2013 trade package #16: Coot Veal gets a thumbs up from this side of the Mitten

If you read this evening's TMV post you saw most of the goods from my latest (actually, second) deal with Dustin H. of Coot Veal and the Vealtones.  Last time I also split the deal up into two posts--one on TMV and one here--because he sent enough Wolverines to justify a second write-up, including what was, at the time, my 92nd Rich Hill!

Well, my counterpart on the west side of the Mitten (if you can't point out where you live on your hand, you don't belong here) knocked it out of the park again, mostly thanks to the stuff linked above.  However, one card alone kicked off this deal, and it's in this post, not that one.  Read on to see what I ended up with:

Barry Larkin 1998 Elite Craftsmen (#2023/3500)

Nope, this wasn't the inspiration for the deal, but it's a seriously awesome late-90s insert of Barry Larkin, and it's serial-numbered to boot!  Donruss was responsible for some of the best insert designs (especially when it came to shininess and numbering) back in the days when that kind of card was king, and I offer no arguments for labeling Barry as a "Craftsman" when it comes to his multiple talents in the game.  I've updated my Player Collections page to reflect that this is IHAS Larkin #112 for me, with a bunch from my completed sets left to scan!

J.J. Putz 2002 Bowman Chrome Uncirculated

Ok, I can shut up now because finally, THIS is the card that launched 1000 trade packages.  I lost out on this Uncirculated Putz on eBay a while back and hadn't found it again at a reasonable price, so there it sat on my (hypothetical Michigan PC) wantlist.  That was until Dustin found it at a card show.  In a bargain box.  For a freakin' QUARTER.  That, my friends, is called win-win, as it led to a very productive trade for both of us.  It's my 157th Putz (plus three 1/1s) and leaves me a Gold Refractor /50 short of the five-card "rainbow," if you can call it that.  Knock another one off the list!

Thanks again for the Tigers/Michigan package, Dustin!  You may live on the other side of the state, but you're still very much a Michigan Man.  Readers, please check out a quality example of a Tigers-centric collecting blog over at Coot Veal and the Vealtones.

This old Coot knows his Maize and Blue!

Dustin of Coot Veal and the Vealtones fame sent me an outstanding trade package this week that hit a lot of my baseball collections, including set wantlists, Tigers, and a few favorite players (check it out over on TMV).  Being the awesome trader that he is, though, he also included some very useful Michigan stuff, which gives me the opportunity to show it off right here:

How cool are those Abbotts?  I love the UD card of him as if he's in a Michigan dorm room.  For the sake of completeness, it's one of those "Stay in school" kind of cards, which is sort of funny since Jim did make the leap to the draft a year early.  He sure is rockin' that mullet, though. 

 Too many Larkins!  I'm sure I needed most of these, and at some point I'm going to go all Nachos Grande on you and list/scan/post all the ones I have too.  I was very happy to get this many cards of a newly-minted HOFer and one of my favorite Wolverines and MLBers of all time.  Still, I wasn't as happy as when this one fell out of the stack:

Sweet!  It's a Rich Hill 2006 Topps Opening Day, a card I still didn't have!  Well, now I do thanks to Dustin, and today I can say I'm at 86 different Hills, and 92 including my 1/1s.  Seriously, out of everything in the entire package, this was my favorite card.

Thanks again (again), Dustin, for a great trade, and I hope you liked the stuff I sent you!