WHITE WHALE CAPTURED!!! Mailday: Crusade-Style

[OhioLawyerF5]

This post will attempt to be a mailday post as well as an informational post, so please bear with me.

Yesterday I returned home to one of, if not the, most significant mailday of my collecting life.

Before we get started, I want to give a few shoutouts to a few people who made this possible and illustrate just how great the community of collectors can be.

First, I'd like to thank Zach from Facebook for the sale. A pleasure to deal with and a guy who apparently has a knack for tracking down extremely rare items. I'm a buyer from him for life.

Second, I'd like to thank @RiceBondsMT2Yng here on Blowout. He's very active in the 90s insert scene and extremely knowledgeable. He's someone that I've only recently come into contact with, but I already consider him a friend in the hobby. When the listing popped up, I could hardly believe it was real. I reached out to him and he provided some information that helped me pull the trigger. And I'm so glad I did.

Lastly, I want to thank @stryk here on Blowout. This is an individual I have really never had personal interaction with. But is a kind and thoughtful member here who was on the lookout to help a fellow collector. They reached out to me to let me know of the posting that led to this thread. More on this later.

And this brings me to the beginning of the story. I have been compiling a collection of Barry Larkin cards for my Reds PC. As time has progressed, I have directed my focus more and more on the rare 90s stuff. This has provided an enjoyment to my collecting that I don't often find in other aspects of my hobby experience: the thrill of the hunt. The more rare and desirable cards of the 90s can be both very expensive and very difficult to find. So over time, I've learned that in order to obtain the best cards, you not only have to be lucky, but ready. When a rare card pops up for sale, you just have to bite the bullet and buy it, even if you are overpaying. Because it may not pop up for sale again for years, if ever.

Recently, I mentioned here in a couple of threads my goal for 2024. I want to track down the 1998 Donruss Crusade Red /25 Barry Larkin to complete my rainbow, as I have the Green and the Purple. These are likely locked away in personal collections, sitting in unopened boxes somewhere, or were opened from packs and tossed aside back in the 90s from people who didn't know what they had. Whatever the reasons, there is one of these ever graded to my knowledge. I know who owns it and they aren't selling any time soon. And neither I nor the owner have ever seen another one.

For those unfamiliar with the 1998 Donruss Crusade set, here is some information:

The 1998 Donruss Crusade baseball set consists of 130 cards of which come in three different color parallels -- Green, Purple, and Red -- with each color accompanied by a unique print run (green numbered to 250, purple numbered to 100, and red numbered to 25). The first 100 cards in the set depict veteran stars while the remaining 30 feature young hopefuls.

1998 Donruss Crusade is a multi-product release; the first 100 cards were randomly inserted into three products: 40 cards inserted in 1998 Donruss, 30 cards inserted in 1998 Leaf, and 30 cards inserted in 1998 Donruss Update. Cards 101-130 were inserted into packs of 1998 Leaf Rookies and Stars. The set was an unannounced "stealth" insert set and odds were not included on the packs.

There were two different designs in the Crusade set. The regular/base design featured colored photos of a player against a medieval background. The cards were printed on chromium stock with a holographic foil finish. The other design was a subset entitled Call to Arms. These picture the player against a colored back drop with an emblem etched in the background and the words Call to Arms printed in bold white letters down the side of the card. All of the Call to Arms Crusade cards that were officially released/packed-out were mistakenly printed without card numbers. No corrections to this error was made. Both designs are breathtakingly beautiful in person. Pictures just don't do them justice.

Players included in the set had either a Call to Arms or a base card. As I collect Barry Larkin, he had a Call to Arms card in the set. As previously mentioned it is unnumbered on the back, but is listed as card #63 in the checklist. According to Baseballcardpedia.com the Larkin cards were released in packs of 1998 Donruss Update.

Here is a photo of the Larkin cards I have. Notice no card number on the backs of the Call to Arms cards. Obviously, I'm missing the Red as it is my 2024 goal to track one down.




Additionally, there were Executive proofs of the set made. These cards are serial-numbered either "XXX/250" (green), "XXX/100" (purple), or "XX/25" (red). The serial-numbering is printed rather than stamped. These cards were produced for Donruss staff and were used in-house for final approval and quality control before production. While print runs aren't confirmed, it's likely every card of this version regardless of color was printed in the same quantity. That said, it's believed that that particular quantity is exceptionally small. Baseballcardpedia.com says that many collectors believe that 1-2 copies of an Executive Promo each player for each color were produced for all cards in the officially released set (i.e., cards #1 - #130). Other researchers believe the number to be more than 1 or 2, but possibly less than 10. There is no way to confirm this other than assumptions from sales observations over time, but it's clear they are very rare.

