Holiday trade package #4: Collector's Crack

Today's trade package hails from Gold Rush country, a.k.a Alaska, thanks to the generosity of Mark, a.k.a. CynicalBuddha, of Collector's Crack.  Apparently a fan of the state of Wisconsin's teams, Mark picked up the Packers and Brewers from my fall cleaning lots.  Here's what he sent back my way, which was clearly 1000 times better than what I sent him:

Right off the bat is one of the highlights of the package:  a Verlander 2012 Topps SP.  I think I've pulled one or two of Topps' short prints since they ramped those up in recent years, but I didn't have any stashed in my PC, and certainly didn't have one of one of my favorite players ever, so, yeah, WOW.  The stickers you see of 80s core Tigers Lou Whitaker, Alan Trammell, and Jack Morris come from 1984 Fleer and are a nice, unique addition to my Tigers PC.  So is the next card, a Bowman insert featuring Justin Verlander and fellow #2 overall pick and pitcher Danny Hultzen of the Mariners.  Rounding out the group is a 2012 Bowman Draft Rookie-Or-Not-Who-Even-Knows-Anymore? of Tigers pitching prospect Jacob Thompson, Detroit's second-rounder this year.

And if you can believe it, it gets better:

To say Mark put a dent in a few of my sets wouldn't do justice in that he essentially left a dent's worth of cards I still need to pick up.  Included were 39 of the 2009 Topps baseball I needed; three from 2008 Topps football; and 23 from 2010 Score football, ALL of which were rookie short prints.  To give you an idea of how much these helped, here's my 2009 Topps baseball list before

and after:

And 2010 Score football is down to just FOUR!  Wow was that a lot of help.  While I'm celebrating here, seeing former Hokie Kevin Jones reminds me I should be congratulating Spankee's Virginia Tech team for their exciting overtime bowl win the other day!

So after all that, things even managed to get better from there:

While I already had one, I was excited to pull a Granderson hit out of this package.  I guess I really DO have Too Many Grandersons now (wakka wakka wakka).  Anyway, that's headed over to the trade bait album and I'm sure I'll be able to use it to acquire something else I'll really like.

And finally, a Tigers hit I most certainly DID need, a 2012 A&G Jhonny Peralta jersey!  This is my first hit of Detroit's most recent shortstop, and a player I've come to appreciate (apparently more than some other Tigers fans, for whatever reason) thanks to his valuable bat at one of the keystone positions.  While I hope Detroit can ultimately develop a player to take over, I've been happy to see Jhonny and his fairly potent bat out there the last few seasons.

So once again, a big thanks to Mark for an extremely generous trade package.  I'll give you the same promise as everyone else so far--I'll get you back with something just as good very soon!

As with some of the others I've covered lately, Mark's blog is pretty well-known and successful, but if you aren't already following it, check out Collector's Crack as soon as you can--he works hard to churn out posts in between fishing and repairing his igloo.