Barry Larkin Collection 1,080: 1996 Leaf Preferred - #38 - Press Proof

Barry Larkin

Year:  1996

Brand:  Leaf Preferred

Parallel:  Press Proof

Card number:  38

The 1996 Leaf Preferred set has one parallel set in the Press Proof set.  With production numbers of only 500 copies per player, the Press Proof cards are quite rare for the era of baseball cards in which they were produced!  

Unfortunately, despite the rather rare status of the cards, they are easy to mistake for regular base cards.  In fact, the only defining characteristics of the Press Proof cards are gold foil stamping on the front of the card (instead of silver foil) and gold ink on the card back (instead of silver).  There is no other indication of the Press Proof set (the words "Press Proof" don't show up anywhere), nor is there any serial numbering despite only 500 copies of each base card existing in the Press Proof parallel form.  

Overall, the 1996 Leaf Preferred set will never be a favorite of mine.  However, as a player collector, I am pleased to own this Press Proof parallel, even if I kind of hate how insignificant Leaf made the parallel in terms of design differences between that and the regular base cards.  I guess that's the plight of the player collector, you get lots of cool stuff to chase after but there's also plenty of less appealing cards out there that you also feel compelled to chase to some extent!