12 Days of Christmas (Day 2): Top 11 Most Wanted Barry Larkin Cards (Pre-1991 only)!

Welcome to my latest theme week:  12 Days of Christmas!  Each day, I'll be counting down by one - and with it, a new list that encompasses the day's number.  

For today, I am going to countdown my Top 11 most wanted Barry Larkin cards (pre-1991 only)!

As a bit of a precursor to my list, I've been actively collecting Barry Larkin cards for as long as I can remember but only within the past couple of years have I actually put in the time and effort to figure out which Larkin cards I still need!  To do this, I've made great use of Trading Card Database (I also took the card images for this post from that website).

As you can see, I'm in need of quite a few different Barry Larkin cards from the years prior to 1991 (a total of 47 different Larkins that I still need). With that said, maybe this countdown will spur someone to trade a most wanted card to me!

Day 2:  Top 11 Most Wanted Barry Larkin Cards (Pre-1991 only)

#11:  1987 Fleer - Glossy #204 Barry Larkin

We'll start the list with one of the three Larkin cards that I'm missing from 1987 (Larkin's official rookie card year).  I don't much care for the type of parallel that's basically just "glossy" but for the sake of my Larkin collection I do try to track down all of the different versions of his cards and thus, here we are hoping for a slightly shinier version of Larkin's '87 Fleer card.

#10:  1990 TV Sports Mailbag #33 Barry Larkin

I'm not sure what this card is but it's listed on TCDB's webpage.  According to the set data, there are six people who want this card but no one owns it.  It may not exist (that's valuable to learn as well so that I can try and keep my Larkin collection needs/wants list as accurate as possible)!

#9:  1990 Star Barry Larkin #NNO Barry Larkin AD

I own all of the 1990 Star Larkin set except for this advertisement card (the front of the card has a red border).  This one will probably be another tough one to track down mostly because a lot of people probably didn't keep their ad card!

#8:  1989 Cadaco Ellis Discs #NNO Barry Larkin

I need all of the different Cadaco Ellis discs for my Larkin collection (there's a few from 1989 as well as 1990).  That being said, I picked this '89 disc for my countdown list mostly because it's the first of the Cadaco's that I don't own yet (chronologically speaking).  

#7:  1988 Score - Promos #72 Barry Larkin

The 1988 Score set is one of those sets that seems to be everywhere, even today.  It's definitely not rare...and yet....I've never seen one of the 1988 Score promo cards for Larkin.  If I had to guess, it's probably because it's super easy to miss the 1988 Score promo cards - you have to look at the back of the card at the stat line for 1987.  If it's all zeros, you have a promo card - if it has the player's 1987 stats on it, then you have the "regular" base card. 

#6:  1990 Topps TV All-Stars #36 Barry Larkin

I thought I knew about everything that Topps put out in 1990 since that was right in the prime of my collecting card time as a youth.  However, now that I'm old and have access to sites like TCDB, I've rather quickly discovered that there are tons of sets out there that I know nothing about - this 1990 Topps TV All-Stars is one such set.  I like the look of the card (based on the image above anyhow) so I'd love to someday add this one to my collection.

#5:  1990 Star Gold - Promo #NNO Barry Larkin PR300

When I decided to make a full effort at collecting all things Barry Larkin, I did so by deciding first on a couple of ground rules.  One of those rules was that I wouldn't chase any cards that were serially numbered under 25 (or those with a stated print run of under 25).  As such, this 1990 Star Gold card has a stated print run of 300 which means it is a card that I hope to add to my collection!

#4:  1990 Topps Doubleheaders #NNO Barry Larkin

Another 1990 Topps product that I knew nothing about as a kid.  There aren't great scans of this card on TCDB but from what it looks like it appears that this is a two-sided card with each side showing a classic Topps design (1990 Topps and 1987 Topps in Larkin's case).  

#3:  1990 Star Barry Larkin/Bo Jackson #1 Barry Larkin / Bo Jackson CL

I've done quite well collecting Larkin's regular Star cards from 1990 but I haven't done as well with some of the other 1990 Star sets that also include Barry.  One of those sets has Larkin paired with Bo Jackson and I don't own a single card from that set (six of the cards in the set feature Barry including the checklist card shown above).

#2:  1990 Star Barry Larkin/Bo Jackson - Glossy #1 Barry Larkin / Bo Jackson PR250

With a stated print run of only 250 copies, the Glossy set of Larkin/Jackson is another one that I don't yet own a single card from. Perhaps there are a lot of Bo Jackson super collectors out there and that's why these cards haven't ever come up for trade?  I'm not sure...but maybe someday I'll find a bunch of 'em all at once.  That'd be nice!

#1:  1987 Kahn's Cincinnati Reds #NNO Barry Larkin

Each year, Kahn's does a stadium giveaway with a set of baseball cards for that particular year's Reds team.  I have quite a few of the Barry Larkin Kahn's cards from over the years, but thus far his 1987 rookie Kahn's card has eluded me!  

**Update**  Since I wrote this post, I went back on to eBay to scour the site for one of the 1987 Kahn's cards and, wouldn't you know it, there was one available that was (sort of) reasonably priced.  Long story short, I nabbed it and hopefully will have the card in hand before long!  Nice to get the #1 most wanted card acquired prior to even getting the post published!

That'll do it for today's Top 11 list!  Maybe, just maybe, this post will inspire someone to dig through their Barry Larkin cards and then work out a nice trade with me - what a Christmas present that'd be for me!  See you tomorrow for Day 3 of my 12 Days of Christmas series of posts.