100 Days of Barry Larkin

[todeen]

Wanted to post about this auction sale from Goldin's of a 1998 Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems Barry Larkin. It came up for discussion in the Barry Larkin Facebook group, and the comment was that this is the highest priced Larkin card in a public sale. $7500 hammer price, but with buyers premium it comes to $9150. (sorry about the crappy photo. click the link for a better image)

1998 Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems #180 Barry Larkin (#20/50) - PSA NM-MT 8 on Goldin Auctions https://share.google/kej1msTmoacUPauDE

[OhioLawyerF5]

Originally Posted by todeen

Wanted to post about this auction sale from Goldin's of a 1998 Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems Barry Larkin. It came up for discussion in the Barry Larkin Facebook group, and the comment was that this is the highest priced Larkin card in a public sale. $7500 hammer price, but with buyers premium it comes to $9150. (sorry about the crappy photo. click the link for a better image)

1998 Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems #180 Barry Larkin (#20/50) - PSA NM-MT 8 on Goldin Auctions https://share.google/kej1msTmoacUPauDE

I bowed out quite early on that one. While it is at the top of my want list, it sold for $1300 in 2023 and $3000, also in 2023. That is not a $9k card. Something crazy is happening with the PMG market. I'm concerned that the pumpers from the basketball PMG market are branching over to baseball and setting massive comps for these cards to try to flip them for astronomical prices. I was (not)coincidentally offered a PSA 8 98 PMG the very next day after this auction ended in a private sale. The asking price? 12k!!! I would just about guarantee this is the same card and the buyer is just trying to flip it. Little do they realize that if you are outbidding all the Larkin collectors out there, we aren't going to be buying it for more than it ended at. If I passed at $9k (heck, I would have passed at $5k), then I sure as heck am not going to pay $12k for it. The Larkin market is strong, but we are a small group. This card is likely to bounce around between PMG investors for quite some time because no one wants to take a loss and get it into the hands of a collector. I just hope the other cards on my want list don't end up being infiltrated by the basketball investor market before I get them. Prices are already ridiculously high enough.

/rant

Back to my regularly scheduled search for a reasonably priced 98 PMG.

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5

The Larkin market is strong, but we are a small group.

Do you collect cards of any other great Cincinnati Reds, e.g. Frank Robinson, Wally Post, Vada Pinson, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Jim O'Toole, Joey Jay, etc?

[OhioLawyerF5]

Originally Posted by Balticfox

Do you collect cards of any other great Cincinnati Reds, e.g. Frank Robinson, Wally Post, Vada Pinson, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Jim O'Toole, Joey Jay, etc?

Sure do! My Reds collection is threefold. I dabble in picking up first Bowmans and Topps Chrome rookies of my favorite Reds players and prospects. But that is mostly just a tiny part of my collection. Just a way to connect to current players. I enjoy following prospects through the minors and watchinig them develop into major leaguers. And having their cards adds to that enjoyment. I tend to have the Reds games on the TV while minor league games play on my phone or tablet every evening.

Then, of course, I have my Barry Larkin collection. This is my primary focus as I really enjoy the search for the extremely rare inserts/parallels of the late 90s. It takes a lot of time and money to collect rare 90s, so that consumes a lot of my hobby life.

Finally, I collect all hall of famers and superstars who have played for the Reds. For post war players, I put together the entire Topps run from their careers (Klu, Rose, Morgan, Perez, Robinson, Seaver, Parker, Griffey, Votto, Bench, Rolen). Then for pre-war, I mostly focus on picking up cards depicting hall of famers in a Reds uniform. I have finished my post war sets, so I'm currently snagging the pre war cards whenever I see them. Just picked up a 35 Diamond Stars of Ernie Lombardi at the National this year.