Polybagged 3 Packs of Yesteryear

[The Toyroom]

Anyone start their comic collection in the 70s this way? I remember going to Carls Drugs on Wednesday nights with my dad and always managing to con him into letting me pick up a "3 for $1.00" pack of comics. I tended to gravitate more toward the Marvel 3 packs as opposed to the DC....primarily because the DC ones had the Whitman comic symbol on the front cover in place of the DC Bullet.

[ShadowAvenger]

I managed to pick up a few of the DC/Whitman 3-packs when I was a kid whenever we went on road trips. I loved those 3-packs and the fun was trying to figure out what the middle comic was.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I know for a fact I first encountered the Legion of Super-Heroes and Kamandi in those packs. The Legion in "Superboy and the Legion" and Kamandi in "The Brave and the Bold" with Batman! So I got quite a future shock from those 3-packs!

Chris

[samurainoir]

I loved the three packs because it was the only way to get back-issues as a kid, unless you had some that reached you as ragged hand-me downs.

[palitoy]

Yeah, I have a lot of great memories, especially of the Western Publishing stuff.

About five years ago my local 7-11 had about ten of these in the racks, Marvel 2 in 1 mostly. It must have been a fluke of some sort, stock in the back room, I didn't buy them and of course, they were gone the next day.

I do have one set, a Micronauts three pack.

[EMCE Hammer]

I definitely snagged some of these. My favorite though was a little corner store that sold comics that were missing the top third of the cover for a nickel each. My cousin and I would walk there after church every Sunday and load up with whatever change we had managed to scrounge during the week. Then we'd walk back to my grandma's and play Atari and read our stash. My uncle bought us a 2600 to share and keep at Grandma's one Christmas, and then for the next two or three years he'd buy us cartridges for it for our Christmas gifts. Atari & comics - good times.

[palitoy]

i wanted to add that my Dad sold his toy business in the late seventies to another distributor, I remember visiting this guy and he had thousands of these three packs in his warehouse. He told me to "Take whatever I wanted" unfortunately to my Dad that meant "Take One"

I remember it being really hard to choose.

[ABMAC]

…a little corner store that sold comics that were missing the top third of the cover for a nickel each.

The little corner store was scamming the little corner magazine distributor out of his share of the profits by returning the ripped off covers for credit.

[EMCE Hammer]

The little corner store was scamming the little corner magazine distributor out of his share of the profits by returning the ripped off covers for credit.

I actually think this store bought them from the guy who scammed the distributors. They *never* had any new comics, and you could tell these had been around awhile. My memory is foggy, but he seemed to get some each month, and we'd end up buying most of them. I know they were supposed to be destroyed, but I don't feel too guilty for getting some use out of them before they went to the landfill.

[The Toyroom]

I actually think this store bought them from the guy who scammed the distributors. They *never* had any new comics, and you could tell these had been around awhile. My memory is foggy, but he seemed to get some each month, and we'd end up buying most of them. I know they were supposed to be destroyed, but I don't feel too guilty for getting some use out of them before they went to the landfill.

Same thing here....Joe Trotz used to run a corner store near my great-grandmother and had a pile of coverless comics by the front register for a dime each. He got them second hand from the guy who was scamming the distributors. I didn't care though...I bought many copies of Batman, Archie, Casper, Jimmy Olsen and others that way! Fun stuff when you're 5 or 6 years old!

[twilitezoner]

The local drug store in our area didn't stock the 3 packs but Woolworth's did. I remember picking up some of the Star Trek Gold Key comics that way.

[Airdave817]

That's exactly how my comic book collection got started!

It was The Amazing Spider-Man 147 with the Tarantula, and The Incredible Hulk with Glorian (What?! What?!) - I don't remember the issue number - it was kind of a forgetable thing. I don't even remember what the middle comic was anymore. I got most of my three packs at the A & P - the same place I got my Jawa Star Wars action figures!

It was that, or read Archie when my brothers went to the orthodontist for a check-up on their braces.

Then I discovered the spinner rack at the drug store, and the comic book section at the newstand across the street from the train station on take your kid to work day...