A number of additional Crusade cards (sequentially numbered #131 - #200 in the set) were produced by Donruss for future 1998 and 1999 baseball products, but were never officially released due to the bankruptcy of Pinnacle Brands. However, all 70 of these known, unreleased Crusades emerged on the secondary market shortly after Pinnacle's bankruptcy. None of these unreleased Crusades are serial-numbered. While Major League Baseball Properties (MLBP) instructed Pinnacle Brands - which included the Donruss and Leaf products - to destroy its baseball card inventory after the bankruptcy filing, some Donruss employees collated and kept these unreleased Crusades and sold them to Dave and Adam's Card World, a sports card and collectibles store. In turn, they sold the entire lot to a private collector, which then traded hands again to another private collector. Had these Crusades not been backdoored, collectors may have never seen these.

While many collectors believe that one copy of the Red and Purple and two copies of the Green of each player from this unreleased portion of the set exist, this is more of an exception than the norm. The large majority of players only have one of each color, with some players not having one or two colors confirmed to exist.

Most players in the initial Crusade set (#1 - #100) were to have a "base" and "Call to Arms" (CTA) card, for all three colors. The first Crusade "type" for each of these players were released in packs of 1998 Donruss, Leaf, and Donruss Update; however, the second Crusade "type" for many players were part of this unreleased set. For example, the Ken Griffey, Jr. CTA Crusade was one of these unreleased cards that emerged on the secondary market after the bankruptcy - Griffey, Jr. had a "base" Crusade that was officially released in packs but his CTA subset was to be featured in sets that were never officially released.

Unlike the CTA Crusades that were inserted into packs, all unreleased CTA cards are sequentially-numbered.

Because of the popularity of the Crusade set in general and potential rarity of the unreleased Crusades specifically, these command also strong premiums in the secondary sales market over the pack-issued Crusades.

It should be noted, there are a few exceptions to the rule with these unreleased cards. Rickey Henderson (#166) and Vinny Castilla (#138) both do not have a Crusade that was released in packs but have a Crusade in this Unreleased set. Both of Mo Vaughn's Crusades (#12 & #196) - pack-issued and in the unreleased set - were the CTA version; Vaughn does not have a "base" Crusade.

All player cards between #131 and 200 have been accounted for although some players do not have all 3 color parallels.

Barry Larkin has all 3.

Which brings me back to the beginning of this story. My journey to track down the Larkin Red. Even though I basically never use social media sites, other than message boards like Blowout, I joined several 90s collectors groups on Facebook. I made some posts here on Blowout about my search and asked people to keep an eye out for one. I don't care to receive a bunch of notifications from Facebook, so I have my notifications turned off. Which means I have to regularly check those groups for new posts just hoping one day the Red will pop up. Most weeks, Saturdays tend to get the most posts, so this past Saturday I had checked Facebook several times looking for rare Larkin cards. Nothing popped up.

I was sitting on the couch next to my wife when I decided for whatever reason to check Blowout on my phone. I had just looked at Facebook about an hour earlier. I noticed I had a private message on Blowout. It was @stryk and he was asking if I had seen the Larkin cards listed on Facebook. He apparently saw my posts and knew of my search and thought of me when he saw the listing. What a thoughtful person! Thank you so much.

I rushed over to Facebook to see what the listing was all about. And to my surprise, a seller was selling all 3 of the unreleased Larkin Crusades for what I considered to be a good price (how can you really know since these are likely one of a kind). After speaking to my wife, who was next to me, and texting @RiceBondsMT2Yng for input, I pulled the trigger. There was a lot of interest and it's clear had I not acted quickly, they would have been sold, possibly gone forever from my grasp. Had @stryk not let me know of the sale, I never would have seen it in time and it would have sold to someone else.

I anxiously waited the 5 days it took the cards to arrive at my door. But when they arrived yesterday, it was all worth it.

