100 Days of Barry Larkin

[todeen]

I'm trying to reduce purchasing, but at the same time increase appreciation of my collection. There are roughly 100 days until New Years, so I've decided to share 100 days of Barry Larkin cards and memorabilia.

Leading off is a 1986-87 rookie era bat with PSA Cert. In 1986, he would play 41 games; he collected 45 hits, 1.5 WAR, with just 21 strikeouts.

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[drmiraculous]

Love it! Barry Larkin was kinda underappreciated in his era and pretty much disrespected by the Reds at the very end of his career, but still handled it all with class. An excellent shortstop and I always enjoyed watching him. He was a great one!

[D. Bergin]

I've posted this before, but here's my one Barry Larkin item. 1985 Press photo, pictured while still with the University of Michigan.

[todeen]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

I've posted this before, but here's my one Barry Larkin item. 1985 Press photo, pictured while still with the University of Michigan.

Great item, thanks for sharing. UM is a missing gap in my collection, as well as 1984 Olympics. BTW, his UM Jersey is for sale in ebay with UM Cert. Another amazing item.

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[todeen]

Day 2: The Cincinnati Reds have routinely released a team set through Kahns hot dogs. The 1987 Kahns set includes a Larkin RC and is one of the most popular sets of the last 4 decades. Time will tell if the 2023 & 24 sets including Elly de la Cruz will overtake 1987 and 2008 (Votto).



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[todeen]

Day 3: 1987 Classic Green. There is also Classic Yellow Update. Many young collectors might find board games with sports card and a finger flicker unusual, but it was common for kids when we still had to use our imagination pre-video game consoles. I got SNES in 1995. Classic is just one of many baseball themed games that have appeared throughout the decades. New sets were produced for many years.

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[todeen]

Day 4: 1987 Donruss Opening Day. A junk wax gimmick that still continues today, Opening Day has spread to Topps and other brands. But the crimson border looked great, rather than just a foil stamp.
Edit: it was brought to my attention that Topps ended their opening day set in 2022! I'm certain it'll come back as an insert somehow.



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[Bigdaddy]

Will be looking forward to updates to your thread. Being a Reds fan, Barry was my favorite active player for much of his career.

[todeen]

Originally Posted by Bigdaddy

Will be looking forward to updates to your thread. Being a Reds fan, Barry was my favorite active player for much of his career.

glad this is bringing you an ounce of joy! that's better than crackers chirping.

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[todeen]

Day 5: 1987 Donruss Rack Pack w/ Mattingly. These rack packs, and cello packs, were exciting to find with star players on the front or back. Displayed in grocery stores, drug stores, KMarts, etc, card companies were offering window shopping for cards. In 1987, the draw of this pack was Don Mattingly, on his way to a HOF career. But with the presence of time, Barry Larkin went on to have his own fine career and beat Mattingly to the gates of Cooperstown.

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[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by todeen

Day 5: 1987 Donruss Rack Pack w/ Mattingly. These rack packs, and cello packs, were exciting to find with star players on the front or back. Displayed in grocery stores, drug stores, KMarts, etc, card companies were offering window shopping for cards. In 1987, the draw of this pack was Don Mattingly, on his way to a HOF career. But with the presence of time, Barry Larkin went on to have his own fine career and beat Mattingly to the gates of Cooperstown.

Attachment 635708

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Man, I never got to the packs in time to ever see a Mattingly on the front in my neck of the woods. Hell, the 1984 Topps racks were so notorious for being easily searchable, it was nearly impossible to find a pack with a Mattingly in it, even if he was in the middle of a pack, forget the front.

[D. Bergin]

Anybody else find it odd that Barry's only updated set release in 1986 was by Sportflics, and his regular issue 1987 cards didn't contain a "Rated Rookie" or "Future Stars" insignia?

He was a highly touted 1st rounder, so it's not like he was sliding under the radar.

[Bigdaddy]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Man, I never got to the packs in time to ever see a Mattingly on the front in my neck of the woods. Hell, the 1984 Topps racks were so notorious for being easily searchable, it was nearly impossible to find a pack with a Mattingly in it, even if he was in the middle of a pack, forget the front.

You didn't even have to search Topps rack packs because the order of cards in them was almost always the same. So even if Mattingly or Strawberry was not on the top, if you saw one of the cards that were typically in front of him, your odds were pretty good in turning one up.

todeen - love the Barry and Donnie rack.

[bnorth]

I absolutely love these types of threads when someone shows off their collection of their favorite player.

[todeen]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Man, I never got to the packs in time to ever see a Mattingly on the front in my neck of the woods. Hell, the 1984 Topps racks were so notorious for being easily searchable, it was nearly impossible to find a pack with a Mattingly in it, even if he was in the middle of a pack, forget the front.

Recently bought the rack Pack from Net54 member BradMar48. He said he still has a bunch of stuff in storage from his days owning a shop. His quote was "I find things I forgot I had all the time."

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[todeen]

Day 6: 1987 Donruss with rookie era autograph. When I first saw this card I thought it was a fraud. After investigating, I discovered that this was his rookie auto, and he inscribed it with his rookie jersey #15 (also identified on his Kahns RC). I couldn't buy it fast enough.

