1962 DC Comicpacs! 0

[Hepcat]

DC introduced the Comicpacs in the spring of 1962: 

 

The header card was cardboard folded at the top and then stapled together and thus through the plastic bag between the two sides of the header card.

If the motivation of DC was to provide kids with a real "value" six months or so after the infamous price increase to 12 cents, methinks they failed. Each Comicpak contained comics from a mix of genres from superheroes to adventure/mystery to war to romance and humour. I can't see any kid forking over a whopping 47 cents (plus sales tax) for four comics when only two or so would have been in his personal wheelhouse. 

I'm guessing the purpose of Comicpacs was to gain shelf space on newsstands that were becoming reluctant to stock 12 cent periodicals when their preference would have been to make a bigger sale. At the time, Life and Post cost 20 cents, Look, Time, Newsweek and Mad 25 cents and Playboy 60 cents.

But the hole in the header card indicates that DC was also hoping that these Comicpacs would be displayed with rack pack toys in the checkout lines of supermarkets and suburban chains such as K-Mart, Woolco and Grants which might prompt impulse buying by frazzled mothers being pestered to get something, anything, by their kids. As a result, Comicpacs with pristine header cards are nigh impossible to find these days.

So does anybody here have many (or even any) intact Comicpacs? Well post them here since we'd love to see them! And does anyone have a list of the individual comics contained in the various packs from 1962?

Sadly I have none - yet. And of course now that I'm just a few years older, I wouldn't mind having a Fox and the Crow or a Romance comic visible on the outside of the pack. I'm still not big on Superboy, Jimmy Olsen or Sugar and Spike though....

Edited March 28 by Hepcat

[pemart1966]

I remember the ones from '67.  Same deal - 4 for 47 cents.  You saved a whopping 1 cent off of cover if you bought the pac but what was the incentive?  You would end up with 1 or 2 that you didn't want so much better to buy a la carte.

Here in Ottawa, I only saw them for sale at K-Mart.  I can't remember them any where else.  Certainly my local corner store, where I bought all of my comics, never had them.

I remember a number of Batmans and Justice Leagues from '67 in those packs but it was just the 12 cent ones - never any of the giants.

[BLUECHIPCOLLECTIBLES]

On 3/27/2024 at 7:06 PM, Hepcat said:

DC introduced the Comicpacs in the spring of 1962: 

 

The header card was cardboard folded at the top and then stapled together and thus through the plastic bag between the two sides of the header card.

If the motivation of DC was to provide kids with a real "value" six months or so after the infamous price increase to 12 cents, methinks they failed. Each Comicpak contained comics from a mix of genres from superheroes to adventure/mystery to war to romance and humour. I can't see any kid forking over a whopping 47 cents (plus sales tax) for four comics when only two or so would have been in his personal wheelhouse. 

I'm guessing the purpose of Comicpacs was to gain shelf space on newsstands that were becoming reluctant to stock 12 cent periodicals when their preference would have been to make a bigger sale. At the time, Life and Post cost 20 cents, Look, Time, Newsweek and Mad 25 cents and Playboy 60 cents.

But the hole in the header card indicates that DC was also hoping that these Comicpacs would be displayed with rack pack toys in the checkout lines of supermarkets and suburban chains such as K-Mart, Woolco and Grants which might prompt impulse buying by frazzled mothers being pestered to get something, anything, by their kids. As a result, Comicpacs with pristine header cards are nigh impossible to find these days.

So does anybody here have many (or even any) intact Comicpacs? Well post them here since we'd love to see them! And does anyone have a list of the individual comics contained in the various packs from 1962?

Sadly I have none - yet. And of course now that I'm just a few years older, I wouldn't mind having a Fox and the Crow or a Romance comic visible on the outside of the pack. I'm still not big on Superboy, Jimmy Olsen or Sugar and Spike though....

Marvel did the same thing -- offering a whopping 1 cent discount on four comics when you probably want less than all four.  

[BLUECHIPCOLLECTIBLES]

On 3/27/2024 at 7:06 PM, Hepcat said:

DC introduced the Comicpacs in the spring of 1962: 

 

The header card was cardboard folded at the top and then stapled together and thus through the plastic bag between the two sides of the header card.

If the motivation of DC was to provide kids with a real "value" six months or so after the infamous price increase to 12 cents, methinks they failed. Each Comicpak contained comics from a mix of genres from superheroes to adventure/mystery to war to romance and humour. I can't see any kid forking over a whopping 47 cents (plus sales tax) for four comics when only two or so would have been in his personal wheelhouse. 