It's funny how we sometimes think we have a white whale, only to realize it was a different whale altogether. I never thought in a million years I would have a shot to own these unreleased Crusades, so my white whale was the Red CTA. And being the collector/compiler that I am, now that I've obtained these cards, I want the red more than ever. So I guess it is my white whale after all.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and on to the cards. Here are all three of the unreleased Larkin cards, in all likelihood the only set of them in the world. Notice the cards are not serial numbered on the back, but unlike the CTA versions, they are card #164 in the set.






Here are links to sources I used for information for this post. Please check them out:

http://baseballcardpedia.com/index.p...onruss_Crusade
https://www.radicards.com/baseball/1...ster-resource/

UPDATE 1/31/25:

I am excited as a collector can be! Today, I finally completed the Larkin run from my all-time favorite set: 1998 Donruss Crusade.

The Red Call to Arms is finally mine! This is only the second copy of this card to be seen publicly that I am aware of. I'm not a collector of special serial numbers, but this is jersey number 11/25.





Here they are in all their glory, the 3 Call to Arms and the 3 unreleased high number prototypes.

[awz50]

Very nice looking!

[excel_b]

Those are beautiful!

Happy that you are very grateful for the support and for your cards! Kudos to Blowouts!

[hermanotarjeta]

Congratulations! Always feels great to find something you have been wanting for decades.

Great write up about the card background!

[mlbfan10]

Amazing cards and story! Very happy for you OP!

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

[bub838]

Those look great! Very exciting.

[MiamiMarlinsFan]

Great looking cards! Congrats on the pickups.

[speedyjg13]

Congratulations!

[peterose4hof]

Really cool story and amazing cards!

I'm pretty sure I have a Larkin Crusade. I'll have to look and see which one.

[NYRE2PECT]

Yay for awesome hobby helpers - love it and this is the type of stuff that we need to hear more of!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[PreservingHist]

Great story. Thanks for sharing!

[NYBBFAN]

Dang! How cool.

[tconte]

Sweet pickups! The 1998 Crusades are awesome. I wish I had the chance to get a Griffey
Call to Arms.

[JimEd14]

The background, the chase, the details, the shout outs ... all of it ...

[Skipscards]

That is fantastic! Congratulations!! I hope you find the /25 one day too!

[brewtown107]

Great story, great writeup. Congrats!

[kingofsnake]

Congratulations, OP. The Larkin cards look very nice together.

[OhioLawyerF5]

Originally Posted by BBases31

Relax. Every other post I've ever seen on this forum for years about backdoored cards is negative. This is the first time I've ever seen backdoored cards celebrated. I'm asking because maybe there's something I'm missing here.

Rare test issues, proofs, prototypes, etc... are nearly always collectible. Pack issued cards are more desirable than a backdoored copy of the same card. But that isn't this situation. These were prototypes of an unreleased set. There is no pack issued version. Not to mention this presents another, scarce variation of an extremely popular set for player collectors. Which means a lot of people looking for a few cards.

Also, thank you all for reading and for the kind words.

[PLB9eight]

Originally Posted by OhioLawyerF5

This post will attempt to be a mailday post as well as an informational post, so please bear with me.

Yesterday I returned home to one of, if not the, most significant mailday of my collecting life.

Before we get started, I want to give a few shoutouts to a few people who made this possible and illustrate just how great the community of collectors can be.

First, I'd like to thank Zach from Facebook for the sale. A pleasure to deal with and a guy who apparently has a knack for tracking down extremely rare items. I'm a buyer from him for life.

Second, I'd like to thank @RiceBondsMT2Yng here on Blowout. He's very active in the 90s insert scene and extremely knowledgeable. He's someone that I've only recently come into contact with, but I already consider him a friend in the hobby. When the listing popped up, I could hardly believe it was real. I reached out to him and he provided some information that helped me pull the trigger. And I'm so glad I did.

Lastly, I want to thank @stryk here on Blowout. This is an individual I have really never had personal interaction with. But is a kind and thoughtful member here who was on the lookout to help a fellow collector. They reached out to me to let me know of the posting that led to this thread. More on this later.

And this brings me to the beginning of the story. I have been compiling a collection of Barry Larkin cards for my Reds PC. As time has progressed, I have directed my focus more and more on the rare 90s stuff. This has provided an enjoyment to my collecting that I don't often find in other aspects of my hobby experience: the thrill of the hunt. The more rare and desirable cards of the 90s can be both very expensive and very difficult to find. So over time, I've learned that in order to obtain the best cards, you not only have to be lucky, but ready. When a rare card pops up for sale, you just have to bite the bullet and buy it, even if you are overpaying. Because it may not pop up for sale again for years, if ever.

