Baggists were quizzed about their habit

A rift has emerged in world baggery between modernists and traditionalists, a study has revealed.

And it's increasingly a rift between the baghaves and the baghavenots

Earlier this year bagophily.com asked baggists how they had acquired their bags during 2007. A total of 11 baggists replied - that's 15% of the worldwide membership of the exclusive barfbags egroup of collectors. Not a bad response rate from a group who deal primarily in stolen goods.

The survey asked the baggists to say how many bags they had acquired from each of these seven categories:

1. Stolen: Collected yourself from aircraft or airports
2. Requests: Requested from bag manufacturers, airlines, etc.
3. Donations: Donated by friends, relatives, etc.
4. Swaps: Exchange or donations other collectors
5. eBay: Purchased via eBay
6. Bought: Purchased by routes other than eBay (eg at collectors’ conventions)
7. Other: Other (please specify)

The 11 respondents reported they had acquired a total of 1863 bags in 2007 - ranging from an impressive haul of 420 for the most prolific baggist, to a meagre 6 bags by what my wife might call a "mickriger Kleinsammler" (a miserable small-time collector).

Where do bags come from?

The most important source of bags - accounting for an impressive 755 bags, or 41% of the total, was swaps. Yes, the barter trade is still alive and well in bagdom.

A close second, with 683 bags or 37% of the total, was purchases from eBay. Barter may still be king, but cash is about to dethrone it.

The only other significant source was gifts, which accounted for 14% of the bags acquired.

Baggists stole surprisingly few of their bags themselves: only 4% of the total. Perhaps that is because they tend to fly on the same airlines, so have little opportunity to acquire new bags in this way. That doesn't mean that flying is a waste of time from a bagging point of view: many baggists harvest multiple bags from a single aircraft, so generate large numbers of bags they can swap with other collectors.

Treating baggists as equals

The figures above are based on the total number of bags acquired, so give more weight to collectors with large baghauls. What does it look like if we treat all baggists alike - from Superbagman with his 420 new bags, down to the 6-bag weakling?

Swaps now dominate the picture, accounting for 42% of the typical baggist's acquisitions. Gifts from relatives, workmates, friends, friends-of-friends-of-friends and casual one-flight-stand partners, are a major source. eBay drops to third place, supplying only 19% of our typical baggist's hoard.

Are you an eBay junkie?

But is there such a thing as a typical baggist? Some baggists are eBay junkies, scouring cyberspace for hot items and diverting all their disposable income to fund bidding wars against fellow addicts. One confessed to spending a four-figure euro sum to finance his habit, and pleaded with bagophily.com researchers not to inform his wife.

Other baggists eschew eBay altogether, preferring to rely on barter and smuggling to boost their collections. Their only cost is the postage needed to ship bags around the globe in plain brown envelopes.

As might be expected, the two groups show markedly different bagacquisition patterns. The junkies first:

This group of five of our 11 respondents netted some 1349 bags in 2007. Over half came from eBay, while another 5% were bought at collector conventions. Swaps and gifts were also important sources.

Ignoring the market

How about baggists who resist the temptation to splurge their hard-earn income on secondhand paper bags? As expected, swaps were by far their most important source of supplies for this group, accounting for 70% of their accessions. Gifts were also important - these baggists clearly cultivate their friendships carefully.

But these six respondents managed to acquire only 514 bags between them in 2007 - less than half the haul amassed by the eBay crowd. Turning their backs on the cash-for-bags trade clearly carries a price: a smaller stash of bags.

And take the eBay slice out of the junkies' pie, and it looks pretty similar to that of the non-market-oriented subsistence baggists. It looks as if baggists who support their habit with cash are able to build their collections faster than those who rely on traditional collection mechanisms. That points to a growing rift in world baggery - between a market-savvy, eBay-oriented elite, and a persistent underclass of subsistence baggists - a lumpen proletariat toiling away in the nether regions of the bagleague tables.

Thanks to all baggists who responded to the survey. Watch for more surveys on bagophily.com!

Back in March we reported that the Wikipedia entry on airsickness bags had been emasculated by fastidious editors.

One justified hitting the delete key by describing bagsites such as bagophily.com as "utterly unnotable".

Bremen-based baggist Wolfgang Franken has pointed out that the entry on "Spuckbeutel" in the German version of Wikipedia has so far been spared the blue-pencilled onslaught.

More entertainingly written than its English equivalent (even before the grinches decimated it), the German entry mentions the innovative designs of Hapag-Lloyd Express, as well as Qantas's predilection for bags that double as film mailing envelopes. It even has a short list of collectors' bagsites.

Wikipedia's policy is to make all its language versions parallel - so make sure you read the German version while it still exists.

English speakers can console themselves with the thought that English and German are the only languages to have a Wikipedia entry on this important subject. A search for sac vomitoire in the French Wikipedia results in a plaintive "Il n'existe aucune page portant ce titre", and invites you to créer la page « sac vomitoire » vous-même. Spanish speakers in search of encyclopedic information on bolsas de mareo are similarly frustrated: "No existe ningún artículo con el título que has escrito".

Meanwhile the English Wikipedia site requests readers to supply references to justify its bagtext. Sadly, most of the world's literature on bags is in German - as cited by the German Wikipedia page.

Just remember, bagophily.com is not what Wikipedia regards as a "reliable source".

Is your prize barfbag less than complete? Has it lost one of its most vital components - second only to its watertight base? Did the wire closure snag on the the seat pocket when you removed it, and tear off?

Look no further: now you can repair your bag with the real thing: genuine Sick Bag Strips from Schutte Bagclosures.

