Søren , you may like this thread: classiccomics.org/thread/3968/comic-book-ads

I think there may be another like it, too, but I couldn't find it, if there is. Someone else may have a better memory...

It is not illegal to create a fake ID; just to attempt to use it to break the law. That's how they got away with it. Actually, anybody who would ever try one of those kits would be in for a sorry awakening. Most of that kind of thing had generic id templates, which wouldn't fly anywhere. Before technology improved, many IDs were not photo ID and some, like my school ID, was little more than a business card with a photo on it.

I did order one of those military strategy games from the back; Task Force. It sounded like you got all this cool stuff with it; it turned out to be little plastic pieces and a plastic map, on which you essentially played Battleship. My Guns of Navarone playset was way cooler. The only other thing I ever ordered were some treasury comics, from DC (Legion of Superheroes, with Mike Grell's wedding of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl and Best of DC). By that point, I had learned to get a money order from the post office and send that in, instead of cash.

If we're talking about anything we may have ordered from comic books, not just novelty stuff, instructions on how to kill someone with your bare hands or how not to get sand kicked in your face at the beach, then I should note that rather early on, in 1976, when I was in 2nd grade and still pretty new to the whole comics thing, I ordered (or rather my mom agreed to let me order and gave me the money) two DC treasury editions that caught my eye in a house ad:


I still remember when those came in this big cardboard mailer, where I kept them stored as long as I had them.

A few years later, when I in about the 7th grade or so, I finally noticed all of those little ads from comics dealers offering to send free catalogs, so I sent away for a few. One of them, a certain little operation in Arlington, TX called Lone Star Comics had the best variety and really good prices, and I started ordering comics - stuff like the complete runs of Black Goliath, Inhumans, Kirby's 4th World stuff or Ragman, usually paying less than cover price for them. So for a few years there, when most of the kids my age were starting to save any money they had to buy their first car, I was blowing any cash I had on back issues. (I also learned, by the way, that Lone Star is still around: mycomicshop.com).