Recently, I mentioned here in a couple of threads my goal for 2024. I want to track down the 1998 Donruss Crusade Red /25 Barry Larkin to complete my rainbow, as I have the Green and the Purple. These are likely locked away in personal collections, sitting in unopened boxes somewhere, or were opened from packs and tossed aside back in the 90s from people who didn't know what they had. Whatever the reasons, there is one of these ever graded to my knowledge. I know who owns it and they aren't selling any time soon. And neither I nor the owner have ever seen another one.

For those unfamiliar with the 1998 Donruss Crusade set, here is some information:

The 1998 Donruss Crusade baseball set consists of 130 cards of which come in three different color parallels -- Green, Purple, and Red -- with each color accompanied by a unique print run (green numbered to 250, purple numbered to 100, and red numbered to 25). The first 100 cards in the set depict veteran stars while the remaining 30 feature young hopefuls.

1998 Donruss Crusade is a multi-product release; the first 100 cards were randomly inserted into three products: 40 cards inserted in 1998 Donruss, 30 cards inserted in 1998 Leaf, and 30 cards inserted in 1998 Donruss Update. Cards 101-130 were inserted into packs of 1998 Leaf Rookies and Stars. The set was an unannounced "stealth" insert set and odds were not included on the packs.

There were two different designs in the Crusade set. The regular/base design featured colored photos of a player against a medieval background. The cards were printed on chromium stock with a holographic foil finish. The other design was a subset entitled Call to Arms. These picture the player against a colored back drop with an emblem etched in the background and the words Call to Arms printed in bold white letters down the side of the card. All of the Call to Arms Crusade cards that were officially released/packed-out were mistakenly printed without card numbers. No corrections to this error was made. Both designs are breathtakingly beautiful in person. Pictures just don't do them justice.

Players included in the set had either a Call to Arms or a base card. As I collect Barry Larkin, he had a Call to Arms card in the set. As previously mentioned it is unnumbered on the back, but is listed as card #63 in the checklist. According to Baseballcardpedia.com the Larkin cards were released in packs of 1998 Donruss Update.

Here is a photo of the Larkin cards I have. Notice no card number on the backs of the Call to Arms cards. Obviously, I'm missing the Red as it is my 2024 goal to track one down.




Additionally, there were Executive proofs of the set made. These cards are serial-numbered either "XXX/250" (green), "XXX/100" (purple), or "XX/25" (red). The serial-numbering is printed rather than stamped. These cards were produced for Donruss staff and were used in-house for final approval and quality control before production. While print runs aren't confirmed, it's likely every card of this version regardless of color was printed in the same quantity. That said, it's believed that that particular quantity is exceptionally small. Baseballcardpedia.com says that many collectors believe that 1-2 copies of an Executive Promo each player for each color were produced for all cards in the officially released set (i.e., cards #1 - #130). Other researchers believe the number to be more than 1 or 2, but possibly less than 10. There is no way to confirm this other than assumptions from sales observations over time, but it's clear they are very rare.

A number of additional Crusade cards (sequentially numbered #131 - #200 in the set) were produced by Donruss for future 1998 and 1999 baseball products, but were never officially released due to the bankruptcy of Pinnacle Brands. However, all 70 of these known, unreleased Crusades emerged on the secondary market shortly after Pinnacle's bankruptcy. None of these unreleased Crusades are serial-numbered. While Major League Baseball Properties (MLBP) instructed Pinnacle Brands - which included the Donruss and Leaf products - to destroy its baseball card inventory after the bankruptcy filing, some Donruss employees collated and kept these unreleased Crusades and sold them to Dave and Adam's Card World, a sports card and collectibles store. In turn, they sold the entire lot to a private collector, which then traded hands again to another private collector. Had these Crusades not been backdoored, collectors may have never seen these.

While many collectors believe that one copy of the Red and Purple and two copies of the Green of each player from this unreleased portion of the set exist, this is more of an exception than the norm. The large majority of players only have one of each color, with some players not having one or two colors confirmed to exist.

Most players in the initial Crusade set (#1 - #100) were to have a "base" and "Call to Arms" (CTA) card, for all three colors. The first Crusade "type" for each of these players were released in packs of 1998 Donruss, Leaf, and Donruss Update; however, the second Crusade "type" for many players were part of this unreleased set. For example, the Ken Griffey, Jr. CTA Crusade was one of these unreleased cards that emerged on the secondary market after the bankruptcy - Griffey, Jr. had a "base" Crusade that was officially released in packs but his CTA subset was to be featured in sets that were never officially released.

