Bruce joins the 5000 club
 | Alaskan baggist Bruce Kelly tells me that he has crossed the 5000-bag threshold. "Not nearly enough to challenge the top 2", he laments. But he's off to Mexico to forage for fresh items, so expect his total to rise soon. |
Tuesday, December 08, 2009  
Oliver has 5792
| Hamburg collector Oliver Conradi has gone public with his bagnumbers - in the German tabloid newspaper Bild.
Oliver featured in a story about Hamburg airport, along with brusque credit-card promoters and hidden railway signage.
Oliver's most recent bagnumbers? 5792 bags from 1399 airlines, collected over 30 years. According to Bild, That's more than Niek Vermeulen, the current Guinness record holder.
Oliver is now 45, says the Bild journalist. A bit of mental arithmetic tells us that he must have started collecting bags at the impressionable age of 15.
If you have teenage children, perhaps it's time to warn them now about the dangers of baggery.
That is, if you don't want to learn of their exploits from the inside pages of a sensationalist tabloid rag. |
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Barfbags for beer
| This Times newspaper article says that Kirin (a Japanese brewer) is using bags to advertise its alcohol-free beer to sloshed salarymen riding home in taxis after their nightly male-bonding binges. An advertising venture doomed to fail, I predict. If the said salaryman is sloshed enough to use one of Kirin’s bags, he is unlikely to remember the message it carries the following morning. Nice try, Kirin. But perhaps advertising express flower-delivery services to appease irate spouses would be a better use of scarce bagspace? Thanks to Steve Silberberg for this alert. |
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Yet another use for unwanted bags
 | Did Boeing forget to install a video screen in the back of the seat in front of you? Fret no more: all you need do is bring your iPod and a spare plain white bag on board with you. Cut a screen-size hole in the bag, and a small in the side for the earphone cable, and presto - your own personal inflight entertainment system. You may need to pre-cut the holes in order to avoid risking your penknife being confiscated by security at check-in. This image is from gadling.com.
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Thursday, June 04, 2009
discover | map | navigate | puke
  | "Airsickness Bags Make Unusual Collections", says this Rand McNally blog. Not news for the majority of baggists, but perhaps an eye-opener for the uninitiated non-bagging public.
The blog goes on to laud Bruce Kelly's collection, and to reveal that he is about to pass the psychologically important 5,000 mark. Other collections featured include those of Steve Silberberg, Rune Tapper, Alan Howlett, as well as bagophily.com. Thanks to Steve for this alert.
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Thursday, June 04, 2009
Vote early, vote often
 | Want to know what your fellow baggists think? Want to know if they think at all? Then set up a poll on the barfbags egroup.
The egroup site, hosted by Yahoogroups, has a plethora of little-known bells and whistles. Members can set up polls, upload photos, add links, create databases, set up a calendar, and lots of other goodies. Click here to visit the site and play with these toys.
One member has recently started a poll asking whether members want to receive automatic replies to email postings to the group. Yahoo's sophisticated polling software automatically calculates percentages and displays a bar chart - like the one on the left, which confirms that 6 votes out of 10 equals 60%.
Proving that to be a member of the prestigious baggist coterie, an ability to think (or at least, the ability to do simple maths) is not a requirement.
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Friday, April 24, 2009
Grizzled old baggist
 | Publicity-shy though I am, bagophily.com has been featured in the prestigious "Grizzled Old Traveler" blog run by travel writer Sean McLachlan. The motto of this blog is "Because the adventure doesn't stop after thirty". That should presumably read "...at thirty thousand feet". After all, that altitude is safely above most hurl-inducing turbulence, so it's safe to move around the cabin to steal bags from other passengers' seat pockets. Make sure they're asleep before you try this, though.
