Rare Accessory Pack

This package is one of the earliest examples of Glock packaging that we’ve uncovered. As one can imagine, in the early days of a company’s existence, a company tends to concentrate on their main product and the accessories are more of an after-thought. For the first five years (or so) of development, Glock was concentrated on meeting it’s obligations for the Austrian military and then ramping up production in order to enter the US market. The earliest model 17s and P80s did not even have cases! But as things started to progress, there was a growing demand for additional accessories which led to this early accessory pack.

A firm date isn’t printed on this card, but it most likely was produced in 1988 and seems to be the earliest known example of Glock packaging. A similar package was made for the Glock 19 (with the only difference being a 17rd magazine instead of the 19) which was first released in ’88. By this time, there were multiple different holster styles as well as a magazine holder and the +2 base seems to have been a very popular addition for both the 17 and the 19.

The fixed rear sight is an interesting addition to the accessory pack as it was not a standard installation at the time. As you may have heard many times before, the ATF required an adjustable “target” sight to be installed on the early imports in order to qualify for importation. It seems that they did not always change the guns back to a fixed sight, at least in the early days, so it necessitated including the fixed sight in the standard accessory pack.

I’m curious about the changes that happened around that time as it seems that the target sight was NOT required after 1988 (or so). As we’ve discussed in other threads, the order of serial numbers did not go in exact order, but if you look at date codes on Gen 1 pistols, there seems to be a transition period from the target to fixed sight. Not long after that transition, the Gen 2 models were introduced as well which overlapped with Gen 1 for about a year. And not long after that, regular importation was established and the guns destined for the US have different markings and were no longer proof marked in Austria. It would make sense that the target sight was phased out once this new pathway to importation was established, but it seems to have transitioned slightly prior to that. Much much more research is needed…

In another post, I’ll put up some pictures of the Euro market guns produced in the late ’80s to compare to the US market guns as this is the only evidence we have of what production changes were happening at the time. But for now, let me just post a couple pictures of the next evolution of the Glock packaging: a more solid “blister” pack with sealed card backing. Enjoy!