Please Mr. Postman (A trade post) -- A smorgasbord of inserts

Today kicks off my first full week of summer vacation.

As if that wasn't enough, I received a great trade package today from David (a.k.a. "Rhubarb Runner), author of the terrific blog "é rayhahn, rayhahn". (Quite possibly the best name of any blog out there.)

David contacted me a while back about some Twins cards I had on my trade page. I picked out a bunch of inserts that I could use from his trade page.

Just like that, a trade was born.

I was only expecting to get a few from the ones I picked out, but David was generous enough to send me the whole lot of them.

The result was one of the best and most diverse lot of inserts I've ever received, a great mix of HOFers and more recent players.

The above insert may just be my new favorite Mark Grace card in my collection. I love the "Hitting for the Cycle" insert set (from '02 UD Piece of History), and I've always been fascinated by guys who don't wear batting gloves in this day in age.

This card perfectly captures Grace in all his gloveless glory.

It seems like every trade I make with others from the blogosphere involves some sort of Vlad cards.

My collection of his just keeps on growing. I'm closing in on 600 different cards of "Vlad the Impaler". This astonishingly colorful insert was easily one of the highlights of the package.

And to top it all off, my man just signed a minor-league deal with the Blue Jays last week. If he ends up playing in the big leagues at some point this year, he will likely be one of the last players to ever suit up for both Canadian teams, the now-defunct Expos and the Blue Jays.

I'll definitely be rooting for him.

Now it's time for the Hall of Famers.

One thing I love about my HOF collection is that it's seemingly endless. Finding cards of HOFers in dime/quarter boxes is surprisingly easy, yet there's so many of them out there that I could never possibly get even close to owning all the ones I need.

Cards like this Bobby Doerr are a great example of why I love collecting greats from the past. They've been granted some amazingly awesome insert sets over the years, this one being no exception.

Sticking with the Red Sox theme, here's a couple neat Carlton Fisk inserts that David sent.

It's a little hard to believe that Fisk was still playing when I was born. I associate him so much with the 1970's Red Sox teams that I sometimes forget he was still around by the '90s, even though he was with the hometown White Sox at the time.

Speaking of awesome HOF inserts, here's another one.

The 2001 UD Decade set will always be one of my all-time favorites. The great card shop that I've previously discussed used to have a little box with one-dollar packs from past years inside, including some from the Decade set. I snatched those up every time I went there as a kid.

Part of me wishes I could've grown up during the '70s, just to experience the way the game was changing, with the DH, free agents, and more Bill Lee and Mark Fidrych-type "characters" that were starting to pop up. (And to be able to collect the iconic cards, of course.)

There's only one word to describe this card.

Groovy.

That's a word I'd use to define this trade with Mr. Rhubarb Runner as well. I'm already looking forward to the next one.

Thanks, David!