A couple of weeks ago, I was the extremely happy recipient of one of Dennis' surprise Christmas mailings. Dennis writes the wonderful Too Many Verlanders and, like me, he often has his eye on Barry Larkin cards (for Dennis, it's because Larkin is a University of Michigan alum, for me, it's despite the fact that Larkin went to Michigan - I say that in jest as a Penn State fan). Anyhow, Dennis shot me a message saying he had a few cards for me and boy did he deliver!
First, let's start with the pair of Larkins that Dennis sent my way:
The Turkey Red is from 2020 and the Gallery is from 2021. I still haven't finished updating my Barry Larkin wants/haves for 2020 (or any year after that) but I'm fairly certain that I did need one of these (the Gallery card)! I definitely need to get my lists updated over on TCDB for those two years, especially as trading opportunities have mostly dried up over on the site.
Next up, an oversized card of Jose Rijo.
Rijo is one of those guys that I have a small PC of. I don't actively collect his cards but when they show up I always set them aside (along with a select number of other players). But wait! I don't even know if Dennis knew I collect Rijo at all...no, I'm guessing he included this card because of the card back:
Yep, this one is a "stealth" Barry Larkin card - and yes, it counts in my book as a Larkin card since Larkin's name is specifically written out and he's the subject of at least one side of the card.
So, three Barry Larkin cards for my collection - surely that was the highlight of the four-card package that Dennis sent....right?
Wrong!
Take a gander at the lone non-Larkin card:
That's one of the last few 2010 Topps Allen & Ginter framed relics that I need for my set build! I believe that Uggla was one of the rather short printed relics, so getting one after all these years is amazing! Believe it or not, about two days after getting this package from Dennis, I acquired a second relic card from the 2010 set that I've been searching for for over a decade! When it rains, it pours - or something like that!
Getting that relic card absolutely made my day, even more than the new Larkin cards (and that's saying something). I'm now super close to finishing the 2010 Allen & Ginter relic set - though as you can see, getting those last few cards is definitely going to require some sort of stroke of luck at this point in time!
Many, many thanks Dennis for the great selection of cards!
Congratulations on getting one step closer to completing that relic set. I wonder how many of those Uggla relics they produced compared to the average relic in the set and how many of those relics are sitting in dollar bins gathering little attention from most collectors (other than Uggla collectors and those trying to build this set).
ReplyDeleteI guess now you're gonna have to get another copy of that Rijo :)
ReplyDeleteDennis is a good dude, congrats on the pickups!
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