A Big 'Ol Trade Box - Part 1

A few days ago, I received a big 'ol trade box in the mail from Dennis over at Too Many Verlanders.

Although Dennis is a Tigers fan, he collects Barry Larkin cards much like I do.  In fact, there have been a few posts over on his blog featuring Larkin cards that I don't (yet) own - color me jealous!  However, when I got an email from Dennis inquiring about a possible trade - one in which he was going to throw some Larkins my way, you better believe I jumped at the opportunity!

Flash forward a couple of days and here I am opening up a big box of Reds (which included some Barry Larkin cards).

Since today is a day that seems to be quite Barry Larkin centric on my blog (you did vote for the next couple of rounds in my Barry Larkin Experiment posted earlier today, didn't you?), I figured I'd showcase the Larkin cards first.

The above photo shows the gigantic pile of Reds that I received from Dennis.  As you can imagine, a box this large deserves multiple posts to show off (and time for me to sort and organize)!

For now, let's look at the eight Barry Larkin cards that Dennis sent.  Of the eight, I know for sure that I have four of them (three are already featured here, here, and here in my Barry Larkin Collection).  The fourth that I know I have for sure (but haven't yet posted on my blog) is this 1993 Leaf card:

It's a nice enough card, though I was never enamored with the Leaf line as a youngster.

The other four cards are (I think) all new for my collection.  At this point in time, anytime I can add to my Larkin Collection I'm happy - so getting four new cards is a great boon to the binder!  You may wonder why I'm not totally certain if these are new - but that issue goes back to my organization project.  You see, I have a stack of about 400 Larkins to sort through (including a bunch of duplicates) and get posted on my blog...and then I have a box of another 600 or so that also need sorted and posted (with probably more duplicates).  Basically, I have to go on the "have I seen this before?" eyeball test which is admittedly not foolproof.

Anyhow, here are the other four new (I think) Larkin cards for my collection.

2000 Upper Deck Legends:

A shiny sort of Larkin card, very reminiscent of the Upper Deck cards of the era.  I think Upper Deck must have owned stock in a foilboard company at the time, it's really the only plausible explanation for the amount of shine they used on all of their cards.

1993 Donruss Triple Play:

Of the four "new" cards, this one is the one that is most likely to actually already reside in my collection - mostly because no one values the Triple Play line and so sending me cards from that set isn't the proverbial skin off of anyone's nose.  That said, for a basic set I like this card quite a bit.  I find black bordered cards suit the Reds' team colors quite well.

1999 Bowman's Best:

You all know how I feel about Bowman - but I will always accept Larkin cards from any brand, including the dreaded Bowman.  This card puts the shine of Upper Deck's 2000 set to shame - you could almost use the card as a mirror to comb your hair.  That's how shiny it is.

And finally, the coolest card of the box (at least in terms of Barry Larkin cards):

1996 Pinnacle Zenith:

Sorry for the crooked (and crappy) scan.

This is a great looking card that is all sorts of crazy (but in a good way).  Where else can you find a guy's foot, a baseball, and what appears to be some clouds scattered about three player images plus a picture of home plate - and that's just on the front of the card!  My Larkin Collection is severely lacking in the inserts/parallels department so cards like this are much, much appreciated!

Thanks for the trade package Dennis!  As always, if anyone else would like to trade - check out my want list and make an offer.  Stay tuned to the blog because there is more to come from Dennis' trade box in the near future.