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Barry Larkin Collection 675: 2001 Upper Deck Reserve - #172

Barry Larkin
Year:  2001
Brand:  Upper Deck Reserve
Card number:  172

In my opinion, the year 2001 was not a good year for most of what Upper Deck produced.  For the vast majority of the sets, the production, design, and even player selection felt rushed and overly predictable.  However, despite the company's general flaws for the year there were a couple of gems hidden in the sea of crap.  For me, 2001 Upper Deck Vintage was a nice set as was the set featured in today's post:  2001 UD Reserve.

The UD Reserve base card design is solid enough for a set like this.  Sure, I prefer the "old school" look of a set like UD Vintage much more but given what the Reserve set is striding for, I can dig the design.  I do dislike the abbreviated career stats (only two years, seriously?) but otherwise the design is fine enough.  The real star of the show for the UD Reserve set is the hits - this was a rather affordable product that gave you a real chance at dual relics (as well as both triple and quad relics).  Unfortunately for Larkin collectors, Barry wasn't included in any of the relics but I do still appreciate what Upper Deck did with the brand.  That said, this will probably be the last you see of this set on my blog since this is the one and only Larkin card in the set!

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