Cards of all shapes and sizes

It gives me pleasure to say that we've got a brand new member in the ever-expanding blogosphere.

Reader-turned-blogger Jeremy has recently started the "Broken Lumber Blog", one that I'll definitely be reading in the future.

This is my second trade with Jeremy in a little less than a month. He's helped me clear out some space in my doubles box with these last couple trades, something for which I'm very appreciative.

In return for some base cards from the last couple years, Jeremy sent me a great array of recent inserts. He even added in an extra little surprise, which I'll get to later.

Slowly but surely, I'm starting to knock out more and more of my 2012 Topps Series 2 insert needs.

While I'm not a huge fan of the "A Cut Above" inserts, I'm still a big Halladay fan, so this one was a must-have for me.

I'm not much of a supporter for any oddly-shaped cards, I've found. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that I keep all my "keeper" cards in binders.

These just don't look right in nine-pocket pages.

Minis are the lone exception to that rule.

I continually find myself drooling over any new minis, no matter what set they come from. A&G, Gypsy Queen, even Goodwin Champions.

Topps' 1987-themed minis might just be my favorite of them all.

For now, let's get back to some normal-sized cards with these National Chicle short-prints.

I still think Chicle is one of the most underrated sets in recent memory. From what I saw after its release, it wasn't nearly as well-received as I thought it should've been.

Some of the high-numbered SPs from this set were designed to picture throwback players in recent uniforms. One of my personal favorites is George Sisler in a Cardinals jersey.

There's not much to "update" in terms of Cubs and Yankees jerseys, so these cards of "Mr. Cub" and "The Mick" aren't as out-of-the-ordinary as most of the other SPs.

This is one of the best cards I've received during my time as a blogger.

I've received a ton of great new Vlad cards for my collection in the last eight months or so, but they all pale in comparison to this one, an insert from last year's Opening Day "Superstar Celebrations" insert set.

For one thing, I can't recall any other cards that feature a dogpile as the main focus of attraction.

The other great aspect of this one is that Topps managed to capture the split-second before Vlad jumped onto all of his teammates in celebration.

This is a great new candidate for my "claustrophobic collection" as well.

That extra little "surprise" that I mentioned earlier was this pack of cards, which befuddled me a bit.

I'd never seen these before, and I thought the fact that they had the words "American Baseball" on the front (as opposed to just "baseball") was peculiar.

As it turns out, these are from the 1988 Topps UK Minis set, which explains why they added the "American" in there. I'm pretty sure these are my first cards from "across the pond".

Jeremy warned me not to eat the gum in the note he sent with the cards. I took his advice, as it pretty much looked like what you'd expect out of a 24 year-old piece of gum. Not the prettiest of sights.

The cards, however, were exactly the opposite.

As I said before, I've never met any minis I didn't like.

Jeremy picked out a star-studded pack for me, as the five-card pack netted minis of George Brett, Rickey Henderson, Fernando Valenzuela, Joe Carter, and Mark Langston.

I'd be interested to know how well these did in the UK, in terms of sales. While it's not near the biggest sport across the pond, baseball is still known, at least from what I can gather.

There's something inherently cool about knowing I have baseball cards from the homeland of The Beatles and The Clash.

Much thanks goes out to Jeremy for the great cards, and be sure to check out his new blog!