Barry Larkin Collection 1,082: 1996 Leaf Preferred - #69 - Gold Steel

Barry Larkin

Year:  1996

Brand:  Leaf Preferred

Insert:  Gold Steel

Card number:  69

In my previous Barry Larkin Collection entry, I discussed the Steel insert set in the 1996 Leaf Preferred set.  Today, we have the Gold Steel parallel from that same set!  

The Gold Steel cards are quite a bit rarer than the regular Steel cards (Baseballcardpedia claims that there are 5,375 copies of each of the Steel cards but only 235 Gold Steel copies of each card in existence).  However, I have to admit that I think I prefer the look of the regular Steel cards which have a silver finish.  For me, when I see the word "steel" I think silver color, not gold, and thus the regular silver Steel cards make more sense to my brain!

If you ignore the color of the metal, both versions of the Steel card are the same otherwise.  The front features a nice action shot of Larkin running while the back shows him squaring up for a bunt.  You don't get a whole lot of statistics (only some basic career stats), but you do several Leaf Preferred logos all over the place if that's your type of thing.  Speaking of all over the place, take a look at how many different fonts are used on this card (hint:  Way too many)!  

All things considered, this is one of the more unique Barry Larkin cards in my collection, but I can't say that it's one of my favorite cards.  It's a perfectly nice card though, and one that I'm certainly pleased to have in my collection (even if the metal cards do make my binder weight go up quickly)!