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2007-12-05 16:50:03

3-BAG!

It's time for one of those periodic history lessons that makes me feel old.

Way back when I started reading the books in the '70s, comic book stores were few and far-between. If you were on the hunt for older issues of any vintage, you would either hit up garage sales and flea markets, or wait for the yearly collectibles fair to come to the local mall.

What we did have, though, was the 3-Bag.

Pioneered in the very early '60s, the 3-Bag was a fixture of toy stores and department stores up through the '80s. These were, as described, plastic bag containing three semi-recent books (typically about nine months old) at the bargain price of a penny less than you'd pay for them separately.

The 3-Bag was one of the ways that companies tried to crack additional markets in those days. The bags protected the merchandise, allowing them to remain on sale longer, and the higher aggregate price made them more worth the real estate on the showroom floor. These things used to be everywhere. There were even periods during the late '60s when there were big old vending machines dedicated to the things.

The downside, of course, is that you often had to buy issues you didn't really want in order to get the ones you did. And the publishers became savvy to this conundrum fairly rapidly--the center book, which couldn't easily be seen while the pack was still unopened was very often a dog, a reprint title or a western or something. And, of course, the less scrupulous readers would tear the bags open to get at the one book they wanted, and then count on the cashier not knowing that the issues weren't meant to be sold individually (or, more criminally, sneak the individual book out of the store under a shirt or in a back pocket or something.)

Eventually, as sales on these packs dwindled, the publishers became savvier still, grouping a number of issues of a given title in a single bag, rather than grouping them by print date. The most ubiquitous Marvel 3-Bags were the ones devoted to the earliest issues of the STAR WARS comic, which adapted the first movie. The entire adaptation could be collected in two 3-Bags, and they stayed on sale for what seemed at the time to be years.

I'm pretty sure, too, that the 3-Bags are the source of some of the strange price variants that have turned up on the back issue market--issues for which the typical price was 30 cents, but which also exist as a 35 cent variant. Because the 3-Bags were distributed later, every time there was a price increase on the new books, that price increase extended over to the titles then being bagged, even though they'd been on sale a few months earlier at the lesser price.

More later.

Tom B

I have been searching for information about these for a while -- specifically the ones from the 1980s. Surprisingly, I've not found much about them on the Internet. Thanks for posting this!

Posted by stanleylieber on 2007-12-06 01:24:59

I loved these as a kid! You'd always try to somehow, someway see that middle comic. I remember on a vacation one year my parents bought me not a 3-pack but a 5-pack of "Excalibur" -- starting with the issue which Alan Davis came back, which started my deep affection for the title -- along with a 3-pack with the first 3 issues of "Nomad." I must have read those 8 issues 10 times apiece. Great memories! Thanks Tom!

Posted by ljacone on 2007-12-06 07:18:37

I remember buying the full collection of the Amazing Spider-Man storyarc "Round Robin: the Sidekick's Revenge" in one of those packs.

Posted by Jordan D. White on 2007-12-06 08:57:40

My experience
I got one in the mid 80's that had Power Man and Iron Fist, A Spiderman vs. Kraven story and I can't remember the third one! I read the heck out of those two other comics, though. I loved it. I also remember seeing these that had a lot of origin stories in them. I remember specifically reading the Hulk origin in a reprint like this.

Posted by bigdaddyhub2 on 2007-12-06 09:07:42

nice cover
I always liked Carmine Infantino's work wich I discovered with Nova and SpiderWoman; and always liked the Paladin...

Posted by notapotatoe on 2007-12-06 10:57:36

Almost like...
The three bags that were grouped by title sound kinda like a precursor to trade paperbacks. Same basic idea, a bigger product that the stores can sell at a higher price point. Just not as refined.

Posted by CodeGuy on 2007-12-06 17:17:32

Nefaria
I started reading Avengers, and comics, with issue 172. I shortly thereafter found 164-166 in (separate) 3-bags. Still one of my favorite comic tales ever. Needless to say, I fondly recall 3-bags!

Posted by dum dum dugan on 2007-12-06 22:48:54

My very first experience with comics was with a 3-bag that my mother spontaneously brought home one day. I can't remember the exact issues, but it had Avengers, Hulk, and Captain America. It was love at first read.

Posted by Vastion on 2007-12-06 22:55:34

Never seen these but it does explain why so many price guides list 35c variants - usually at a much higher price!

Posted by bomaya on 2007-12-08 11:02:25

Demon Bears
Just wanted to say that I got an issue of The New Mutants "Demon Bear Saga", the Badlands issue I believe, from a 3-pack in an Acme supermarket. I was pretty young and I could not stop pouring over the Sienkewicz (SP???) art. It had to have been the darkest, most twisted, material my little eyes had seen and it was a lot to get my head around. Also made a New Mutants, and horror, fan out of me. THX!

Posted by hamgravy on 2007-12-09 17:11:19

Mem'ries...
This is pretty much how I got involved in "collecting" comics as a kid.

I had a few single issues that I bought and/or received and found comics to be enjoyable.
Then, I discovered the 3-pack (we're talking mid to late 1970's) at Woolworths and JCPenny at the Roosevelt Field Mall on Long Island, NY.

I'd sneak to the mall (wasn't supposed to go their alone) and buy some 3-packs, then walk to a nearby store where my sister worked and sit on the steps of her job waiting for her to get off shift so we would then go home together.

LOTS of great things in those 3-Packs.
Most of my most favorite comics memories came from those.

But it was damn near impossible to see what that middle comic was.
Frustrating as heck.

:-)

~P~
P-TOR

Posted by SanctumSanctorum on 2007-12-13 09:25:09

Array

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About this blog:
Ramblings and musings from the mind of Tom Brevoort. "It won’t be clean. It won’t be fun. It mostly won’t be coherent."

About the author:
Tom Brevoort is Executive Editor for Marvel Comics, and oversees such titles as New Avengers, Civil War, and Fantastic Four.


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