Barry Larkin Collection 891: 1992 Topps - #389 - Topps Gold

Barry Larkin

Year:  1992

Brand:  Topps

Card number:  389

Parallel set:  Topps Gold

When I was a kid, I thought that the Topps Gold parallels were super cool - probably because I only ever owned one or two of them back in '92.   According to baseballcardpedia, the 1992 Topps Gold set was the first ever proper parallel set in baseball card history - a cool distinction to be sure but perhaps that can of worms was best left unopened (look at modern Panini sets to see parallels gone wild).  

As for the card itself, the main differences between the Topps Gold card and Larkin's regular All-Star card from 1992 are the gold foil on the front and, perhaps less obvious, the "Topps Gold" logo printed on the back of the card behind the list of NL batting average leaders.

Finally, it should be noted that there is also a Topps Gold Winner set from 1992 - but those are actually more common (I think) than the regular Topps Gold cards.  The Topps Gold Winner cards came from a contest that people figured out how to beat the system on...and so Topps added a "winner" stamp to each of the Topps Gold cards to differentiate them from the pack versions (see here for Larkin's Topps Gold Winner card).