bomaya wrote:
This happens so often I sometimes think that people in charge of collections just do not understand this kind of collector mentality that is more interested in spine and trade dress than linework and art restoration.
Surely you're not more interested in the carton rather than the content? As well as, perhaps, but more than?

Personally I don't care. I have a mixture of both kinds of jacket design in my Golden Age Captain America Masterworks for example. (Vol.1-3 and 6 in regular design, vols 4&5 in variant.) I bought whichever version was cheapest at the time. I'm going to spend more time reading the comics and looking at the art than I am looking at the spines.