Barry Larkin Collection 981: 1994 Upper Deck All-Star Jumbos - #26

Barry Larkin / Jose Rijo

Year:  1994

Brand:  Upper Deck All-Star Jumbos

Card number:  26

In 1994, Upper Deck released an oversized set for the All-Star game that was held in Pittsburgh that year.  The set was fairly rare for the time (only 48,000 sets produced).  Even worse, of those 48,000 sets, Upper Deck printed 1,200 of them with gold foil instead of green along the side of the card (the version I own is the much more common green version - I don't yet own the gold one)!  The full set checklist contains 48 cards.

As for the card itself, I like it!  The front features Jose Rijo while Larkin is on the backside.  The photography is kind of neat too (most of the cards in the set used photos by Walter Iooss, Jr. - most well-known for his insert set in 1993 Upper Deck).  I do wish the cards were regular sized for storage purposes but honestly, Upper Deck made good use of the extra room with their design choices.  I'd go so far as to say this might be one of my favorite "jumbo sized" Barry Larkin cards...and that's saying something since Larkin doesn't even appear on the front of the card!