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Monday, November 16, 2015

This exists?!

I foolishly thought that I had seen every Tino Martinez certified auto out there. Even if I don't own 'em all, I've certainly seen them while browsing eBay.

Yet, I came across one that I luckily did a double-take on:
When I first saw it, I thought it was just a regular 1999 Stadium Club card that was signed. I figured it was an in-person autograph. Then I noticed the red text. 1999 Stadium Club has gold embossed text. See?
Hold up! The batting pose is slightly different (but definitely same game/at bat). Then I noticed it. In the upper left, there is that lovely "Topps Cerified Autograph Issue" stamp. Could it be?

I headed to baseballcardpedia.com and pulled up 1999 Stadium Club. It appears that there were 10 retail-only autos (imagine that!). Series One autos fell 1:1107, while Series Two were 1:877. Tough pull! I wonder how many there are of each. Here is the checklist:

SCA1 Alex Rodriguez
SCA2 Chipper Jones
SCA3 Barry Bonds
SCA4 Tino Martinez
SCA5 Ben Grieve
SCA6 Juan Gonzalez
SCA7 Vladimir Guerrero
SCA8 Albert Belle
SCA9 Kerry Wood
SCA10 Todd Helton

I needed it, knowing I probably wouldn't see this card again anytime soon. I put in a max bid of $15, but was willing to go to $20. That is way more than I spend on single cards. Sale price? $4.25! Wow. I was shocked. I was ready for it to shoot up at the end, and it just never did. I didn't even mind the $3 shipping.

This definitely has to be one of the rarest Tino autos I now own. It arrived this afternoon, and I'm thrilled to add it to my collection.
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10 comments:

  1. Zippy ZappyNovember 16, 2015 at 8:29 PM

    Congrats. Always nice when surprises pop up (and more importantly you add them for cheap).

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  2. RosenortNovember 16, 2015 at 8:56 PM

    Nice score, I have the Helton, beautiful cards.

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  3. HackenbushNovember 16, 2015 at 9:01 PM

    Congrats. Makes it even better when it's a bargain.

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  4. JediJeffNovember 16, 2015 at 10:54 PM

    Looks nicer with the red text at the bottom. Good find.

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  5. The Dutch Card GuyNovember 17, 2015 at 12:27 AM

    Wow, what a bargain, grats !

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  6. Greg ZakwinNovember 17, 2015 at 2:12 AM

    congrats on the steal!

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  7. BobWalkthePlankNovember 17, 2015 at 7:49 AM

    That is a great deal. The checklist is solid too!

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  8. The Junior JunkieNovember 17, 2015 at 10:47 AM

    Stadium Club on-card? Baddass.

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  9. cynicalbuddhaNovember 17, 2015 at 1:57 PM

    Nice pick up. I always love finding new cards I didn't know existed for my player collections and then getting them cheap is an added bonus.

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  10. FujiNovember 17, 2015 at 11:56 PM

    Congratulations! It's insane how cheap some of those late 90's Topps certified autographs go for... considering many of them were super tough pulls. Collectors should probably thank products like Donruss and Leaf Signatures for keeping the prices of those cards so affordable.

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