Pass the sick-bag...  
Turbulence.  30,000 feet and suddenly falling. Stomach in throat.  For most air travellers this would be the first and probably only time that the complimentary sick bag nestling in the seat pocket in front of them would take on any significance.

For some however, the airsick bag is the highlight of their flight. For these strange few the sick bag is a keepsake, a desired collectable or even perhaps an object d’art. One such soul is Rune Tapper, of Sweden, who’s website sicksack.com caught our eye and who has the privilege of being our first Collector in the Spotlight.

According to Rune, the primary attraction of collecting sick bags is the desire to have a memento of his travelling experiences.  “There are three things in the seat pocket in front of you; the in-flight magazine, which is boring, the safety card, which you are not supposed to remove from the plane, and the airsickness bag,” he explains. “I’m not interested in tickets or baggage labels, or things like that, so that really left me only one choice of souvenir to take home, and the humorous aspect also appealed”.

How it all started
Rune’s earliest encounter with a sick bag was during his first trip on an airplane aged 11. This was a rather more conventional and, er messy affair, though perhaps the experience deeply imprinted a connection between travel, adventure and sick bags on Rune’s young psyche – who knows?  Many years later, undeterred by this formative experience and following some heavy business travel, Rune suddenly found himself the proud possessor of 5 different bags.  “Hey, I’ve got a collection!” he thought.

It’s in the blood of a collector to collect, collate and display. So finding himself with a fledgling collection, Rune went public and pinned them to the wall of his office. Then in 1999 Rune was setting up a personal web site, when, in a moment of inspiration he reached for his bag collection, turned on his a scanner - and sicksack.com was born !

Global Barf Club
In a wonderful testament to the power of the net, he began to receive e-mail from people all over the world offering to donate or swap bags.  “I suddenly realized I was not alone”, Rune says, in awe. 

Rune estimates that there are about one hundred bag collectors on-line. About a quarter of them have put their collections on the net (see links). There is even an airsick bag discussion group, set up by a collector from Thailand in 1999.  “It is used for swaps, discussion about the hobby, questions about identifying unknown bags and such like”, Rune explains, “you should come and see for yourself.”

Family, Friends and Barfbags
Finally, we ask Rune how his choice of hobby goes down with his family and friends.  “Some make fun of me, of course”, he admits,  “but most people just seem quite amused by it.  I would recommend it as a hobby to anyone; it’s very entertaining and educating.  You get to learn a lot about airlines and other countries, and meet new friends from all over the world.”  And, if a quick trawl through some of the other barf-bag sites is anything to go by, you can have quite a lot of fun in the process!  

Fact file
At the time of writing, Rune has an impressive 377 bags from 243 different airlines. He is adding new bags all the time, usually as the result of trades with fellow collectors or through donations from family and colleagues.

Even so, Rune considers his collection modest.  “Some collectors have thousands of bags”, Rune says ruefully. One such is Dutch collector Nick Vermeulen who has an astounding 2112 bags from 470 airlines. “He even has an entry in the Guinness Book of Records!” Rune tells us.

Rune has several favorite bags, some of which are illustrated here.  One of them, from the now defunct Swedish airline “Linjeflyg”, has particular personal appeal. It’s the same type of bag that featured in his first encounter, all those years ago. Though Rune assures us that it is not the actual bag involved…

Other favorites include the colorful bags from Eastern Airlines, Uzbekistan Airways and Air Afrique.  Then there are the “special edition” or gimmick bags such as those used by Microsoft to promote Flight Simulator 98, or the bag handed to selected audiences of the film, Cannibal Ferox, billed as ‘the most violent film ever made’

We asked Rune whether there was a “holy grail” of barf bag collecting, something that he was desperate to add to his collection.  “Air Force One”, he answered without hesitation, “That’s probably the most wanted bag in the collectors community.  I’ve never seen one and I’m not even sure it exists.  Bags featured in several scenes on board AF1 in ‘Independence Day’, but they were made specially for the movie.”  Rune also mentions the bags supplied on board the Space Shuttle and, presumably, for the International Space Station.  And let’s not forget to mention the “vomit comet”!

Selected barf-bag links 

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