Today's trade package is one I was super excited to receive, and I was anticipating getting it just as much as I was impatiently waiting for today's Michigan Football spring game to get here since that marks the warmer (eventually) season and serves as a reminder that college football will be back before we know it.
The star of today's post actually almost came to Ann Arbor on a football scholarship before opting for the diamond and a Hall of Fame career. That would be one Barry Larkin, a guy who gets heavily collected by Chris of Nachos Grande. Chris generously let me pick from his Larkin dupes after he got them added on TCDB and I ended up with almost 50 new cards to add to my own collection (which still pales in comparison to his PC by more than 400!).
So here's a quick look at what he sent in this package stuffed with Larkins (and a few other PC guys too):
Scan #1 has the most oddball items of any of today's images but we open with a favorite of mine in Sportflics. This is one of the 1987 Team Preview cards and it includes a solid 12 players up front, some of which were big contributors to the Reds' 1990 title such as Eric Davis, Tom Browning, Larkin, and Paul O'Neill. The other two cards in that row from Classic and Topps/Toys r Us are also from Barry's RC year of '87.
Down the middle we have a Topps Magazine trio from 1990 that includes the previously seen Eric Davis plus fellow Wolverine and '90 champ Chris Sabo, plus a pair of U.S. Playing Card Company cards. And the bottom keeps up the oddball theme with food issues from Dairy Queen, Kraft, and Milk Bone. Hey, I didn't say it was all human food! I'm always a fan of cards showing former Wolverines participating on Olympics teams.
As we head deeper into the 90s there's less oddball stuff but it's still there. '93 Studio's Heritage insert looks awesome and is perfect for a game that works so hard to honor its history. UD's Fun Pack product tried all kinds of stuff to hook kids, including "base cards" that were, among other things, stickers. And there's our second Kraft card of the day--one of two food issues in this image.
'95 Score's Hall of Gold was a fun insert that shouldn't be confused with the Gold Rush parallel. It looks like September of that year was Barry's lone appearance on the cards that could be found in SI for Kids magazines. And Tombstone is the last of the food cards you'll see today.
The bottom row starts with one of the best looking cards of the envelope straight out of the greatest era for inserts, and that's a '96 Bowman Bowman's Best Preview Atomic Refractor. Hell yeah! Next to it is one of a few Larkin appearances in '96 Collector's Choice Silver Signature parallel, and after that we have Fleer's E-Motion XL with its design that included frames and stamps.
For a product that was all about the one-per-pack autographs, '96 Leaf Signature has a base set I find very appealing. Pacific Online is more annoying to collect because it's huge and the variations are hard to track down, but Barry's Reds team checklist looks cool too. And it's too bad the Pinnacle name didn't last beyond 1998.
I've long thought that 1998's offering was one of the best in terms of SP Authentic. The Gold Label (another gem!) next to it is the Class 2 version while the base sees Barry in the field and following through on a swing. And Paramount was one of a number of excellent Pacific offerings, with the '99 Copper parallel as an example above.
The bottom row runs it back with Topps Gold Label (1999 Class 3), the third year of Topps Stars (also 1999) and 2000's Pacific Prizm. On a scale of one to five, Topps gives Barry the following ratings on his Stars card: Hitting: 4; Power: 3; Speed: 4; Defense: 5; Arm: 3. Oh yeah, and give me the Pacific version of Prism over Panini's slightly differently spelled product any day!
This last scan that's 100% vertical cards has some of the highest-end stuff you'll see today. 2000 Pacific Vanguard was big on card thickness and shininess so you know I'm a fan. The back notes that Larkin is one of two Reds to join the 30/30 club, and of course the other one (at the time) was Eric Davis; Brandon Phillips joined the club with 30 jacks and 32 steals in '07. Next is our final Gold Label offering of the day: another Class 3 version from 2000. And even if its silver foil is so reflective that it doesn't scan well, 2001 Leaf Certified Materials was 100% certified Grade A high-end!
Next, 2001 SP Game Bat brings to mind the fad of one-per-pack bat cards that we enjoyed 20 years ago. And after that we have one of my favorites of the whole package: 2003 E-X. This product had multiple variations on the name and design but the '03 version was one of the best as it was mostly clear acetate! Larkin's 2004 Donruss World Series Blue insert is a great reminder of his excellent stats in the '90 World Series sweep of Oakland: .353 AVG (6/17) with a .421 OBP and 3 runs scored.
