Brad Completes My 2012 Archives Set

The trades keep rolling here at Shoebox Legends! Today's post features a package that arrived this past week from Brad of Brad's Blog.  I enjoy his blog and was especially jealous of all of the vintage Mantle cards he recently showed off.  Anyway, I sent him a Ripken relic and some randome Phillies.  In return Brad sent some really great cards, and plenty of them.  For starters there was a large amount of 2012 Topps Archives...

When I say a large amount, I mean 51 base cards, just over 25% of the set.  I won't show them all, just the retired Hall-of-Famers.  I'm biased towards those cards.

The 51 cards Brad sent were actually the final 51 that I needed to complete the 200-card short set.  It took until mid-March but I've finally got my first completed set post of 2013.

Okay, Ortiz is not (and maybe will not ever be) a Hall-of-Famer.  He was however the final Red Sox card I needed from the set.

I like this one quite a bit, interesting to see The Wizard depicted with St. Louis on the 1980 Topps design rather than San Diego.

As if knocking off the base set weren't enough, Brad also sent four short prints.  Dave Kingman on the '77 Topps design...

...Wally Joyner on '87 Topps...

...Mitch Williams '92 Topps...

...and Von Hayes '87 Topps.  I think I am going to go for it and try to complete the full 240-card set with short prints (and not the bullshit #241).  I've got the cards I'm missing on my want list if you've got any lying around.

Even though I was expecting the Archives cards only, Brad was generous enough to throw in a team set bag full of Red Sox cards as well!

The stack included what amounted to close to a full team set of 2012 Topps Chrome, none of which I had.

Finally, the Adrian Gonzalez base card!  I've built a decently impressive rainbow of this card but never had the base version until now.

One of my favorite cards in the package.  This guy is one of the brightest young stars on the team and I get excited any time I get a new card of his.  Problem is, everyone wants ridiculous prices for his cards here in New England.  I think I can safely say at this point that I've received more Middlebrooks cards in trade than I've purchased.

How about a 2012 Bowman Chrome Jacoby Ellsbury refractor?  Really like this one, and Ellsbury falls into the same category as Middlebrooks as overpriced in these parts.

Here's another new one, Will's rookie card from 2012 Topps Update.

Finally, there were a bunch of 2013 flagship Red Sox, including the final card that I needed to complete my team set, Daniel Nava.  For whatever reason I ended up with like 9 copies of Vicente Padilla before I got my hands on a single Nava.

Brad, thanks for an absolutely awesome trade!  This one package helped me towards my goals of completing trades, completing sets, and accumulating Red Sox.  I truly appreciate it!