Unlike the CTA Crusades that were inserted into packs, all unreleased CTA cards are sequentially-numbered.

Because of the popularity of the Crusade set in general and potential rarity of the unreleased Crusades specifically, these command also strong premiums in the secondary sales market over the pack-issued Crusades.

It should be noted, there are a few exceptions to the rule with these unreleased cards. Rickey Henderson (#166) and Vinny Castilla (#138) both do not have a Crusade that was released in packs but have a Crusade in this Unreleased set. Both of Mo Vaughn's Crusades (#12 & #196) - pack-issued and in the unreleased set - were the CTA version; Vaughn does not have a "base" Crusade.

All player cards between #131 and 200 have been accounted for although some players do not have all 3 color parallels.

Barry Larkin has all 3.

Which brings me back to the beginning of this story. My journey to track down the Larkin Red. Even though I basically never use social media sites, other than message boards like Blowout, I joined several 90s collectors groups on Facebook. I made some posts here on Blowout about my search and asked people to keep an eye out for one. I don't care to receive a bunch of notifications from Facebook, so I have my notifications turned off. Which means I have to regularly check those groups for new posts just hoping one day the Red will pop up. Most weeks, Saturdays tend to get the most posts, so this past Saturday I had checked Facebook several times looking for rare Larkin cards. Nothing popped up.

I was sitting on the couch next to my wife when I decided for whatever reason to check Blowout on my phone. I had just looked at Facebook about an hour earlier. I noticed I had a private message on Blowout. It was @stryk and he was asking if I had seen the Larkin cards listed on Facebook. He apparently saw my posts and knew of my search and thought of me when he saw the listing. What a thoughtful person! Thank you so much.

I rushed over to Facebook to see what the listing was all about. And to my surprise, a seller was selling all 3 of the unreleased Larkin Crusades for what I considered to be a good price (how can you really know since these are likely one of a kind). After speaking to my wife, who was next to me, and texting @RiceBondsMT2Yng for input, I pulled the trigger. There was a lot of interest and it's clear had I not acted quickly, they would have been sold, possibly gone forever from my grasp. Had @stryk not let me know of the sale, I never would have seen it in time and it would have sold to someone else.

I anxiously waited the 5 days it took the cards to arrive at my door. But when they arrived yesterday, it was all worth it.

It's funny how we sometimes think we have a white whale, only to realize it was a different whale altogether. I never thought in a million years I would have a shot to own these unreleased Crusades, so my white whale was the Red CTA. And being the collector/compiler that I am, now that I've obtained these cards, I want the red more than ever. So I guess it is my white whale after all.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and on to the cards. Here are all three of the unreleased Larkin cards, in all likelihood the only set of them in the world. Notice the cards are not serial numbered on the back, but unlike the CTA versions, they are card #164 in the set.






Here are links to sources I used for information for this post. Please check them out:

http://baseballcardpedia.com/index.p...onruss_Crusade
https://www.radicards.com/baseball/1...ster-resource/

Well done!

[stryk]

Thanks for the shout out! I am so happy you ended up with these. I still remember pulling a Red Maddux from a box I am pretty sure I got from
Kmart back when they were released. Thought they were the nicest cards ever back then and still think they are.

[fabiani12333]

Great post, Ohio -- I'm happy that you got such rare cards for your collection.

[UMich92]

OP - Thanks for the read and congrats on the acquisition.

[NYBBFAN]

OP, did you ask the seller if they had any other rare Larkins? I’ve found “extra” cards that way.

[iluvfish2]

Congrats on the PC Pickups!

I had a Red Boggs taken from my grasps last year (I'll state taken as it was already paid for, then refunded hours later)...it wasnt about the value, I definitely didnt steal it and felt I gave a fair price, but the hopes that were crushed is still a very very raw wound.

[OhioLawyerF5]

Originally Posted by NYBBFAN

OP, did you ask the seller if they had any other rare Larkins? I’ve found “extra” cards that way.

I definitely asked him to keep me in mind if he finds any others. I told him he will always have a buyer for rare Larkins. I hope it becomes a nice connection. I've quickly learned the importance of networking when searching for rare cards.