Heading to the bottom row we begin with the Retail version of Fleer's 2004 Skybox L.E. (limited edition) product. It can be easily differentiated from the hobby version which is die cut along the top. A flying Larkin once again turning two stars on a 2004 Ultra Gold Medallion card which is itself die-cut. And then we have one of the most recent cards you'll see in this post, a 2011 Gypsy Queen Framed Green parallel. You all know I'm not a big fan of the Ginters and GQs of the hobby but the framed cards do look quite nice.
Here we have six horizontal cards before we get to the final verticals. Up top are Barry's base card from Pacific's 2000 Aurora set plus the Pinstripes insert. Since his Reds wore unis with stripes I'd say his team was 100% appropriate to be in the set. Also from 2000 you can see his 2000 Upper Deck Gold Reserve base. That product used the same photos as the flagship product but had different design elements, especially the eponymous gold, and if you compare the two you'll also notice that the Gold Reserve card lacks the All-Star notation. The next card is a 2001 Upper Deck Vintage team checklist which uses the old floating heads look you might have seen decades ago. This card is great for me since it doubles as a Griffey appearance. Larkin and Junior were Reds teammates from 2000-04 and coincidentally they both made the All-Star team on the bookends of those five years!
The last two horizontals are Topps cards of the reprint variety, so don't be fooled and think they're older. On the left is a 2011 Topps 60 Years of Topps Original Back which very helpfully says "reprint" on the back. Of course that's another look at his '95 Topps base you see up there with its unmistakable design. The other is from last year's Stadium Club Greats insert which reprints Larkin's appearance in Stadium Club's 1991 debut product.
We're getting near the end now with two more vertical items that couldn't be more different. On the right is a 1992 Panini Sticker. I very likely pulled one of those from a pack when I was nine and dutifully stuck it in my album but now I have one that I can keep intact. To its left is one of just two numbered cards you'll see today, a 2011 Topps Tier One Blue parallel which is numbered /199 up front. I still need Barry's base card but this Michigan fan is certainly happy to say GO BLUE to the one he owns!
The other brings to mind the kind of relic A&G is known for but it's actually much older than that product. The jersey you see before you is from 2002 Topps 206, but you still get that framed cigarette card look. I'm guessing this is one of the earliest, if not the first, examples of Topps making the framed minis, and you have the nice little cutout in the window so you can actually touch the relic piece.
This is simply an outstanding bunch of cards to add to a collection I'm happy to keep building so again I really appreciate Chris' generosity. These may have all been dupes to him, but they were new to me, and he could have just as easily decided to keep them to trade on the site for more Larkins. Trust me, I'll do my best to pay him back, especially if I can find some he needs somewhere in the wild.
We're not quite done yet, though, because Chris also let me grab four more cards of three other PC guys:
Bookending the top row are 1998 Sports Illustrated cards of Mr. Padre Tony Gwynn and Dean Palmer. One's an all-time great HOFer and the other...is a guy I still enjoy collecting. Speaking of Dean-o, I also snagged a '98 Pacific Online base of him. Down below is one other 2001 UD Vintage team checklist card, and if you look closely enough you'll realize I grabbed this one thanks to the presence of another Wolverine: current Royals skipper Mike Matheny. 2000 was his first of a five-year stint with the club culminating in the 2004 pennant, but he'd be in San Francisco for his sunset season in '06 when Edmonds was the only guy on this card to win a ring that year. In terms of the 2004 team, Matheny, Renteria, Lankford, and Edmonds all participated.
So once again I'd like to say a big thanks to Chris for allowing me to grab nearly 50 Larkin cards from him, many of which are of above-average quality or more. I'm hoping I have some success finding stuff he can use out of the boxes at my local card show if not elsewhere so I can reward his generosity.
Up next will be one more large trade package from one of the usual suspects, and then depending on what else comes in I may finally be able to recap my bevy of TCDB deals so I can put those stacks of cards on my desk away!
You know Chris has an impressive Larkin collection when he's sending you awesome stuff like this.
ReplyDeleteYep! It's a very impressive collection and he hasn't nearly shown off everything he has either.
DeleteIt's hard to believe that he had duplicates of some of those!
ReplyDeleteGood point! I hadn't even thought of that. When you're able to give up doubles like that in a trade you know you're living the good life!
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