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[todeen]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Anybody else find it odd that Barry's only updated set release in 1986 was by Sportflics, and his regular issue 1987 cards didn't contain a "Rated Rookie" or "Future Stars" insignia?

He was a highly touted 1st rounder, so it's not like he was sliding under the radar.

I am very disappointed there isn't a 1986 Topps Update XRC. Or part of the 1986 Donruss Rookies set. I also don't like the 1986 Sportsflix. I have the card but choose not to include it because I find them hard to focus. Later Sportsflix sets overcame that obstacle. I like 1997 Screen Plays with display tin.

Originally Posted by Bigdaddy

You didn't even have to search Topps rack packs because the order of cards in them was almost always the same. So even if Mattingly or Strawberry was not on the top, if you saw one of the cards that were typically in front of him, your odds were pretty good in turning one up.

todeen - love the Barry and Donnie rack.

Thanks! it's one of my newest additions, from a Net54 member!

Originally Posted by bnorth

I absolutely love these types of threads when someone shows off their collection of their favorite player.

Yes, there are quite a few threads on Net54 that inspired me. There are a few Twitter accounts that do something similar.

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[todeen]

Day 7: 87 Fleer Cello pack. This is my favorite RC, probably followed by Kahns, and then Topps third. I think 87 Fleer is such a clean design, great photos, and something about the blue border color just works with that blue sky behind Larkin.


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[todeen]

Day 8: busy day! 1987 Topps cello pack. Probably my third favorite RC. But it's a nice in-game shot. The ramp up to peak junk wax in 88/89/90. But that's not to say there aren't a ton of these floating around. This is also a set that collectors love or hate. No in between.



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[todeen]

Day 9: 1987 Topps Tiffany. Personally, I know this isn't a 10. And with 30k Tiffany sets produced this year, it's junk wax of Tiffany! Unlike the 6k sets produced for 1989 Bowman, making the Bowman Tiffany Griffey Jr the creme de la creme of 89 RC.

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[todeen]

Day 10: 1988 Donruss Cello Pack. Look at the eyes staring at you. It wasn't my favorite set. The crappy puzzles were interesting, but I've never enjoyed puzzles.... even ones as easy as these. Essentially, if it wasn't Diamond Kings, it was boring. How could you expect to have such an amazing set as Diamond Kings, and expect people to be excited about the general product more than the amazing artwork of stars?


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[todeen]

Day 11: 1988 Jersey w/ASG sleeve patch used on Jersey Fusion cards. I especially like the ASG patch relics. It's a novelty idea, but the prices are pretty good for awesome looking patches. It's still kinda ugly. But the cut cards with the big swatch in the background are pretty awesome.




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[todeen]

Day 12: 1988 Topps Tiffany. Beautiful portrait, nice simple design. Still a ginormous print run, 30k sets.


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[todeen]

Day 13: 1989 Topps Tiffany. Another clean design. The end of the junk wax era is within sight. Topps Tiffany reduced their print run to 15k sets. 1988 was a huge offensive season for Larkin, 7.0 WAR, but was his worst defensive season .960%. He comes back to earth in 89 w/ 3.8 WAR, and improves his defense to .976 fielding percentage.


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[todeen]

Day 14: 1989 Bowman Tiffany. Unlike Topps Tiffany, Bowman Tiffany was limited to 6k sets. Larger than a standard card size, collectors weren't very excited how difficult they were to store. 1990 brought Bowman to standard size.



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[todeen]

Day 15: 1990 Bowman Tiffany. 6k print run. Regular size cards. 1990 marked Larkin's 3rd straight AS selection, 3rd straight Silver Slugger, 7th place finish in MVP. Played 158 games, hit .301, 185 hits, 30 SB, 5.7 WAR.


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[todeen]

Day 16: 1990 Baseball Card Magazine Panel. I actually never owned any of these magazines. I was a Beckett guy. I had a friend who read Tuff Stuff. But none of my collector friends had Baseball Card Magazine. I discovered the cards exploring ebay, and I think about all of the cards of my favorite players I missed out on.


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[bnorth]

Originally Posted by todeen

Day 16: 1990 Baseball Card Magazine Panel. I actually never owned any of these magazines. I was a Beckett guy. I had a friend who read Tuff Stuff. But none of my collector friends had Baseball Card Magazine. I discovered the cards exploring ebay, and I think about all of the cards of my favorite players I missed out on.


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Those 3 card panels are cool. I picked up one with Griffey recently.

[todeen]

Originally Posted by bnorth

Those 3 card panels are cool. I picked up one with Griffey recently.

did you get the 89 RC?

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[todeen]

Day 17: 1990 Fleer cello pack. In 1990, the Reds never fell out of first place, which they occupied since day 1. In the NLCS, the Reds defeated PIT in 6 games. Larkin hit .261, with 6 hits, 3 walks, 3 stolen bases, scoring 5 times.


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[todeen]

Day 18: 1990 Topps Tiffany. Print run 5k. Just about out of the peak junk wax era. I love 1990 Topps. I love the border colors. This is in my top 3 Topps Flagship sets of the 90s.


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[todeen]

Day 19: 1990 Topps Venezuela Sticker. Another collector reached out to me about these on ebay. He bought a player for his PC, and then made me aware of the Larkin for sale. Very thankful for him!


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