newsstands, while the 75¢ copies are part of the smaller batch printed for newsstands in Canada. However, some copies only have a 60¢ price - or only a 75¢ price - on the cover, these being copies printed for the returnable newsstand distribution channel. and Canada (and the U.K.), for direct sold copies. This way, Marvel could publish one giant print run covering the U.S. Pictured here is a direct edition copy of Amazing Spider-Man #238 printed with the alternate price in Canada.
Venom: Lethal Protector #1 was meant to have a “foil cover” but a batch of copies were printed with a black cover and just a partial stripe of foil. Whoops! Sometimes a publisher (or the printer) makes mistakes! A batch of copies of Fantastic Four #110 were printed with a green color scheme in error. So being choosy is warranted within this theme, sticking to the ones you happen to particularly like or ones that overlap other themes (for example an incentive variant that also features a cover swipe, or a cover that you like as a work of art). Also, the recipients of these variants keep them in pristine condition with hardly any copies getting read or naturally destroyed, as each one is treated as a collector’s item. There are so many different incentive variants out there that each individual one almost isn’t unique anymore - each next one almost becomes “just another incentive variant” in one large pile of other “unique” incentive variants.
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Right: Wizard offered a series of “#1/2” mail-away issues, and as an extra incentive to subscribe to the guide, subscribers were sent special copies with silver foil stamps. Left: Image Zero was a mail-away issue requiring the collector mail in seven coupons cut out from various Image titles (such as Spawn #4). Another example: a 1:5 retailer incentive variant for Savage Dragon #137 featured then Senator Barack Obama on the cover (his first comic book cover appearance), leading to a print run for this variant on the order of just 1,500 copies. the retailer had to commit to an order of 50 copies of Spawn #65 in order to receive one copy of Spawn #1 Black & White Edition), leading to a print run for this variant on the order of just 3,100 copies. Spawn #1 “Black & White Edition” was a 1:50 retailer incentive variant for Spawn #65 (i.e. This can lead to low print runs for these incentive variants, that attract collector interest and drive up values. For example if the offer was a 1:10 incentive, then for every 10 “regular” copies of that issue, there can exist a maximum of one retailer incentive copy. These alternate or “variant” covers then have a known rarity ratio versus the larger direct edition print run.
Order ten regular copies, get one limited edition variant! Comic shops order from publishers on a committed non-returnable basis (regular sales of Marvel “direct edition” comics to comic shops would begin in 1979 also see Whitman multi-pack comics from 1977-1979), and sometimes to try and boost sales, publishers will offer special incentives.Ī common type of incentive involves producing alternate covers, sometimes with those alternate covers featuring other artists (some of the covers shown in the prior section were such alternates). Right: Amazing Spider-Man #646 (Variant).