fastballspecial Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 I hate this book I've looked forever for one copy. I've never seen it in the wild or at shows. Other hulk 377 3rd print its the most difficult book for me to find. manetteska and ADAMANTIUM 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awakeintheashes Posted February 11 Share Posted February 11 I don't think this has been brought up yet, but I think this may have been part of a limited test run for bookmarket newsstands (Barnes & Noble, Walden, Borders) in certain markets between 1993-1995 across various publishers. One of which was in the Chicagoland area. There have been, I believe, two copies of this variant posted from boardies in that area. I'm not sure if the copies originated from that area, but if so, it may help point to at least one market where they were tested. The reason I am gravitating to this theory is because we have recently seen copies of Star Wars Heir to the Empire #1 come to market which feature a blank UPC or a UPC sticker over the blank UPC box. Spoiler Spoiler Recently, a set of Star Wars Heir to the Empire #1-6 came up for sale on eBay (Link to Sale), which included a blank UPC variant. Based on the listing description and the seller's other listings, he was selling off a lot of his Star Wars stuff from childhood. I figured there was a good chance he purchased these books off the newsstands or a LCS (issues 1-3 were all newsstand variants). So, after couple beers, I decided to reach out to the seller to compliment him on his Star Wars collection and to ask if he had purchased the Heir to the Empire #1 off the shelf, and if so, if he remembered from where. Below is his response... I know the UXM #302 variant features a blank UPC and no cover price, whereas Heir to the Empire #1 only features a blank UPC. However, this could simply mean there was a difference between publishers and their agreement/test/plan with the bookstores in these markets. If anyone has any information they want to share if they know the region their copies originated from, it'd be helpful to know as I start to plunge into this rabbit hole. manetteska and srezvan 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awakeintheashes Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 (edited) One more thing on this…this was the time when marvel was switching to barcodes for Direct and Newsstand. Is it possible the bookstores wanted to test out their own barcode system and pricing at this time? That would explain the blank price box. It wouldn’t be the first or last example of a newsstand book with US price variants. I’m going to go down this rabbit hole to see if there is anything to this hunch. If anyone has any info or has seen a stickered version of this book, please share. Edited February 14 by awakeintheashes manetteska 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