Schutte can supply Sick Bag Strips in green, white or brown (other colours on demand) so you can repair your bags with an original-looking strip.

The strips come pre-cut in lengths from 40 mm to 400 mm (that's nearly long enough for even the largest barfbag), or precision wound on reels of up to 2000 metres.

2000 metres? That's enough closure strips to run the full length of an Airbus A380 thirteen times. On both decks. Should be enough to last a lifetime of repairs for even the most destructive of baggists.

Order your supplies here.

The prestigious Bagsite of the Month Award doesn't normally go to a site without any bag pictures at all. But the Awards Committee has made an exception this month by nominating Russell Buckley's site for this accolade.

Manchester-based Russell isn't really interested in bags, but he hoovers up any he can find in order to swap them for the real love of his life, airline safety cards.

His bag swaps lists contains 248 items - which puts him at a respectable 41st place on the official bagophily.com Rich List. Not bad for a non-baggist.

Baggists eager to enrich their collection could do worse then browsing his list for needed items.

The Awards Committee wishes to point out that this award in no way condones the unauthorized removal of safety cards from aircraft. As is well-known, aircraft that lack a full complement of safety cards are more prone to fall out of the sky than those fully equipped with this vital item of passenger safety education.

Bagsite of the Month for April 2008 is the little-known Needful Things site of Bjørn Christian Tørrissen.

"Ever since the Vikings left the shores of Scandinavia in their small, unsteady boats, people from the north-western part of Europe have had a special relationship to travelsickness bags," explains Bjørn.

The site has only a limited number of bags on display. But is definitely the place to go if you want to see a 1988 BusyBee bag.

What it lacks in eye candy, this site makes up in terms of witty text. There is a list of handy phrases to use when requesting a bag. Try this one next time you fly:

"Excuse me, miss flight-attendant. Would you be able to help me with a device for regurgitating, somewhere in the immediate future?"

Then there's a list of translations and euphemisms for vomit in various languages. Follow that with readers' stories, a set of after-dinner jokes, and an instruction manual on how to puke.

Hello Kitty, a moon-faced cartoon cat beloved of Japanese teenies, has invaded Eva Air.

The Taiwanese carrier has branded an entire plane with the cartoon pussycat. The image of the furry feline is licensed by the Japanese firm Sanrio.

"EVA Air introduced the Hello Kitty aircraft last year after two years of negotiation with Sanrio," reported the Asia Times Online in January 2006.

"The aircraft now operates daily between Taipei and Fukuoka, Japan. The Hello Kitty theme is pursued with mind-boggling thoroughness: the airline issues pink Hello Kitty boarding passes and luggage tags to passengers, and serves Hello Kitty meals and Hello Kitty duty-free shopping. Even the airsickness bags are Hello Kitty-themed (bidding starts at US$9.99 on eBay)."

Images on the left are from the News on Japan blog.

Halfway up Everest and feel the urge to hurl?

There are several fellow climbers are hanging on the rope below you, unable to dodge falling vomit. And close behind is a team of mountaineering lawyers who have paid the Nepalese government a hefty climbing fee. They are unlikely to be amused by being plastered with gobbets of semi-digested lunch impacting them at terminal velocity. They have a litigious reputation; you fear having to pay out millions in damages.

Fortunately you have with you just the item for this occasion: a Black Diamond Barf Bag.

Crafted from durable, water-resistant polyethylene tarp material with Hypalon®-reinforced dual handles, this bag is big enough to last you to the top of the Himalayas. You can even tie a rope to the handles and lower it to your altitude-sick colleague struggling up the rock face below.

There's a separate compartment for your mobile phone, in case you need to call in a helicopter ambulance.

Get this item from Moosejaw, a Michigan-based outdoors outfitters, for only $29.95. Order two to avoid having to pay for shipping. You get 299 Reward Points along with the bag.

If you don't have much cash spare after paying that climbing fee, you could plump for a cheaper alternative: the Moosejaw Barf Bag.

This plain paper bag comes with a thumbhole to ease opening with frostbitten fingers, plus 19 Reward Points. But unusually for a barfbag, it's neither windproof nor waterproof, and has no ventilation. What do you expect for a mere $1.95?

Considering that its cars cost as much as a small aircraft and can go nearly as fast around corners, it's surprising that it has taken Lamborghini so long to produce its own range of barfbags.

Like many of the firm's vehicles, the Lambo bag comes in a stylish glossy black, a colour not seen in any bags available on board commercial aircraft.

The maker's bull shield marque is printed at the top right.

A real bag, or a marketing gimmick? Lamborghini itself is "currently out of stock". Visit the Lamborghini site and click on "merchandising" to see for yourself. The bag acts as a splash screen to the firm's merchandise outlet - which doesn't mention barfbags.

If it's a real bag, this item could become a new Holy Grail for collectors.

Discerning collectors are of course familiar with sundry secondary genres of barfbags - apart from their use to prevent unpleasantness on board aircraft. These subsidiary genres include offering a way for cinema operators to maintain hygiene during screenings of third-rate horror flicks, a vehicle for preserving free speech and expressing opinions about politicians, as book-promotion vehicles, and so on.

Now here's a bag from a completely new genre: social commentary.

The enigmatic Jezebel Fashion Week bag carries the text "Celebrity, sex, fashion. Without airbrushing."

The bag comes with a box of TicTac mints, a pack of Ex-Lax (a laxative) and a tongue depresser.

Why? Something to do with the New York fashion week, I guess.

As far as I can make out, Jezebel is a blog aimed at East Coast American women with nothing much to do. Except distribute barfbags to eager collectors. See if you can work it out yourself: jezebel.com.

Thanks to Steve Silberberg for the bag.