Warning: Vintage Ahead! (a Trade Post with Coot Veal and the Vealtones)

Dustin, from the excellent blog Coot Veal and The Vealtones, contacted me about some Tigers that I recently ran into.  No, no...  it's okay.  I wasn't harmed.  I was actually able to package up the Tigers and send them his way.  Not even a scratch.  Well, er, I mean... not even a paper cut!  There were Archives Tigers, a Hall of Fame autographed Tiger, and some vintage Bowman Tigers as well. 

For what it's worth, I think Dustin has one of the best named baseball card themed blogs out there.  I haven't researched this Coot Veal guy yet, but from what I hear the Vealtones are some pretty righteous dudes. (Or are they dudettes?)

Dustin sent a very generous amount of cards back my way, and if you ever have the opportunity to trade with him you'd be wise to not miss out!

Let's go through the highlights, shall we?

First, let's start with the subjects of my player collections.
Two more (new to me) Kosuke Fukudome cards to bring my collection total up to 68 cards.  I really like the border of the 2009 A&G framed relic!

 

Ryno!  Dustin parted with a nice amount Sandbergs, but unfortunately I only needed the 2012 Topps Historical Stitches card.  The card itself is a little different and I must admit I had to touch the fabric of the patch.  Fuzzy!

 For what it's worth, I'm about 95% finished in my quest to catalog my Sandberg Collection.  Once I've put the finishing touches on that list I'll tackle the last remaining player in my player collection...

...Kerry Wood!  I don't know exactly which Wood cards I have, but I know with 100% certainty that theses are both new to me: a 2001 Topps Gold parallel and a 2009 Upper Deck Goudey.

Hall of Famers?  Yes please!  2008 Upper Deck baseball Heroes of Mr. Cub and an oddball of The Hawk.

Set help?  Sure! Nineteen more 2002 Topps Total cards to cross of the want list.  Thanks, Dustin! I was beginning to think I would never make any progress on this bad boy.

 Present Cubs?  Absolutely!

Welington Castillo is one of my favorite current Cubs.  He played in Peoria and seemed like a pretty nice guy.  Hey, and a sparkly surfboard card of Shark!  See what I did there?

Past Cubs?  Sure, we have Mark Grace in vintage garb on a 1993 Studio Heritage card.

The Grace card dovetails nicely into what was next: actual vintage!  You know the stuff!  Faded colors... flimsy cardboard... rounded corners... creases... pin holes... pen marks... Glorious stuff!

Man, receiving vintage Cubs in a trade is like bathing in a tub of kittens.  (The "tub of kittens" line is a new simile I'm trying out. I don't actually bathe with kittens.  That would be weird, but so fun!)

We'll start with the youngest cards and work our way back through time.

1975 Topps Mini Team Checklist . . . My first mini from '75!  This card alone was worth trading all those Tigers!

It may not look like a mini, but trust me, it is!

1972 Topps Strikeout Leaders card and Johnny Callison.  Cards of Fergie Jenkins never get old, especially when he's sharing cardboard time with Tom Terrific!

 

1971 Topps Joe Pepitone and Tommy Davis.  Pepitone's sideburns are what dreams are made of!

1969 Topps RBI Leaders featuring three Hall of Famers.  This card is a true gem!  McCovey Santo, and Williams... oh my!

1968 Topps Kenny Holtzmen and Ron Santo All-Star card!  These are the first '68s in my collection and they're beautiful!

 1959 Topps Al Dark and a 1957 Topps Cal Keeman.  Somebody prior to me loved Mr. Dark so much that he was taped to the wall or a notebook. 

Oh, and it gets better.  How about a 1952 Bowman Hal Jeffcoat?
Interesting factoid: Jeffcoat spent the first six years of his career in the majors as an outfielder and the last six as a pitcher.  You don't see that too often these days.

 

Mr. Jeffcoact easily represents the oldest card in my collection.  Wait, I mean "represented."

Because this guy was on the bottom of the stack:

It's a 1951 Bowman edition card of Bill Serena.  Holy cow!
I had never heard of Jeffcoat or Serena, but now they are household names!  Well, they are in my man cave at least.

I hope Dustin is as happy as I was receiving his package when he lets all of those Tigers out of the bag... er, yellow bubbler.  Thanks for a great trade, Dustin!