A unique item and a unique story! Tim Jiardini grew up in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, home to TSR and the birthplace of Dungeons and Dragons. During the summer of 1978, Tim saved and scraped money together to buy the soon to be released Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Player's handbook. Having played D&D with TSR's Dungeon Hobby Shop, employee, Ernie Gygax Tim found out that the AD&D Player's Handbook would be available for the first time and exclusively at The Dungeon Hobby Shop in early August and later that month they'd be available at GenCon XI and around the country. Having testplayed both the Paladin and Ranger classes, Tim was ecstatic for the arrival of the new book.
The first morning the Player's Handbook went on sale, a Saturday, Tim arrived 45 minutes prior to the store opening. The door opened right on time and Ernie Gygax ushered the 14 year old Tim into the store. Ernie opened a box of the Players Handbooks and handed one to Tim. After counting out his money, Ernie handed over the book to Tim and said, "That's the first one ever sold!" Ernie then asked Tim if he wanted it autographed and that "his dad" was right upstairs! Soon Gary Gygax came down and inscribed the book, "The FIRST copy sold! To Tim Jiardini", and autographed it "Gary Gygax".
A subterranean fun house, where the "treasures" gained from succeeding in getting past the encounters would be viewing exhibits with my stuff on display, maybe a pic of the "victor" doing so as proof of success.
