How did Subscribed comics arrive in the mail in the 70s/80s?

[tib2d2]

If you actually cut out the order form in your comics and mailed it in for a subscription, how did your comics arrive? In a plastic bag? Boarded? Just as-is crumpled up along with your bills and magazines?

[Anodyne]

IIRC, they came in a brown paper sleeve.

[Surf]

I had a subscription to Iron Man back in 1987-88. Hell naw I was cutting nothing out of the book even then, I had to be 12 or 13. I had my Mom make a copy at her job and I sent that in. Yea, they got wrapped in a brown sleeve and then some plastic was wrapped around that, mailed flat.

[MajorHoy]

IIRC, they came in a brown paper sleeve.

And, unfortunately, back in the early-to-mid 1970s DC books (didn't subscribe to Marvel, so don't know if they did it too) would sometimes mail the regular-sized comic books FOLDED IN HALF (lengthwise).

They stopped doing that in the later 1970s, but still used just the plain brown sleeve/wrapper for mailing.

[tib2d2]

And, unfortunately, back in the early-to-mid 1970s DC books (didn't subscribe to Marvel, so don't know if they did it too) would sometimes mail the regular-sized comic books FOLDED IN HALF (lengthwise).

They stopped doing that in the later 1970s, but still used just the plain brown sleeve/wrapper for mailing.

Oh man, that must have driven you nuts if you were particular about keeping your comics in nice condition!

[MajorHoy]

Oh man, that must have driven you nuts if you were particular about keeping your comics in nice condition!

The thing is, back then, many of us weren't quite into "collector mentality".
Yeah, it was annoying, but it was better to have it than to miss getting the issue all together because you never saw it on the spinner rack at your local stationary or drug store. (Remember, these were the days before comic book stores with back issue sections were the way most people bought comic books.)

[MRP]

The thing is, back then, many of us weren't quite into "collector mentality".
Yeah, it was annoying, but it was better to have it than to miss getting the issue all together because you never saw it on the spinner rack at your local stationary or drug store. (Remember, these were the days before comic book stores with back issue sections were the way most people bought comic books.)

Since most of the comics I had as a kid got read and reread so many times that they became dog eared and many had the covers falling off, I was just happy to get something new to read when those plain brown wrapper comics showed up in my mailbox. I didn't care about condition, I just wanted new flights of imagination to read. It was only years later when I first discovered a comic shop, that I realized condition mattered to some people. For me, as long as all the pages were there I was good to go back then.

-M

[Scott Taylor]

The stuff I remember from the 1970s was just in a brown paper bag. It was kind of stiff-ish paper and plastic, but that didn't stop comics from being shoved haphazardly into mailboxes and crinkled. Nothing compared with what I did with them though. It was the 1970s, who cared how comics were treated? I'm amazed many of mine made it through relatively unscathed

[The Darknight Detective]

It was the 1970s, who cared how comics were treated?

I starting caring in 1977 when I got my first Comic Book Guide. Before then, I was careless with my comics (though I still have most of them).

[Anodyne]

The thing is, back then, many of us weren't quite into "collector mentality".
Yeah, it was annoying, but it was better to have it than to miss getting the issue all together because you never saw it on the spinner rack at your local stationary or drug store. (Remember, these were the days before comic book stores with back issue sections were the way most people bought comic books.)

A subscription was no guarantee. I missed many issues, mainly because I couldn't provide address changes soon enough. To Marvel's credit, when they finally got my request for a refund, they not only refunded my money, they paid me interest.