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Barry Larkin Collection 736: 2003 Topps - #375

Barry Larkin
Year:  2003
Brand:  Topps
Card number:  375

The years 2001 - 2005 coincided with my time in college and like my college peers, I wasn't spending any money on baseball cards during that time (heck, I barely had money to spend on cheap pizza, never mind on sports cards)!  As such, I have no particular memories of 2003 Topps - this Larkin came to me (most likely) via trade well after the set's release.  That lack of memories to the set means that I can safely say that this is one of my least favorite set designs from the 2000s (in terms of flagship Topps designs, that is).

I'm a fan of the color blue in general but a rather royal blue border simply looks bad with the Reds' colors, especially the Reds' colors of 2003 which were red and black.  It's not just the colored border that I dislike though, I also hate where the card number is located on the backside of the card.  Card numbers should always be at the top of the card (left or right corner matters less to me).  Putting numbers at the bottom simply makes sorting the cards that much more annoying - and yes, that in and of itself would be enough to make me not want to collect this set if I were on the fence. 

There's no worries of me going after the 2003 Topps set though I do hope to acquire all of the Larkins from the set simply because I'm a Barry Larkin hoarder.  Besides the base card, Barry has two parallels (Gold #/2003 and Black #/52) and two insert sets:  Hit Parade and the Farewell to Riverfront Stadium relics (a set that I had never even heard of until I sat down to write this post)!  I don't own any of the Barry Larkin cards yet but perhaps someday...and then I can safely ignore 2003 Topps for the rest of my life (though I admit to now being at least a little interested in those Riverfront relics).

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