In June 2001 I was riding high: Summer vacation had arrived, I had a roll of cash from my fifteenth birthday, and I was making some extra money doing yardwork for family friends. I was also swept up in Ichiro-mania and busting as many packs of cards as possible trying to find the Japanese star. Needless to say, the 2001 SPx Ichiro jersey/auto rookie shortprint was a holy grail to me.

My local card shop had a few boxes of SPx that seemed to glow from the display case. But at $9 per pack - and $130 per box! - it would’ve cost half my net worth just to fish for a dream. And yet, even as I continued buying budget packs of Topps and Bowman every couple weeks, I remained convinced that I would pull the Ichiro if I bought a box of SPx.

One day I made up my mind: I was going to buy a box. Then I talked to my mom, who brought me back to reality with some well-reasoned points. I recalled the phrase “crap shoot” mentioned a few times. I ultimately decided against the purchase, but even as I went on to spend my money more ‘wisely’ (yeah, right), I still believed I would’ve pulled the Ichiro.

And I still believe today, 23 years later - but not enough to buy a box.

This month I looked at the rookie/auto checklist from that set and compared it against asking prices on eBay and realized that I could own the 15-card subset - minus the grail - for an affordable price. Roughly $100 later and here it is. These cards have a beautiful design that I still appreciate today. Some of these guys (I’m looking at you, Corey Patterson) were selling for $50+ in 2001, which is nearly the equivalent of $100 today when adjusted for inflation. In case you were wondering, the Ichiro sells for 20-30x this entire lot and will only go up after he gets into Cooperstown soon.

Maybe I missed my golden ticket. Oh well. Let’s be honest: I probably would’ve gotten an Adrian Hernandez.