How do I move my contacts from TimeMachine to my new Mac?

Question

Hi all. My old MBP was one with a faulty nvidia graphics card, and it conveniently went out 22 days after the warranty was void, so I've since bought a new MBA currently running 10.7.2. I have a few contacts on my TimeMachine backup from my old MBP that I'll never get again in my entire life if I can't move them over from my external hard drive. Is there a way to do it? I don't particularly want to restore my old machine on the new one—only the contacts from AddressBook. Can it be done? Help!
-stewart

Answer 1

Normal files are relatively easy, via the Browse Other Backup disks option, but this is a tough one. 
AddressBook contacts are, well, weird.  The way they're stored makes it very difficult to find them; and you can't use the browse option with the special handler for Address Book contacts.
They're stored in the <your home folder>/Library/Application Support/AddressBook folder.  Each contact is a separate file inside the Metadata folder there, but you can't tell which one is which, since they're named with UUIDs that look like gibberish, not anything recognizable to us mere mortals.
Here's what I'd suggest:
Use the Migration Assistant app to transfer part of the user account from the old Mac's backups (temporarily).
For details, see Using Migration Assistant on Lion. If that user account has the same as an existing one on your new Mac, rename it, per the last sample in the pink Migrating User Accounts box. 
Select only the user account that has the contacts, and exclude all its sub-folders.  That will transfer everything in the Library sub-folder, including, of course, all the contacts.
Log on to the transferred account.  Start the AddressBook app and locate the contacts you want. 
For each one, select the contact, then File > Export > Export vCard from the menubar.  Select a destination (such as the default of the special Shared user account) for the contact. 
Log on to the account where you want the contacts and start AddressBook.  Click File > