[OhioLawyerF5]

It's an interesting exercise to think about. For me, I really didn't buy a lot of singles until my adult years. I was mostly opening packs and trading.

I think the first single I bought wasn't until 1991 when our local grocery store put in a display case of cards. Up until that point through the 80s I had only bought packs from the checkout line. It was a 1991 Leaf Dave Justice. It cost $4 and was the most I'd ever paid for a card, being the first. It is not worth near that today.

During my college years in 2000, I was buying a lot of boxes to open at a local shop. There was a 1993 SP Derek Jeter. That card had become quite iconic by then so I grabbed it. It was the most I'd paid at that point.

Fast forward to the years when I began to buy singles. The next on the list to break the threshold would be the 1963 Pete Rose.

That would be broken the next year when I made it my goal at the National to buy the best copy of the 1967 Tom Seaver I could find.

Lastly, as I built out my rare 90s Larkin PC, the card that took over the spot from the Seaver was the 1996 Select Certified Mirror Gold Barry Larkin. I had recently purchased a super rare set of the unreleased prototypes of the 1998 Donruss Crusades of Barry Larkin. That's 3 cards that if bought individually would have taken the top spot. They showed up for sale pretty randomly, and being the only set in existence, I had to pounce. So I was still reeling from that unexpected purchase when the former Pinnacle CEO decided to sell his entire set of 1996 Mirror Golds. I assumed whoever spent the 6-figures to buy the set would be doing so to break it up and sell it off. Sure enough, I was contacted with an option to buy the Larkin from that set. And I once again couldn't let that opportunity pass as that card is the peak of 90s player collecting.