The limited edition Tom Kuhn - 2000 - Celebrate Life! yo-yo made out of dyed laminated maple wood (in this case, red and black). Made by BC/What's Next Mfg. in New York state sometime in 1999 or 2000. While laminated wood yo-yos are not usual for BC, the silver foil stamp design on this fixed axle model is unique. Today, this Tom Kuhn edition is quite hard to find.
The yo-yo came with a small yo-yo instruction booklet, one extra cotton string, and one drawstring velour carrying pouch. Apparently, these limited edition yo-yos were sold by Dr. Tom Kuhn himself to club members at a Spin Doctors Yo-Yo Club (also known as Spindox) meet-up. The club started in 1998 and met in Alameda, California. To my knowledge, this model was never sold by any online yo-yo store or any brick-and-mortar yo-yo store.
The yo-yo in this exhibit came from its first owner who lived in San Leandro, California which is located in the East Bay region of San Francisco Bay. The town is just a few miles from Alameda where the Spindox club met. Alameda is about 19 miles east from Tom's home in San Francisco. Notice that the clear case does not have any branding header card to indicate that it came from BC/What's Next.
