BA grail (of sorts!) acquired...

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...One of the nicest GA collections in history was ultimately acquired by a guy who once bought returns for a penny and sold them for 2 pennies!

...and that's the stuff that dreams are made of, my friend!

Been looking for a sealed, "two-for-25¢" pack of coverless (and illegal!) affidavit returns copies for many, many years now, and I finally lucked into one:

 

 

Does anyone else remember these?

 

Nearly all of the comic books I owned and read between 1972 and 1976 or so were purchased in exactly these sealed bags, mostly from a chain of "Handy Market" convenience stores in central PA.

 

The monetary value is zilch, I know, but the sentimental/nostalgic value of seeing one of these unopened packs is off the charts for me.

 

So many great memories of my dad buying me a pack or two when he stopped at the market for cigarettes, or my mom doing the same thing when I was dragged along with her to buy milk, etc.

 

A buddy and I also sometimes hiked a mile or more form his house in a rural area to a Handy Market next to a gas station, and closer to Interstate 83. We'd carefully inspect each two-pack (the comics inside were packaged back-to-back), and would scoop up as many of the best ones (usually Marvels) that we could afford.

 

Btw...the "back" book in this pack is an Omac #8, also from 1975.

 

What a weird feeling to see this again after 40+ years!

 

 

 

 

 

Oh my God! I can't tell you how glad I found your post! I grew up in rural Central Pa. (Benton, near Bloomsburg) in 1970-75, and there was only ONE store that sold comics in a 30-mile radius, and the comics were bagged exactly as what you posted! Two coverless Marvels and DCs in that polybag for a quarter. Every week my mom would buy me a couple (I really went crazy for Superman titles)

Fast-forward to 1985-89, I'm in college at Kutztown, Pa, and I take it upon myself to try to find better copies of all of my old coverless polybag issues. I raided comic stores in eastern Pennsylvania for years before finding all the issues (there were around 60+ total). Of course that was before ebay, and you actually had to search comic boxes, but that was the fun. It was great seeing finally seeing those covers!

But those original bagged comics turned me into the artist I am today, I'm the art director for three suburban Philadelphia newspapers, and my love of art is rooted in those magic coverless comics that came in a bag for a quarter! I still have the original ratty coverless issues and all the "new" replacements. They are my most prized comics today.

Oh my God! I can't tell you how glad I found your post! I grew up in rural Central Pa. (Benton, near Bloomsburg) in 1970-75, and there was only ONE store that sold comics in a 30-mile radius, and the comics were bagged exactly as what you posted! Two coverless Marvels and DCs in that polybag for a quarter. Every week my mom would buy me a couple (I really went crazy for Superman titles)

 

Fast-forward to 1985-89, I'm in college at Kutztown, Pa, and I take it upon myself to try to find better copies of all of my old coverless polybag issues. I raided comic stores in eastern Pennsylvania for years before finding all the issues (there were around 60+ total). Of course that was before ebay, and you actually had to search comic boxes, but that was the fun. It was great seeing finally seeing those covers!

 

But those original bagged comics turned me into the artist I am today, I'm the art director for three suburban Philadelphia newspapers, and my love of art is rooted in those magic coverless comics that came in a bag for a quarter! I still have the original ratty coverless issues and all the "new" replacements. They are my most prized comics today.

Really great to hear this from another '70s Keystone Stater!

I'm sure that "Mom and Pop" stores and discount chains all over the state sold THOUSANDS of these two-packs: when a single new comic book cost 25-cents, two of them (albeit mutilated) for that price was clearly a winner for budget-conscious parents of ravenous, comic book-addicted kids.

I know for a fact that my friends and I didn't really care about the missing covers -- to us, a comic book was a comic book, just so long as the stories were complete.

Somewhere in the back of a dusty old warehouse, you still might be able to find a skid or two of these things. What I'd really like to know is who was responsible for them. Given the volume involved, it seems to me that it would have had to start at the distributor level...

Oh my God! I can't tell you how glad I found your post! I grew up in rural Central Pa. (Benton, near Bloomsburg) in 1970-75, and there was only ONE store that sold comics in a 30-mile radius, and the comics were bagged exactly as what you posted! Two coverless Marvels and DCs in that polybag for a quarter. Every week my mom would buy me a couple (I really went crazy for Superman titles)

 

Fast-forward to 1985-89, I'm in college at Kutztown, Pa, and I take it upon myself to try to find better copies of all of my old coverless polybag issues. I raided comic stores in eastern Pennsylvania for years before finding all the issues (there were around 60+ total). Of course that was before ebay, and you actually had to search comic boxes, but that was the fun. It was great seeing finally seeing those covers!

 

But those original bagged comics turned me into the artist I am today, I'm the art director for three suburban Philadelphia newspapers, and my love of art is rooted in those magic coverless comics that came in a bag for a quarter! I still have the original ratty coverless issues and all the "new" replacements. They are my most prized comics today.

 

Really great to hear this from another '70s Keystone Stater!

 

I'm sure that "Mom and Pop" stores and discount chains all over the state sold THOUSANDS of these two-packs: when a single new comic book cost 25-cents, two of them (albeit mutilated) for that price was clearly a winner for budget-conscious parents of ravenous, comic book-addicted kids.

 

I know for a fact that my friends and I didn't really care about the missing covers -- to us, a comic book was a comic book, just so long as the stories were complete.

 

Somewhere in the back of a dusty old warehouse, you still might be able to find a skid or two of these things. What I'd really like to know is who was responsible for them. Given the volume involved, it seems to me that it would have had to start at the distributor level...

