"Bob Grove and I were at the Los Angeles airline collectible show last week-end", says hard-ridin', hard-drinkin' baggist Bruce Kelly.

"We scored a few bags and got a few more after a brief excursion to the Tijuana airport. Here we are standing next to John Wayne, well his statute at least at the John Wayne International Airport in Orange County between San Diego and Los Angeles."

Our photo shows a bronze Duke peeing into a trio of Bruce's newly won bags: First Choice, Egyptair and Indian Airlines. Hardly worth a trip to LAX from Bruce's home in Alaska, but maybe he was trying to avoid the January snows.

Bruce also visited the Grove ranch: "I can say that I have observed Bob Grove's very tastefully done home decor with dominant barf bag themes", he says. "He has some very rare bags indeed and it is a joy to see them proudly displayed. Unfortunately my wife will not allow such a decor in our home."

Forensic science reveals that Bob is proudly clutching a Gulf Air, plus two other bags I can't identify.

To misquote The Duke: “A bag is a bag, it ain't make a difference what color it is.”

Thanks to Bruce Kelly for (some of) this item.

The 2008 Guinness World Records book doesn't mention barfbags.

Nor does the Guinness website.

But try typing "sick bags" into Guinness's search box, and up pops a picture of our very own Niek Vermeulen, sporting a Guinness sweatshirt and his trademark "barf bags wanted" baseball cap.

According to Guinness, Niek's collection boasts 5180 bags from 1003 airlines, and he has held the world record since 1970.

Mile-high? Not quite: there are 5280 feet in a mile. Niek should let us know when he hits the magic number so we can induct him into the Mile High Club.

Kicking off the new year in this illustrious series of featured bagsites is Italian collector Guido Debenedetti's website, "Zio Guido's bags".

Reasons to visit this site? Well, click on the "Some of my bags" link to see Finnaviation's famous barfing reindeer, Jaromir Kral's cartoon bag, and the unique Air Cannaba bag, which presumably you can get only if you are on a trip.

Guido lists 362 bags in his collection, but apart from the sample in the "Some of my bags" link, there are no scans. You can drown your disappointment by turning on the sound on your computer and listening to the background music, which my wife assures me is from a 1970s Tony Curtis movie.

The real reason to check out this site, though, is to admire the Pinnochio Airlines postcard (pictured on the left). Guido says he will send you one if you ask him.

I don't know if Guido is still collecting - has anyone been in touch with him recently?

The Boston Globe featured Steve Silberberg and his bag collection on 3 January 2007.

"Steven J. Silberberg is a Hull resident with an interesting hobby: He collects air-sickness bags," this article starts off.

The writing does get better, though. It had to, to compete with stories like "Look younger with these 10 tips" and "Changing the script on teen pregnancy".

The Globe goes on to reveal that bags are the key to Steve's heart.

"I've found it's a really good litmus test that shows if I will get along with somebody," the article quotes him.

Other thrilling details: "He keeps his air-sickness bags in plastic sheets and stores them in three-ring binders," and "His bag-collecting hit a zenith during the late 1990s, when he started finding other sickness bag enthusiasts on the Internet."

Yes, folks: keep reading bagophily.com, and you can help keep Steve on that pinnacle.