Barry Larkin Collection 538: 1990 Baseball Card Magazine - #8

Barry Larkin
Year:  1990
Brand:  Baseball Card Magazine
Card number:  BC8

The Baseball Card Magazine issued a 72 card set in 1990 that was clearly based on the 1969 Topps set.  As it turned out, the Reds had two players in the first ten cards of the set (the other being Eric Davis with card #5).  In addition, the Reds have two other cards in the set (both dual player rookie cards, one with John Wetteland of the Dodgers and Joe Oliver of the Reds and the other featuring the two Reds Scott Scudder and Rosario Rodriguez).  Based on the team checklist, I think one could track down the Larkin and the Davis cards and forgo the other two...eesh.

Returning our attention to the card of the post, it should be noted that you must have had to cut these cards out (or else someone took some scissors to my only copy of the card for an unknown reason).  I know I could never cut things out super nicely, so I don't mind the odd little divot on the side of the card...  It gives it personality and character, right?

2017 Allen & Ginter: A Pair of Rack Packs

Looking to trade for some 2017 Allen & Ginter cards?  I've got plenty of base cards and insert cards (regular sized and mini) available for trade.  Check out my full list of trade bait here.

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I found myself at my local WalMart to pick up some groceries the other day...and so I had to stop at the card aisle "just to see."  There were no more 2017 Allen & Ginter blasters, but there were two rack packs.  I figured the pack searchers had already determined the two packs to be duds, but I bought them anyway because I'm more interested in the mini inserts anyhow.

So, how did I do?  Well, let's dig in, shall we?!

Pack 1:

Each rack pack only contains 14 cards for something like $6.  That's not a good deal in my book.  My first rack pack had 10 regular base cards (one of which was a short print of Warren Spahn).

Amazingly, of the 10 base cards I actually needed three of them for my set.  I'll take it!

Next, the pack had a pair of full-sized inserts.  The first was a What a Day card of Addison Russell which I already had.  The other was a Sport Fish & Fishing Lures card of the Yellowfin Tuna which I also already owned.  So basically a pair of duds there.

The minis were a bit better at least.  I got a regular back mini of Addison Russell (a Russell hot pack I guess).  I'm not going after the regular mini set this year (except for all of the Barry Larkin variations) so this one is available for trade.

My other mini ended up being the highlight of the first rack pack:

That's another World's Dude mini.  This time honoring the Scout Dude.  According to the card back, the neckerchief is included in the scout uniform not just for ceremony but because it can be unrolled and used as a triangular bandage for first aid.  I was a scout for a year or two as a kid and I never knew that (shows how much I paid attention while in scouts I guess).

In the end, I got four cards I needed (including one mini insert) for about $6.  I don't think that's a great deal, but it certainly could have been worse.  Let's see if the second rack pack is any better for me.

Pack 2:

Much like the first pack, this pack also contained 10 base cards including one short print (Dallas Keuchel).  Also like the last pack, I got three more base cards that I actually needed!

Obviously the Bench is my favorite of the three, but I'm happy to get that much closer to completing my set.

Moving on to the inserts, I once again got two full-sized inserts including another Fish card (which I owned) and a What a Day card of Andrew Benintendi (which I also owned already).  Two more full-sized duds.

Luckily the pack had some other surprises in it for me including an A&G back card of Sean Manaea.

And, the best card for me:  A Required Reading mini of the Canterbury Tales.

I'm ever-so-slowly working my way towards completing the various insert sets!

Oh yeah, I had one more card in the pack...

Isn't that swell?  A freakin' buyback of a card that no one wanted in the first place.  Ugh.

Still, I landed four more cads in the second pack that I needed for my set - eight cards in total from the two packs.  At this point in time, I probably couldn't ask for much else (and notice no hits to be found, stupid pack searchers).

