When did bags and boards become a staple for collectors?

[JazzMan]

In the mid 70s I remember being introduced to poly bags but I don't remember boards being used then yet.

 

When did the bags first come out and used by collectors and did boards come with them or did they come later?

[Logan510]

I started using boards in the very early 1980's when I started buying my books at a LCS as opposed to the local 7-11 but I have no idea when they first started being produced / used.

[mrlatko]

I started using boards in the very early 1980's when I started buying my books at a LCS as opposed to the local 7-11 but I have no idea when they first started being produced / used.

 

Me too. Started a weekly pull list at the new LCS in '82 and was using long boxes, bags and boards from the start at that time.

[Logan510]

I started using boards in the very early 1980's when I started buying my books at a LCS as opposed to the local 7-11 but I have no idea when they first started being produced / used.

 

Me too. Started a weekly pull list at the new LCS in '82 and was using long boxes, bags and boards from the start at that time.

 

We're from generally the same area...what was your LCS back then?

[mrlatko]

I started using boards in the very early 1980's when I started buying my books at a LCS as opposed to the local 7-11 but I have no idea when they first started being produced / used.

 

Me too. Started a weekly pull list at the new LCS in '82 and was using long boxes, bags and boards from the start at that time.

 

We're from generally the same area...what was your LCS back then?

 

Gary Colabuono's Moondogs in Schaumburg. I also worked there in high school. You?

[oakman29]

I think I had them in the late 70s.

[Logan510]

I started using boards in the very early 1980's when I started buying my books at a LCS as opposed to the local 7-11 but I have no idea when they first started being produced / used.

 

Me too. Started a weekly pull list at the new LCS in '82 and was using long boxes, bags and boards from the start at that time.

 

We're from generally the same area...what was your LCS back then?

 

Gary Colabuono's Moondogs in Schaumburg. I also worked there in high school. You?

 

Cool, I used to go to a couple of his stores back then My main haunts were Comics For Heroes on Foster which sadly is no longer around and North Shore Comics in Northbrook. For a while in the late 90's I had a pull list at One Stop but now I buy all my new issues ( very few ) online.

[vaillant]

I’m pretty sure bags must have come first.

At least, that’s what happened in Italy.

 

Also, since we have a million different format, while there are people which try to board everything, there are other which board certain type of books (like comic books) but not – say – squarebound comics, magazines or the like.

 

A thing I miss are backing boards. In the 1990s, as american comics collecting became quite a frenzy here as well, there were plenty of people importing the boards. Now there are just a few which produce them here, but sizes often aren’t standard, and having them shipped is expensive…

 

Luckily, the majority of US people selling comics deliver them already boarded.

[mrmyst]

For me, it was around 1979 for bags. I don't recall anyone offering boards then.

[dupont2005]

I know for sure bags existed in the 70's but I think they became commonplace during the 80's.

[bb8]

Lotta old people on these boards...

[DWL]

For once, my inclination for record keeping comes in handy.

 

When I started collecting I kept track of everything I bought. According to my records, the first notation for bags was in December 1978. The notation simply says "$2 worth of bags". The first mention of backing boards was in January 1984. The notation reads "100 boards for $3.50".

 

Oh, and for those who are curious, my very first notation is from May 1977. I bought Thor # 261, Spider-Man # 170, Ironman #100, and Star Wars # 2, each for 30 cents.

[mrmyst]

that's some freakin record keeping right there.

[catrick339]

I kept my collection in brown grocery bags and beer crates right up into the early 1980's, the first books I remember bagging and boarding brand new was the first Wolverine miniseries, in 1982.

 

I bought several copies of each off the stands, bagged and boarded them, tucked them away, and eventually made some very nice money off my extra copies. But that was just about the earliest anyone saw backing boards here in mid-Michigan.

[catrick339]

Oh, and I remember sending away for the Robert Bell catalog, little green Marvel checklist, and sample comic bag, circa 1970 or so.

[mrmyst]

I had those old Marvel fold-open pocket binders. You know, the ones with Marvel covers on the front, and open it up for a pocket on each side. Ah, youth.

[sckao]

You were only exposed to bags and boards if you were by a real comic shop. If you bought your comics at the train station, 7-11, or A&P... then you had no idea about the comic hobby except through the ads in the comic books.

 

I didn't start bagging and boarding until the early 80's.

[MrBedrock]

I started buying back issues in '74 or so. I remember the first few conventions bags of any kind were few and far between. I had a friend with a paper route and I used to beg for the bags for the Sunday paper. I could load twenty or so comics per bag in those. I think Robert Bell started advertising bags around '75 or '76. Others were manufacturing them by '78 because Camelot, the shop I worked at, was ordering them then. But backing boards were still being hand cut around that time. I know someone was making boards by '81 because I had all my golden age stuff boarded when I went to college. The first mass produced supply line I remember were those Comic Defense System bags, boards and boxes that Capital City was distributing in the mid '80s.

[Gatchaman]

I was using them in the early 80's, but before that I used saran wrap and cereal box cardboard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hey Kids, Comics!]

The 1974 Overstreet has a few ads for bags, but no mention of boards. That's the oldest edition I have so I don't know if bags were offered through mail order previously.