30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Monday, January 9, 2012

Cheap Cool Cards #22: Barry Larkin Rookie Cards


1987 was a monumental year for me in terms of collecting cardboard. It marked the first time I purchased cards in "bulk"... in other words... I started collecting cards for "monetary" reasons.

I'm sure a lot of you know how that turned out... but let's not dwell on my sports memorabilia investment "frustrations" and focus on the positive.

These days there aren't many regular issue baseball cards from 1987 that hold a lot of monetary value among collectors, but that's not a bad thing. It means you can pick up rookie cards of Barry Bonds, David Cone, Greg Maddux, Bo Jackson, Will Clark, Jamie Moyer, Rafael Palmeiro, and Cooperstown's newest member: Barry Larkin.

Here's a list of some of his MLB achievements:

19 MLB Seasons (all with the Cincinnati Reds)
1993 Roberto Clemente Award Winner
1994 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award Winner
1995 NL MVP
12x All-Star
9x Silver Slugger Award Winner
3x Gold Glove Award Winner

Not too shabby right? Best of all... you can own all three of his rookie cards for under $2.

1987 Donruss #492
Beckett Price: $1.50
COMC Price: $.53


1987 Fleer #204
Beckett Price: $3.00
COMC Price: $1.00


1987 Topps #648
Beckett Price: $1.00
COMC Price: $.30

So what are you waiting for? Instead of buying that 2011 Topps Update retail pack, head over to COMC and pickup these cheap cool cards. Unless, you're like me and have a few leftovers from your "junk wax" era collecting days. Which leads me to today's question:

What card (any sport) do you currently own the most of?


I am the proud owner of two hundred forty-nine 1997-98 Pinnacle Inside Steve Shield rookie cards... which is reason #249 for not collecting cards for investment purposes.

Congratulations Mr. Larkin! You're the first player from the 1987 rookie baseball card class to be elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Everyone else... have a great week. Sayonara!

7 comments:

Martyn said...

9 X CHRIS GETZ 2011 Topps #654

Spiegel83 said...

I need to dig up some Larkin cards that I have so, they can be placed in my HOF binder. I think I have a couple of those rookie cards.

Dodgerbobble said...

I have sixty 1989 Hoops Kevin Johnsons.
I have over 100 Ben McDonald and Todd Van Poppel rookie cards.

Hackenbush said...

That I bought on purpose, probably around ten of a few recent Ron Santo issues. By accident I have these http://canthavetoomanycards.blogspot.com/2010/09/box-lot-bippage.html
I also have 60 1988 Topps Billy Williams AS Game Captain cards that I got cheap once on Ebay along with 20-30 each of some of those KMart 20th Anniversary cards of guys like Koufax, the Robinsons, Killebrew and a few more.

Fuji said...

martyn - did you pull all of them? or are you collecting them for a specific reason?

spiegel83 - hope you find some... if not, they're super cheap ;-)

dodgerbobble - have you been digging through my collection? i'm still a huge fan of kevin johnson... always liked his style of play and loved that 89/90 hoops design. as for mcdonald & van poppel... what true collector from the early 90's didn't invest in these guys?

hackenbush - wow... 60 topps glossy all-star cards? nice haul... always been a fan of those inserts.

Martyn said...

@ Mark,
I pulled 2, got a few in box breaks, and a couple sent to me for my PC!

I could never buy 100 of the exact same card!

Fuji said...

martyn - these days neither would i (in reference to your statement that you'd never buy 100 of the exact same card)

learned my lesson from steve shields