There have been reports recently that customers have been pulling a War of the Bounty Hunters #4 issue with a blank black cover from Wal Mart 3-packs. This may or may not be true that they are coming out of Wal Mart 3-packs, but the comics are also being advertised as “error” variants and people are attempting to sell them for hundred of dollars on Ebay.
Do not pay hundreds of dollars for these alleged “error variants.” What you are buying is a store exclusive variant without a cover- effectively defaced, destroyed, or otherwise incomplete.
I’ve learned from a few sources who own stores who produced War of the Bounty Hunters exclusives that these issues look like the “reader copies” that those stores sent out with their exclusives to their customers. What these stores would do is tear off the front and back cover with the exclusive art and store name on them and send out the resulting comic below.
Now, the listings are showing a War of the Bounty Hunters #4 issue that has a black blank front cover with trade dress at the top stating the name of the comic and a back cover with a Hulk Citizen watch ad.
Looking at the TFAW exclusive for War of the Bounty Hunters Alpha, we can see what Marvel’s practice is for printing store exclusives.
First, the front cover shows the exclusive cover art for the store.
The back is blank with trade dress except for the store name.
This is where it gets interesting, though. Inside the exclusive cover is a second front cover that is black and blank except for the trade dress displaying the comic name. Just like the alleged War of the Bounty Hunters #4 “error” variant.
The back cover, when opened, reveals a normal ad for that month. Just like the Hulk Citizen watch ad.
So, speculating here, I think damages or dead stock of a store exclusive for War of the Bounty Hunters #4 made its way into the hands of whoever packs and distributes these Wal Mart 3-packs. In previous 3-packs, there was controversy over the fact that store exclusive covers made their way into the packs. See the example of Patrick Gleason’s Amazing Spider-Man #55 virgin web-head cover.
Again, speculating here: to avoid such a controversy again, those who distribute these 3-packs to Wal Mart have taken to removing the exclusive cover and packing the second interior covers into the 3-packs.
Do not pay hundreds of dollars for these alleged “error variants.” What you are buying is a store exclusive variant without a cover- effectively defaced, destroyed, or otherwise incomplete.