 

 

When I was a kid, I just assumed the store owner just bagged these together and sold them, but mow that I'm older, I'm sure these were distributed on a retail level. Where on earth did you find your "new" bag?

Where on earth did you find your "new" bag?

It was the product of a VERY long eBay search, which started back in the late 1990s, which I'm pretty sure was before you could "automate" or "save" specific searches.

In this case, the "coverless lot" search I'd been following turned it up...

Bravo! I can't believe there is someone else in the world who got the same joy from those coverless, bagged comics. I'm sure they were mostly 1975 comics. And they were all Marvels and DCs, but I could be wrong (it's been 40+ years).

I went through all of the "new" 1980s re-bought copies of the bagged 1975 books. (I was smart enough to label each comic as I stored them away.)

And here the Marvels (17 total):

Amazing Spider-Man 143 (4/75)

Avengers 134 (4/75)

Avengers 136 (6/75)

Captain America 184 (4/75)

Conan 49 (4/75)

Fantastic Four 156 (3/75)

Giant-Size Spider-Man 5 (7/75)

Giant-Size Marvel Team-Up 2 (7/75)

Human Torch 4 (3/75)

Human Torch 5 (5/75)

Marvel Double Feature 9 (4/75)

Marvel Tales 58 (4/75)

Night Rider 4 (4/75)

Spidey Super Stories 5 (2/75)

Spidey Super-stories 6 (3/75)

Thor 236 (6/75)

Uncanny Tales 9 (4/75)

And from DC (18 total):

Action 430 (12/73)*

Action 431 (1/74)*

Action 438 (8/74)*

Action 445 (3/75)

Action 446 (4/75)

Batman 261 (3/75)

Batman 262 (4/75)

Justice Inc. 1 (6/75)

Plop 10 (3/75)

Plop 11 (4/75)

Plop 12 (5/75)

Secrets of Haunted House 1 (5/75)

Superman 215 (4/69)*

Superman 239 (7/71)*

Superman 286 (4/75)

Wonder Woman 215 (1/75)*

World's Finest 226 (12/74)*

World's Finest 229 (4/75)

And a couple independent titles:

Valley of the Dinosaurs 1 (Charlton, 1975)

Star Trek 26 (Gold Key, 1975)

Most of the comics are March to July 1975, but we moved away after that, so there could have been more packaged later.

*After reviewing all the above list, I see that there were older DCs in the bags, the oldest being Superman 215, from six years earlier)

Like I said before, there's nothing very valuable here, but priceless to me!

Hey all...just bumping this to see if I can flush out any more of these two-packs, and/or a few more stories from people who remember them...

On 2/1/2016 at 11:21 PM, jools&jim said:

 

Been looking for a sealed, "two-for-25¢" pack of coverless (and illegal!) affidavit returns copies for many, many years now, and I finally lucked into one:

 

 Wait, why?

37 minutes ago, TheFifthHorseman said:

 Wait, why?

Maybe, just maybe he's collecting for the love and memories. 

On 13/02/2016 at 4:35 AM, Iksar said:

Giant-Size Spider-Man 5 (7/75)

Giant-Size Marvel Team-Up 2 (7/75)

I don't recall Marvel publishing a Giant-Size Marvel Team-Up.  G-S Spider-Man was effectively GSMTU under another name.

8 hours ago, oakman29 said:

Maybe, just maybe he's collecting for the love and memories. 

No I was wondering about the illegal part!

7 minutes ago, TheFifthHorseman said:

No I was wondering about the illegal part!

Oh I apologise!  I thought you were asking about collecting something that might not be as valuable to you,as it is to him.

My apologies.

@oakman29 I'm all about collecting "valueless" obscura.

You like what you like!

Just now, TheFifthHorseman said:

@oakman29 I'm all about collecting "valueless" obscura.

You like what you like!

I was buying these avidly around 1976/1977 and maybe 1978 at maybe two convenience stores along M-89 in SW Michigan. I do not remember ever seeing a pack that had a Marvel and a DC in the same pack. Just one or the other. I remember most being excited about getting as many Our Army at Wars as I could. The new issues were on issue 300=305 or so and you could get ones in the late 290s at the stores.  My best find was getting one of the new DC dollar comics in a pack.  So yeah, getting a giant was a big deal. I think I got a giant HOM later too.

As you guys say, these packs set up the interesting dynamic where the interior is a vivid childhood memory but when you add a copy with the cover as an adult, the cover feels a bit detached from the experience and you don't have the attachment to the cover.  Kind of like when you have one part of a story as a kid and get the other years later. I loved Detective 447 to death as a kid. Reread it tons of times.  When I got 448 years later I wasn't so interested in the rest of the story. Just another comic.

If the Mile High 2 collection is an affidavit return, which it is, of course, then that distributor must have been allowed to do affidavits far before the 1980s since the collection has Marvels back to what, 1966 or earlier?

My older brother introduced me to comic collecting in the mid-seventies.  He had boxes of them, but nothing too old.  He explained that many were stolen when he left them in the car as part of cross country move.

He had a lot of coverless comics, which were bought that way according to him.  I always read through them trying to imagine what the covers looked like.  Years later, I discovered the story behind these and with the internet was able to see all the covers.

Great find, thanks for sharing.

Most of the books I read are coverless - I like to fold the pages over when reading - always have.(collector's nightmare)

On 2/1/2016 at 8:21 PM, jools&jim said:

 

Does anyone else remember these?

For some reason this image is burned in my mind somewhere, but I'm too old to remember . . .

nice avatar divad! I have not noticed it before, is it new?

8 hours ago, Bird said:

nice avatar divad! I have not noticed it before, is it new?

My original here from 2004 . . .thought I'd recycle.  (An FZ fan from way back).