Two Gaiman premiums...

I came late to Sandman; I didn't become a regular reader until 47, I believe. I was introduced to it by the Science Fiction Book Club, who had Book Club Hardcovers of A Game of You, Season of Mists, V for Vendetta, and Watchmen. They also had periodic promotions to get several books free when you joined or renewed, so I got everything comic-related. Sandman was the first long-running title that I got fully complete. Currently I'm missing only the #8 editorial variant and the #18 blue panels error. A few years ago I got these two retailer incentives on eBay, and they were among my first personal submission to CGC.

The dark covers make them harder to photograph; the reflections appear much more clearly. For the same reason, they're pretty hard to find in high grades. The silver spine on Death: The High Cost of Living #1 and the black spine on Sandman #50 make even the smallest crimp look like a major crease. These Vertigo books also had a tendency to show a lot of spine waviness anyway; I wonder if the metallic inks casues the coverstock to ripple like that? Higher moisture content than other inks?

I also have three other Vertigo platinums that I have not yet submitted: Black Orchid #1 just recently bought off eBay, Extremist #1 pulled from a discount bin many years ago, and two copies of Books of Magic #1 pulled from a discount bin in about 2010 ($1 each). That particular discount bin was especially generous, as I also pulled a Fables 6 RRP for $1 that came back 9.4. Good times...

Vertigo was a pretty big deal to me when it launched. I was happy that so many of the comics I was enjoying were all grouped together under one umbrella that sounded better than saying "the DC mature readers books." For so long "adult material" has been a euphamism for porn; I'm sure everyone thought I was talking about skin mags.

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