TTM Success - Barry Larkin

Another private signing helped me land a Hall of Famer for my 1987 Topps set.  This time it was Barry Larkin.  I paid a fee of $50.00, but to me it was well worth it to go ahead and cross him off of my list.

I sent the card in on October 25 and got the card back signed on November 23, for a 29-day TAT.

Hall of Fame Signed Baseball - Barry Larkin

The National Card Show afforded me an opportunity to add five Hall of Famers to my baseball collection, and a couple others who should be enshrined sooner, rather than later.  For a good deal on Saturday, I added Barry Larkin as my 125th Hall of Famer.

The ball is JSA authenticated and is a William White ONL baseball.  The dealer gave me $5 off the price, which is decent enough, I guess.  I have been wanting to knock Larkin off of my list for some time now, even though, in my humble opinion, I don't feel as if he is a surefire Hall of Famer.  That being said, however, there are guys who aren't in that I believe should be, but others could have an argument against them.  It creates a good field for debate, though.

Larkin (b. 1964) played in the majors from 1986 to 2004 for the Cincinnati Reds.  He had 2,340 hits, 198 home runs and a career average of .295.  He was an All Star 12 times, won the NL MVP in 1995 and won the World Series in 1990 with the Reds.  He was also a 9-time Silver Slugger Award winner and a 3-time Gold Glove Award winner.

Larkin making the Hall of Fame as a shortstop, I guess paves the way for someone like Omar Vizquel to get in.  I just don't feel as if Larkin has the stats, but compared to other shortstops not named Cal, he probably does measure up.

Checking Out Another Card Shop

Chris and I were bored this morning and decided that after we ate some lunch, we would take a ride out to Kinston and check out a card shop we had heard about.  The shop is located in Vernon Park Mall in Kinston, which is about 30 minutes away from our house.  I didn't go there with any expectations as I have driven around to check out card shops in the past only to find that they either had closed down or didn't have much of anything to offer.  I remember when I came out here to Greenville 3 years ago, I was happy to see that an actual card shop was in town and was a great place to get most of what I needed.  The only drawback about the Greenville shop is that the shop owner has pretty much sold out of his vintage stuff.

The Kinston shop we went to today is a candy store/card shop.  Interesting combination.  They had plenty of supplies as well as a nice assortment of all kinds of cards.  I took my time looking through the boxes they had set up and found a few things for myself and a couple cards for Chris.  They also had a nice selection of vintage Topps from 1955 to 1970.

I found the above Pineda/Britton dual relic in a 3/$10.00 box.  Since I didn't get 3 cards out of it, it ended up costing me $4.00, which still wasn't bad.  They had a lot of Team USA relics which I know a certain blogger would like.  I also found a nice vintage Yankee card for my buddy Drew.  I just wish there was a nice vintage Red Sox card for Scott.

 They had a box of $0.50 stars, and I was fairly sure I didn't have this Cal Ripken.  I went ahead and picked it up.

 Chris and I also bought 90s junk wax, he got a pack of 1991 Leaf for $0.50 and I got a pack of 1994 Studio for $1.00.  The Barry Larkin and Frank Thomas cards pictured are trade bait if anyone would like them.

In all, I was very satisfied with the shop.  The shopkeeper was a really nice guy who was patient with Chris and I as we searched his boxes.  Chris was able to come away with two Tim Lincecums that he didn't already have.  I also bought him a new baseball card album and a box of 100 sheets.  He and I are going to take his Lincecum cards and are going to put all of them together in one album.