I'm guessing the purpose of Comicpacs was to gain shelf space on newsstands that were becoming reluctant to stock 12 cent periodicals when their preference would have been to make a bigger sale. At the time, Life and Post cost 20 cents, Look, Time, Newsweek and Mad 25 cents and Playboy 60 cents.

But the hole in the header card indicates that DC was also hoping that these Comicpacs would be displayed with rack pack toys in the checkout lines of supermarkets and suburban chains such as K-Mart, Woolco and Grants which might prompt impulse buying by frazzled mothers being pestered to get something, anything, by their kids. As a result, Comicpacs with pristine header cards are nigh impossible to find these days.

So does anybody here have many (or even any) intact Comicpacs? Well post them here since we'd love to see them! And does anyone have a list of the individual comics contained in the various packs from 1962?

Sadly I have none - yet. And of course now that I'm just a few years older, I wouldn't mind having a Fox and the Crow or a Romance comic visible on the outside of the pack. I'm still not big on Superboy, Jimmy Olsen or Sugar and Spike though....

I have some intact comic packs which contain books that I know would almost certainly be worth more than the pack itself, but I cannot bring myself to cut the packs apart since they're artifacts of cultural history. 

[Hepcat]

On 3/29/2024 at 1:30 PM, pemart1966 said:

I remember the ones from '67.  Same deal - 4 for 47 cents.

By 1967 the cardboard header had been eliminated. What you got instead was a coloured part of the bag above a heat sealed lower bag.

On 3/29/2024 at 1:30 PM, pemart1966 said:

You saved a whopping 1 cent off of cover if you bought the pac but what was the incentive?  You would end up with 1 or 2 that you didn't want so much better to buy a la carte.

Here in Ottawa, I only saw them for sale at K-Mart.  I can't remember them any where else.  Certainly my local corner store, where I bought all of my comics, never had them.

I remember a number of Batmans and Justice Leagues from '67 in those packs but it was just the 12 cent ones - never any of the giants.

DC though wasn't really trying to lure comic buying kids with those Comicpacs. What DC was attempting to do was expand distribution of their comics into non-traditional outlets such as K-Mart stores and supermarkets thereby targetting adults to entice them to buy bags of comics for their kids and grandkids. And the effort must have been successful since the promotion was repeated for years and copied by other comic publishers including Marvel, Gold Key and Harvey.

Here's an article I just found going into more detail on the points I mentioned:

http://www.wymann.info/comics/027-Comicpac60s70s.html

Edited April 1 by Hepcat

[pemart1966]

On 3/31/2024 at 11:49 AM, Hepcat said:

By 1967 the cardboard header had been eliminated. What you got instead was a coloured part of the bag above a heat sealed lower bag.

DC though wasn't really trying to lure comic buying kids with those Comicpacs. What DC was attempting to do was expand distribution of their comics into non-traditional outlets such as K-Mart stores and supermarkets thereby targetting adults and enticing them to buy bags of comics for their kids and grandkids. And the effort must have been successful since the promotion was repeated for years and copied by other comic publishers including Marvel, Gold Key and Harvey.

Here's an article I just found going into more detail on the points I mentioned:

http://www.wymann.info/comics/027-Comicpac60s70s.html

Makes sense because no kid would have bought those.  Money was hard to come by (used pop bottles mostly were my source of comic purchasing money) - 47 cents was BIG BREAD - almost the cost of 2 giants/annuals!.  Ala kart was the way to go - you could select the titles that you wanted and didn't get stuck with unwanted titles.

 

[Hepcat]

Not only that but Comicpacs weren't actually a savings for kids. In most jurisdictions a fellow could buy a 12 cent comic without paying any sales tax but a bag of comics at 47 cents was probably a different matter.

Edited April 1 by Hepcat

[Hepcat]

I just realized that DC probably envisioned yet another benefit from Comicpacs. If Comicpacs made it easier for adults such as grandparents to pick up comics for kids, more kids would actually be introduced to comics and perhaps at an even younger age. Moreover if a kid was already buying DC comics but was sticking to tried and true "Superman" and "Batman" family titles, being exposed to comics such as these might well broaden their comic buying horizons:

Sure would have worked on me!

Edited April 1 by Hepcat

[pemart1966]

On 4/1/2024 at 12:25 AM, Hepcat said:

Not only that but Comicpacs weren't actually a savings for kids. In most jurisdictions a fellow could buy a 12 cent comic without paying any sales tax but a bag of comics at 47 cents was probably a different matter.

Good point - as a kid, I never paid sales tax though, as all of my purchases were $.25 or less.