My Tino Holy Grail has arrived

Back in 1998, I graduated 8^th grade and moved on to high school. I did well academically, and graduated at the top of my class (it was a small class, hence me finishing first). I got a little bit of cash for graduation, and combined with a few bucks I had from mowing the lawn, had my mom drive me to the local card shop, where I promptly bought a box of Stadium Club. I believe it ran me about $65 at the time. That was a lot for a 14-year old kid in 1998. Still is.

Why Stadium Club?

Easy. Tino Martinez was featured in the Co-Signers autograph set. For me, that was one of the first times he had been featured in a high-end insert set. Fresh off of his 44-HR season, he started popping up more and more in inserts. This was a sign that he had made it.

Little old naïve me thought I’d for sure pull one of the Tinos Co-Signer autos. The cardboard gods would be with me. I didn’t. They weren’t. I didn’t pull any Co-Signers autos, in fact. I’m sure I nabbed a few insert cards, but I know in the end I was probably disappointed in my $65 hobby box (oh, a sign of things to come!).

I saw a few pop up on eBay over the years, but never pulled the trigger. Then, somehow one popped up on Listia. Yep, Listia. And the tip I got was actually from the seller letting me know the card was up. He knew I collected Tino. The starting bid was 24,999 to protect himself from losing the card too cheap.

I had been accumulating a decent amount of credits, but felt that I needed more. I quickly threw up a few cards that would each net me a few thousand credits, and I even sold a small, unopened iHome speaker I had no intention of using. I had a nice stable of credits.

So I waited. And I watched.

Finally, the end was near. I waited, and I sniped with under 15 seconds to go. For the sum total of 57,552 credits, I won this:

BOOOOM! What a rush. How sweet is that?! On-card, with a Hall of Famer on there too.

Honestly, one of these Co-Signers has been my most wanted Tino for years. I was thrilled, and couldn’t wait for it to arrive, as it was about 16 years past when I thought I’d first have it.

The seller also threw in a few others cards, which I’ll show in part 2. Needless to say, I’ve been a repeat customer of his. More to come.