Barry Larkin Collection 537: 1990 Panini Stickers - #253

Barry Larkin
Year:  1990
Brand:  Panini Stickers
Card number:  253

I'm not much of a fan of sticker cards like this, though I will admit that I still love team logo stickers (weird, I know).  That said, this is probably one of the nicer sticker designs that I've seen - and it even shows Larkin in a not-so-common pose (apparently watching the first base coach for some signs prior to getting ready for the pitch)?  I will say the back of the "card" is quite dreadful...a couple of large logos and an advertisement blurb.  Nothing much to see there.

More 2017 A&G: WalMart Blasters (x3)!

As you probably know, I love Allen & Ginter...but I don't love it enough to fork over $125 for another hobby box (which is the going rate at the moment).  So, I ventured to my local WalMart and as luck would have it, they had three blasters of 2017 A&G in stock.

Not wanting to let a good thing pass me by, I grabbed all three (along with some groceries and other items) and called it a day.  Since I was hoping to get something cool from the blasters, I recorded myself ripping all three in one video.  

Truth be told, not a lot cool.  *shrug emoji*

Although I didn't strike it rich, I did get a few nice cards for my set including the first three Horse in the Race minis!

If you have any Ginter for trade, please check out my want list as I am still needing a lot of cards!

For those wondering, here is the final tally of how I managed to do with my three blasters...

Note:  The number in parenthesis is the number of cards that I pulled that I actually needed for my set out of the total number I was missing at the time.

Base cards:  84 - including 5 duplicates  (9/47)
Base short prints:  12 (2/4)
Revolutionary Battles:  2 (0/0)
Sport Fish & Fishing Lures:  5  (0/2)
World's Fair:  5  (0/1)
What a Day!:  12  (4/53)
Constellations:  1 (1/8)
Magicians & Illusionists:  1 (0/11)
Horse in the Race:  3 (3/25)
World's Dudes:  2 (1/35)

I also ended up with 8 regular minis, 2 regular mini short prints, 5 A&G back minis, 1 A&G back mini short print, and 1 black bordered mini.

Overall, I landed 20 new cards for my set, 9 of which were inserts of some sort.  I guess that's not terrible, but it definitely wasn't worth the $60 I spent either.  On the bright side, I do have plenty of trade bait now...

2017 Topps Allen & Ginter: Box 5: Packs 17 - 24

This is it, the final eight packs from my purchase of five boxes of 2017 Topps Allen & Ginter.  I'm definitely wishing I had had the cash to buy a few more boxes, this year's set is great.  However, I'm still happy with what I did get...and let's see the final few cards from my purchase.

Box 5:
Packs 17 - 24:

You knew I'd show off the fish cards first.  The sailfish card is particularly cool, though even the Yellowfin Tuna card looks nice.  The mixing of the fish and the lure works particularly well - I still love this set and I haven't tired of it despite getting five cards from the set per box!

Another set I haven't tired of is the World's Dudes set.

I admit that when I saw this was the "large" mini set, I wasn't overly enthused.  But seeing the cards in hand (and reading the interesting backs of them) has completely changed my mind.  The set is awesome and I'm definitely going to work hard to try and track down all the cards that I'm missing from the set.

On the other hand, the Magicians and Illusionists set sounded interesting when I first saw the checklist but I find the actual cards to be less inspiring than expected.

I'm not sure why exactly (the write-ups on the back are perfectly fine).  I guess the set doesn't really feel all that different than some of the other sets Topps has done in the past.

One set that is quite different is the constellations mini set.

These are cool in that you get a glow-in-the-dark representation of the constellation on the front of the card.  The card back gives you a bit of information about the constellation and the stars that make up the constellation.  Once again, Topps has exceeded my expectations with this mini set!

And finally, my third hit of the box and the final card of my five box break:

Yep, another full size relic card.  At least this one has a blue strip to add a bit of variety and interest to it.

That does it for my purchase of 2017 Allen & Ginter.  Given the high prices of boxes at the moment, I don't see myself buying any more for awhile.  That means it is time to trade - so hit me up if you have any cards that I need and hopefully we can work something out!