Welcome. This is what my wife calls "a bunch of stupid jokes and pictures of paper bags." She's right about the jokes. She's wrong about the bags: some of them are plastic.

What the critics say: "Utterly unnotable" (Wikipedia editor). "Ridiculous collections #4" (Buzzfeed). Other comments: "As complete wastes of time go, it's a very high quality complete waste of time... An entirely dispensable source of inane comments about a truly trivial subject... A monument to the planet's worst corporate design... An unwelcome reminder of some of the more unpleasant moments in our lives."

Donations (unused, please) of bags not represented in the bag gallery are welcomed -- please mail to this address, and I'll credit you on this site! I am happy to trade any extras that I have. Check out the links to other bag sites, find out how you can use your spare bags, and explore the fascinating world of bag manufacturers. 

Highlights: The design features page reveals the secrets of professional baggery, and the logos page analyses the enigma of airline corporate identities. Search for your favourite bag, browse the bag gallery by country and airline, and check out the biggest, best and worst bags!

Bag design competition

Can't think of what to do with all those plain white bags you find on board? Design your own bag! Here are two designs by Daisy and John Mackey. The design at the top features the helpful advice, "If you're going to spew, spew in this". The figure is supposed to be me. And that's not a skirt - it's a sarong. Click on the bags for a closer look. Would you like your own designs featured? Then draw on a bag, scan it, and send it to me!

Monday, December 15, 2003 

New use for barfbags

Use them to write a bestseller. According to Zeeks.com, JK Rowling wrote the names of the Hogwarts houses on a barfbag. The houses (Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw) appear in the Harry Potter wizarding novels. So - if you find a plain white bag in the seat pocket in front of you on your next flight, get out your pen and start scribbling.

Wednesday, December 10, 2003 

Barf smiley

Want a new  job? Right-click on one of the smiley icons on the left, save it to your hard drive, then use it in emails to your boss. Sorry, I've forgotten where I stole these smileys from.

Monday, December 08, 2003 

Fly into the past

The Airline History site has a useful rundown of the history of oodles of airlines. Nothing about barfbags, though.

Sunday, December 07, 2003 

Does spam make you barf?

It has that effect on me. One way spammers get hold of email addresses is to extract email addresses from websites. To avoid having them do this with the generous individuals who have sent me bags, I've removed all the email addresses from this website. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Thursday, December 04, 2003 

Instructions for use

Such a shame to throw away all those unused barfbags that somehow end up in your carry-on luggage. But they do come in surprisingly handy. Use them to store that delicious seafood pilaf that you couldn't quite bring yourself to eat on the plane. Or fill with water and use to transport live goldfish. Forgotten to bring little Jimmy's bucket to the beach? A bag makes a good substitute. And colleague Jim Green tells me that bags make excellent glove puppets. Click here for more creative ideas for recycling bags.

Wednesday, December 03, 2003 

Underbagged

What do Latvia, Liberia and Lesotho have in common? Yes, they all start with an L. What else? They're all missing from my barfbag collection.

What's the biggest country not represented? Chad. In terms of population? Burkina Faso. Other prominent absentees (coloured red in the map): Georgia and Rwanda. 

Major underrepresented portions of the globe are a swathe of Africa and chunks of Central Asia and Central America.

Donations from these areas especially welcome!

Centres of megabagdiversity are the USA (though many US bags are distressingly plain), China, the UK, Canada, Germany, Brazil and Indonesia. 

Click here for details.

For new baggists only

New to the world of bag collecting? Want to get a head start on your collection? Then send me an email, and I'll send you a randomly selected free starter pack from my surplus bag stock. There won't be anything rare, and you may end up with some duplicates, but at least you'll be able to show your friends a few more of these lovely cultural artefacts. Make sure you include your mailing address in your email. Offer good as long as stocks last.

This is where old news goes when it's too old to be news.

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