What to Do When Someone is Unloading their Personal Barry Larkin Collection?!

For the past several weeks, there has been one seller on eBay who seemingly used to be a huge Barry Larkin collector.  However, that particular seller now appears to be selling off their entire collection of Barry Larkin cards, 15 cards or so at a time.  Most of the cards have gone for astronomically high prices (in my opinion) but I have been able to grab a few of the seller's "lower end" Larkin cards for my own collection.  

Based on what many of the seller's eBay auctions have gone for, it's become abundantly clear to me that I'll never have a "complete" Larkin collection (and for my purposes, I only am bothering to chase any Barry Larkin cards with at least 25 copies produced).  I should probably change my criteria to a minimum of 100 or maybe even 250 copies if I truly want to have some version of a complete collection.  

That's a decision for another day, today, I'm here to show off the cards that I could afford to buy (I've picked off one or two auctions a week for well over a month now from the same seller - not the best plan in terms of shipping costs but it is what it is)!

First up, from 1998, a wonderful Flair Showcase "Row 0" parallel of Barry Larkin (this one is numbered out of 1000).  

I've long been a fan of the 1998 Flair set so I was excited to add this one to my collection.  I'll have more to say about each of the Barry Larkin cards in today's post whenever I get around to featuring them individually in my ongoing Barry Larkin Collection series of posts but for now I'll simply give my quick thoughts!

Next, a pair of Gold Signature parallels from Upper Deck Collector's Choice (one from 1994, the other from 1996).

The Gold Signature parallels were box hits if I'm not mistaken so it was a nice thing to be able to add two box hit Larkin cards to my personal collection!  

Sticking with older cards for the moment, here's a 1992 Barry Larkin card that's eluded me for 30 years!

The backside of the Team Pinnacle card showcases Cal Ripken, Jr. so I'm guessing that's a big reason why I never received this (rather) common card in a trade before!  With the Team Pinnacle card now in hand, I'm down to needing only eight more Barry Larkin cards from 1992 (by my count, I have 62 of the 70 Larkin cards from that year)!

Next, from 1996 we have this beauty:

That's a refractor from Bowman's Best.  Refractors are always tricky to come by (they are both rare and easily overlooked by collectors)!

Another card rom 1996 Bowman's Best is this Mirror Image insert:

Yep, another card where the backside features some guy named Cal Ripken, Jr.!  This is one card that was a mistake - the card was listed as a "refractor" but it actually isn't...it's the shiny base card insert instead (which I already owned).  I probably should have complained to the seller but I had already left positive feedback before noticing the error (and to be fair, the card is refractor-like but it doesn't say "refractor" on it like the Mirror Image cards should according to TCDB).  Oh well, it's now trade bait...maybe I can swing a trade for a similarly valued Larkin insert that I do actually need!

Moving right along but sticking with the year 1996, how about one of the many Sample cards from that era?

I have an awful lot of "sample" cards to track down...and I'll probably never find them all so when I do get the opportunity to grab one that I still need I take it!

Moving into the 2000s, I was able to grab another serially-numbered Larkin card - this time out of 2003.

Yep, I needed Larkin's Topps Gold parallel from the 2003 Topps set.  It's kind of amazing how many of the Topps Gold parallels of his that I do still need!  At least now there's one fewer for me to look for!

And finally, the lone relic of my eBay buying spree comes from 2004 Flair.

That's the Blue parallel of the Hot Numbers relic set (and it's numbered out of 250).  Nice to get a relatively rare relic card to finish things off here!

And that does it for my buying spree.  The seller I got all these from had TONS of awesome Larkin cards for sale (you'll notice I didn't get any autographs - those all went for way more than I was comfortable spending).  Even without deep pockets like some of my other fellow collectors must have, I'm pretty darn happy with the cards I was able to add to my collection.  I do think I'm going to focus more of my collecting energy (and dollars) into Barry Larkin cards from the time he was a player...there's so much of his stuff issued after he retired that it's overwhelming!

Oh yeah, one more thing...

Yep, the best part is getting to remove a bunch of "wanted cards" placeholders from my Larkin binders!