2013 trade package #11: muchos Archives from Nachos Grande

Ok, guys, pop quiz:

Who can tell me what this is?  Want a hint?  Take a look at the title.  Read on to get your answer.

So up until recently I had never traded with Chris over at Nachos Grande.  I'm not really sure why--we're both big Barry Larkin collectors, and I'd set aside a pretty nice pile of Larkins and other Reds to send his way at some point, but for whatever reason, we hadn't worked out a deal.

Flash forward to a few weeks ago when we hammered out a trade I think we were both happy with.  Chris split his haul into three posts, which can be found here, here, and here.  I'm dumb and took much longer to show off the fantastic box he sent back to me, mainly because I was catching up on some other great trades. But today I'm finally getting around to showing just how great of a trader Chris is.

A couple things spurred this trade, and those were a pile of Larkin doubles Chris knew could help my Barry PC, plus a new J.J. Putz for his collection.  You can check those out over on TMM at your leisure.

But the other trade bait that piqued my interest was a fat stack of dupes Chris had available from a certain set--namely 104 cards from 2012 Topps Archives.  That's exactly what you see at the top of this here post. The stack represents every card he had that I hadn't acquired from a rack pack or two plus several trades, and that shows just how generous he is.

Here's some highlights of those 104 new cards:

Former Tiger and blog namesake Granderson; ZACK GREINKE WILL SWALLOW YOUR SOUL!  (seriously, has this guy EVER taken a good picture?  He looks like he Angry Video Game Nerd!); Tim Hudson because I like him; a trio of Tigers; and a trio of blog favorites:  Kershaw (Plaschke), Upton (MCM), and Hudson (My 2008 Topps Set Blog)

And here's nine legends/retired (suck it, Straw), including a favorite of yours truly, Cal Ripken Jr., with a photo likely taken before the NES became a thing.

When I combine these with the other few I had lying around, I now own 127 of the 200-card base set, which is awesome.  I'd considered purchasing a complete set at one point, but as usual, trading is much more fun, and I hope some of you reading this can chip in some cards from my wantlist as well--you know I'll make it worth it for you!

Thanks for a fantastic first trade, Chris!  I look forward to more deals in the future, especially if we can continue swapping extra Larkins so we can both grow a nice PC of his stuff.  Readers, please head on over to Nachos Grande to enjoy a blog that excels at both quantity AND quality!