Barry Larkin Collection 1,013: 1995 Stadium Club - #35 - Member's Only

Barry Larkin

Year:  1995

Brand:  Stadium Club

Parallel set:  Member's Only

Card number:  35

The 1995 Stadium Club set had a Member's Only factory set that was made available exclusively to Stadium Club Members.  Sets were sold for $200 and Topps claimed that 4,000 sets were produced (though it seems the internet generally agrees that many fewer sets were actually purchased and therefore released "in the wild").  The entire concept seems silly to me, why pay $200 for what amounted to nothing more than an extra foil stamp cluttering up the front of the Stadium Club cards?  After all, Stadium Club's entire shtick is the photography, you'd think a premium price should reduce the clutter on the front of the cards, not increase it!

Overall, you can definitely put this particular parallel in the "glad I own it, but my goodness it's a dumb idea" pile of Barry Larkin cards.  As a player collector, I have an innate need to collect crap like this even if every fiber of my being is telling me how stupid an extra gold stamps are on a base card.  Oh well, it's in my collection now...and I guess that means there is one less such Larkin card roaming around in the wild!