Barry Larkin Collection 912: 1993 Finest - #114

Barry Larkin

Year:  1993

Brand:  Finest

Card number:  114

Confession time:  I never got into the Topps Finest brand of cards.  Not when the brand back in 1993 and not any year after that.  As such, I now have the unenviable task of trying to track down a whole bunch of mid-to-late 90s Topps Finest Larkin cards!

While the 1993 Finest set is heralded by many as one of (if not the) best card set of the early 90s, I personally don't care for it all that much.  Of course, I'm basing my entire opinion of the set on a single card, but still...  The green background with a rainbow-esque design is alright I guess (it's certainly different at least) but the card backs are so boring that to me the set feels half-baked.  Also, I hate where Topps put the card numbers on this set - what a terrible spot for set collectors (then again, at the prices that 1993 Finest goes for I'm guessing there aren't a lot of people clamoring to collect this set in its entirety).

In addition the the base card you see above, there's also a Refractor parallel of the card that I've yet to track down.  As of the time of this post, the cheapest Larkin Refractor on eBay is listed for north of $200 so at those prices I'll probably never own a 1993 Finest Refractor (it's probably worth noting that the print run on the refractors is only 241 which makes them quite rare, especially for the era)!