and he would store the rest for two months.  I drive over and go into his basement. The two of us go box by box, with him vetoing a good bit of what I select. There isnt enough stock that he is willing to let go for me to get 10,000 books so we renegotiate on 5,000 books for $550, all to be removed within a week. Hours go by and the books are assembled. We are done and relaxing when he lets me know he wants two cents per comic for the bags. It might not sound like much, but it adds twenty percent to the deal. When I object and say he should have said that in the first place, he goes off about how much money he is losing and how I'm wasting his time.  What had been a friendly atmosphere suddenly turned adversarial. He went on and on about it only being two cents more and I'd counter with it was $100 more and it was an extra twenty percent. I was pretty sure they would move pretty quick at fifty cents, and some of the books I knew I could get a dollar for, so I offered to split the difference and he refused.  I walked and it was the end of what had been a decent relationship.

A month or two later, he called and said the boxes I'd picked were still there and his offer was still good. I told him I'd pay his price, if he had them delivered and that was the end of the discussion. A few years later, I heard he sold his entire basement stock for ten cents each to an out of town dealer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i

Man that is crazy.  I think you made the right move a 20% bump up in price at the time seems like a crazy thing to expect.  Thanks for the history.  I know a lot of LCS are running on slim margins, this hobby is a passion for most and I am concerned about what the next 2 years will look like. 

[boomtown]

Here's a shot of some Robert Bell bags that had been sitting unchanged for 30+ years. The tape yellowed but the bags looked clear and crisp until I changed them out a few days later.

 

 

Edited March 31, 2020 by boomtown

[shadroch]

For the completest, there are different addresses on his bags, as he moved over the years.

[aszumilo]

My dad worked for a freight company and he used to bring bags home that were the perfect size for comics.  Don't know what the bags were for, but, they fit perfectly.  Didn't have any boards though.  This was in the early to mid 70's when I first started collecting.  Never heard or seen bags before, just happened to work out for me.  Wasn't until I went to my first comic book store that I saw them. 

[Randall Dowling]

What I miss are those really awful 2 mil polyethylene bags from the late 70s?  It was like putting your comic in a really cheap oversized sandwich bag.  

[porcupine48]

6 minutes ago, Randall Dowling said:

What I miss are those really awful 2 mil polyethylene bags from the late 70s?  It was like putting your comic in a really cheap oversized sandwich bag.  

I still get those sometimes from that's the last time I deal with you sellers Sometimes you take a chance though  !Golden Age Fox comics on Amazon found in the most random search?One time,about ten years ago I got a few comics stuffed in a Robert Bell bag at a junque shoppe!I kept it but it's a victim to the hoard chaos.Maybe turn up in another decade....

[mrc]

I remember first using mylar Archives for my Wolverine #1 back in 1982.....

[porcupine48]

7 hours ago, mrc said:

I remember first using mylar Archives for my Wolverine #1 back in 1982.....

In 1989 I had Claremont  sign mine at a local shops grand opening,he was guest of honour.Beieng way back when he left his mark on the splash,so I wrote in black sharpie on the regular bag-Chris Claremont autograph.Guess what it says partially on my lovely cover now-I didn't look at it for near fifteen years?Still a good memory of standing around for an afternoon with my Papa though,like I'd ever part with it.

[Tri-Color Brian]

I'm surprised Robotman didn't mention this, but as early as late 1965 or early 1966 comic bags were available.  Every comic I bought from Cherokee Bookshop in Hollywood came with a clear plastic comic bag.  As for boards, I have no idea when that started.  I don't think I used them until the late 80s...

The picture below is from 1965 at Cherokee.  Look at the bagged comics on the shelves...

As for new comics, since there were no comic shops in 1965 or 1966...I would place 4 or 5 comics together inside a Safeway produce bag.  This worked really well to keep my DCs from the drugstore looking NM.  They still do look NM, but are now in mylites...

 

A couple of my Action comics I preserved in a Safeway Produce bag...

Edited April 10, 2020 by Tri-ColorBrian