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Monday, March 16, 2009
The Clemens eBay report for 2nd Quarter 2008
 | A new record for a barfbag - €633.62 for a single bag. A generic one at that - proving that airlines do not have to print logos on their bags for them to be valued by their customers. Alas for the airline, though - its name is not recorded for posterity. It was not a mere company name that made this bag go for such an astronomical sum. No, the bag was autographed by legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix. So a celeb-defaced overpriced bag hit the jackpot on bagmarket watcher Gerd Clemens' eBay listing. Here's his complete list of auctions exceeding EUR 20 for the second quarter of 2008 (with minor additions from last week of first quarter). Rank, Airline, Country, Price, Notes - Generic, USA, €633.62, With Jimi Hendrix signature
- SAE Regional Airlines, Mali, €107.31
- Aeropesca, Colombia, €104.00
- SAHSA, Honduras, €97.60
- UTA, France, €82.93
- Lan Chile, Chile, €79.21
- AVIATECA, Guatemala, €79.00
- LAN, Chile, €66.83
- Safi Airways, Afghanistan, €65.77
- Russavia Ltd., UK, €65.03
- Safi Airways, Afghanistan, €65.00, Direct Sale
- LOT old, Poland, €56.85
- Jeju Air, Korea, €47.23
- Jeju Air, Korea, €46.73, Direct Sale
- Jet Star, Australia, €46.65
- Jet Star, Australia, €45.90
- P.L.L. Lot Air, Poland, €45.70
- Safi Airways, Afghanistan, €45.00, Direct Sale
- Air Bagan, Burma, €42.73
- Jet Star, Australia, €39.40
- Island Aviation, Maldives, €39.34
- Aero Condor, Peru, €39.25
- VIVA Macau, Macau, €39.17
- MEA, Lebanon, €38.18
- VIVA Macau, China, €36.40
- Pluna # 1, Uruguay, €35.50
- Pluna # 1, Uruguay, €35.00, Direct Sale
- GMG, Bangladesh, €34.50
- Kam Air, Afghanistan, €34.19
- TAE Trabajos Aereos, Spain, €33.80
- Andes Lineas Aereas, Argentina, €33.60
- Kam Air, Afghanistan, €33.50, Direct Sale
- Seven Air, Tunisia, €33.48
- Andes Lineas Aereas, Argentina, €33.10, Direct Sale
- Moscow Air, Russia, €33.00
- VIVA Macau,China , €32.55
- Skynet Asia Airways, Japan, €32.50
- Clickair, Spain, €32.47
- Linus Airways, Indonesia, €32.30
- VIVA Macau, China, €32.10
- Moscow Air, Russia, €32.00, Direct Sale
- LADE, Argentina, €31.70
- Lucky Air, China, €31.34
- Air Bagan, Burma, €29.60, Direct Sale
- VIVA Macau, China, €29.50, Direct Sale
- Freedom Airways, Cyprus, €29.23
- GMG, Bangladesh, €29.00
- Starflyer, Japan, €29.00
- Air Bagan, Burma, €28.70
- Air Bagan, Burma, €28.70
- United Company, China, €28.50
- Air India, India, €28.50
- Air India, India, €28.00
- Yeti Airways, Nepal, €27.62
- Aero Republica, Colombia, €26.60
- BEA British European, UK, €26.50
- Far Eastern Air Transport, Taiwan, €26.38
- Linus Airways, Indonesia, €26.38
- Clickair, Spain, €26.30
- Aero Republica, Colombia, €26.10, Direct Sale
- Airsur, Spain, €26.00
- ORC, Japan, €25.50
- Pluna # 1, Uruguay, €24.23
- Air Sul, Spain, €23.93
- BEA, UK, €23.75
- Siem Reap, Cambodia, €22.79
- Seven Air, Tunisia, €22.53
- Dniproavia, Ukraine, €22.50
- Avior Airlines, Venezuela, €22.17
- Aero Republica, Colombia, €22.00, Direct Sale
- Air New Zealand, New Zealand, €21.75
- Mandala, Indonesia, €21.60
- Pluna # 2, Uruguay, €21.60
- Air India, India, €21.50
- Siem Reap, Cambodia, €20.81
- Air Dolomiti, Italy, €20.60
- Far Eastern Air Transport, Taiwan, €20.50, Direct Sale
- Zoom Airlines, Canada, €20.50
- Presidential Airways, USA, 20.26
- Pluna # 1, Uruguay, €20.10, Direct Sale
- VIVA Macau, China, €20.00
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Monday, November 10, 2008
Another worthless reality TV show?
Get served by Michelle Marsh (above), and you could pick up the bag below. 
| But at least this one has its own barfbags, says Danish-based baggist Homer Goetz. "CelebAir is a reality TV series, which sees 11 celebrities doing the jobs of cabin crew and check-in attendants", says Homer. "The tv-company subchartered an Airbus A321 from Monarch Airlines, registration G-OZBI, which has been repainted in CelebAir colours. "The series is set in Gatwick Airport. There are seven destinations that CelebAir will fly to: Tenerife South Airport, Faro Airport (Portugal), Málaga Airport, Ibiza Airport, Mahon Airport, Larnaca International Airport and Alicante Airport. "Before any of the celebrities were allowed to start their new jobs, they undertook a rigorous six-week training programme run by Monarch, the airline involved in the show, and were required to adhere to Monarch’s standards whilst working for CelebAir. "The series began on 2 September 2008 on ITV2." If you want to be served by a C-list British celebrity that you've never heard of, book a CelebAir flight by clicking on the link above. You will be assured of Monarch's usual classy service, and while you're on board, be sure to pick up one of their special barfbags. Better still, grab a handful and send one to me. Thanks to Homer for this item.
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Friday, September 26, 2008
Bag 2.0
 | Bagging has taken the next step forward by embracing Web 2.0 technology. French baggiste Gilles Beger has founded a Facebook group, the Airsickness Bags Appreciation Society. "The ASBAS pomotes [sic] the use and circulation of Air Sickness bags worldwide. This group is dedicated to those collecting air sickness bags..." says the introductory blurb. The group is open to all, so we can predict it will attract all kinds of weirdo baggists. Click on the link above to sign up.
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Friday, September 26, 2008
Broken something?
 | Germany continues to lead the way with bag humour. The cartoon by Uli Stein on the left appeared in the veterinary journal VetImpulse in September 2008. "On the phone you said you had broken something?" asks the doctor. "I don't see anything?" "I've brought it with me..." says the patient, reaching into her handbag and pulling out a full barfbag. For those needing to attend remedial German classes, this draws on the double meaning of the word "gebrochen" in German: it means both "broken" and "thrown up". Click on the picture for a closer look.
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Friday, September 26, 2008
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