Front covers from magazines/comic books/paperbacks are sent in for credit from the distributors. I'm not sure if they still do this, but publishers used to have a disclaimer on the copyright page of the book that stated "please contact the publisher if this book was sold with a missing/damaged...
Then they can't be returned to another retailer for full price/store credit. This was a big issue with LP's back in the day...known as "cut-outs" since there was generally a corner of the jacket cut off when a retailer sold the album at a bargain basement price.
Man, you guys must have better stores than I do. Made the trip to Kenosha to check it out (our BL closed last year) and only contemplated the AMC Cult set. If I didn't already own some of the TV show sets (with the first discs of Bewitched, Partridge Family, etc.) those would have been a good...
It sucks that our local Big Lots closed. The closest one is about 30 minutes away and not really near anything I would regularly stop at...looks like there are some good deals if you time it right.
I'm not sure if you guys are also following the thread in the TV Forum, but here's a link to it:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/290091/tv-on-dvd-blu-ray-big-lots-anyone-confirm/30#post_3589134