100 Days of Barry Larkin

[OhioLawyerF5]

I am light on 1992 Larkins, as they are mostly base cards or food issues, and my collection doesn't really focus on those things. So I thought I'd share a later set of cards that I know won't be posted when we get to that year, because it's nearly certainly the only set in existence (if you know me from other sites, you've seen these before).

My all-time favorite insert set is the 1998 Donruss Crusades. Buckle in, because I want to take the time to lay out the history of this set. For those unfamiliar with the 1998 Donruss Crusade set, here is some information:

The 1998 Donruss Crusade baseball set consists of 130 cards of which come in three different color parallels -- Green, Purple, and Red -- with each color accompanied by a unique print run (green numbered to 250, purple numbered to 100, and red numbered to 25). The first 100 cards in the set depict veteran stars while the remaining 30 feature young hopefuls.

1998 Donruss Crusade is a multi-product release; the first 100 cards were randomly inserted into three products: 40 cards inserted in 1998 Donruss, 30 cards inserted in 1998 Leaf, and 30 cards inserted in 1998 Donruss Update. Cards 101-130 were inserted into packs of 1998 Leaf Rookies and Stars. The set was an unannounced "stealth" insert set and odds were not included on the packs.

There were two different designs in the Crusade set. The regular/base design featured colored photos of a player against a medieval background. The cards were printed on chromium stock with a holographic foil finish. The other design was a subset entitled Call to Arms. These picture the player against a colored back drop with an emblem etched in the background and the words Call to Arms printed in bold white letters down the side of the card. All of the Call to Arms Crusade cards that were officially released/packed-out were mistakenly printed without card numbers. No correction to this error was made. Both designs are breathtakingly beautiful in person. Pictures just don't do them justice.

Players included in the set had either a Call to Arms or a base card. As I collect Barry Larkin, he had a Call to Arms card in the set. As previously mentioned it is unnumbered on the back, but is listed as card #63 in the checklist. According to Baseballcardpedia.com the Larkin cards were released in packs of 1998 Donruss Update.

Here is a photo of the Larkin cards I have. Obviously, I'm missing the Red as it is my top priority in my collecting journey to track one down.



Additionally, there were Executive proofs of the set made. These cards are serial-numbered either "XXX/250" (green), "XXX/100" (purple), or "XX/25" (red). The serial-numbering is printed rather than stamped. These cards were produced for Donruss staff and were used in-house for final approval and quality control before production. While print runs aren't confirmed, it's likely every card of this version regardless of color was printed in the same quantity. That said, it's believed that that particular quantity is exceptionally small. Baseballcardpedia.com says that many collectors believe that 1-2 copies of an Executive Promo each player for each color were produced for all cards in the officially released set (i.e., cards #1 - #130). Other researchers believe the number to be more than 1 or 2, but possibly less than 10. There is no way to confirm this other than assumptions from sales observations over time, but it's clear they are very rare. Recently, a large collection of the executive proofs surfaced at auction. Unfortunately, none of the Larkins were among them, so I'm still on the lookout for those.

A number of additional Crusade cards (sequentially numbered #131 - #200 in the set) were produced by Donruss for future 1998 and 1999 baseball products, but were never officially released due to the bankruptcy of Pinnacle Brands. However, prototypes of all 70 of these known, unreleased Crusades emerged on the secondary market shortly after Pinnacle's bankruptcy. None of these unreleased prototype Crusades are serial-numbered. While Major League Baseball Properties (MLBP) instructed Pinnacle Brands - which included the Donruss and Leaf products - to destroy its baseball card inventory after the bankruptcy filing, some Donruss employees collated and kept these unreleased Crusades and sold them to Dave and Adam's Card World, a sports card and collectibles store. In turn, they sold the entire lot to a private collector, which then traded hands again to another private collector. Had these Crusades not been backdoored, collectors may have never seen these.

While many collectors believe that one copy of the Red and Purple and two copies of the Green of each player from this unreleased portion of the set exist, this is more of an exception than the norm. The large majority of players only have one of each color, with some players not having one or two colors confirmed to exist.

Most players in the initial Crusade set (#1 - #100) were to have a "base" and "Call to Arms" (CTA) card, for all three colors. The first Crusade "type" for each of these players were released in packs of 1998 Donruss, Leaf, and Donruss Update; however, the second Crusade "type" for many players were part of this unreleased set. For example, the Ken Griffey, Jr. CTA Crusade was one of these unreleased cards that emerged on the secondary market after the bankruptcy - Griffey, Jr. had a "base" Crusade that was officially released in packs but his CTA subset was to be featured in sets that were never officially released.

Unlike the CTA Crusades that were inserted into packs, all unreleased CTA cards are sequentially-numbered.

Because of the popularity of the Crusade set in general and potential rarity of the unreleased Crusades specifically, these command also strong premiums in the secondary sales market over the pack-issued Crusades.

It should be noted, there are a few exceptions to the rule with these unreleased cards. Rickey Henderson (#166) and Vinny Castilla (#138) both do not have a Crusade that was released in packs but have a Crusade in this Unreleased set. Both of Mo Vaughn's Crusades (#12 & #196) - pack-issued and in the unreleased set - were the CTA version; Vaughn does not have a "base" Crusade.

All player cards between #131 and 200 have been accounted for although some players do not have all 3 color parallels.

Barry Larkin has all 3.