Batman recently relaunched with a brand-new #1, and the series has both been a criticial success as well as a commercial success, selling out its entire first printing, and selling in excess off 500,000 copies of the first issue. One aspect of the book’s launch has been met with less than glowing reviews, however, and now DC’s distributor, Lunar Distribution, is stepping in with new guidelines regarding the special “Blind as a Bat” variant cover system (where the comic book is sealed, and you don’t know what variant cover you’re receiving, and you can possibly get a rare variant cover).
Lunar has sent a message to retailers explaining that whether you are a brick and mortar store, or just an online retailer, you cannot open the “Blind Bags” before the on sale date, and you cannot sell any of the “Blind Bags” so that customers will receive them before the on sale date of the comic. This is notable since DC KO is coming out next week, and it has a Blind Bag variant, as well.
What were the concerns over retailers opening “Blind Bags” early?
Image via tymackpromotions
As we noted earlier in the month, one of the concerns was that some retailers were selling the Blind Bags as soon as they receved (most retailers receive their comics the week before they go on sale), but the grayer area was over on line retailers who would do videos online opening the Blind Bags to see which variant covers they got, and then they would sell the various variants online.
The argument against that is that the mystery of what was in the Blind Bags was, in effect, what retailers were selling, so opening them before the on-sale date was unfair to the other retailers who waited until the on-sale date to sell them to customers.
What was Lunar’s message to retailers?
This is what Lunar wrote to retailers:
Lunar Distribution Blind Bags Policy
To ensure a fair and consistent experience across all sales channels, brick-and-mortar retailers and live-selling platforms the following policy is being further clarified for all blind bag items from all publishers.All Blind Bag products are strictly subject to their designated On Sale Date. Accounts are prohibited from:
Opening and Displaying Opened Blind Bags for sale, promotion, or preview before the On Sale Date.
Shipping Blind Bags to customers or third parties to be delivered prior to the On Sale Date.
Any violation of this policy will be considered a breach of account terms and will result in loss of Early Delivery privileges. Loss of Early Delivery privileges means the account will be processed to receive product on the On Sale Date. This policy is in place to maintain product integrity, ensure fairness across all accounts, and protect the consumer experience intended by the publisher and creators.
Some retailers who were criticized noted that they had no guidelines to go by, so they felt that they couldn’t be blamed. Well, now they have guidelines to go by, so we shall see what happens with Blind Bags going forward.
Source: Lunar