100 Days of Barry Larkin

[OhioLawyerF5]

I recently posted my rainbow from 1996 Select Certified. It was such a groundbreaking set at the time that collectors were clamoring for the rare parallels like never before. By 1997, Pinnacle was struggling financially and looking for ways to make money. They produced the Certified set that year as Pinnacle Certified, rather than Select Certified. The 1996 set was such a hit, particularly the mirror parallels, that Pinnacle decided to do a 2nd printing before release. Then after release the demand was so high, as collectors assumed the print runs of the mirrors was the same as 1996, Pinnacle apparently decided to do 3 additional printings. Overall, it is believed that there were a total of 5 printings of the product. So while it's probable the original print run for Mirror Golds was 30, as in 1996, by the time the 5 printings were done, people quickly realized they weren't as rare.

Unfortunately, even though they are still relatively rare (maybe 150 or so), because they are more common than originally believed, they get overlooked and undervalued to this day.

I still find them to be nice cards. They switched from a mirror foil to a chrome refractor finish instead. Here are the 3 mirrors (there are believed to be Mirror Black 1/1s, but they aren't confirmed for all cards and some believe they were never inserted in packs but got out during Pinnacle's bankruptcy).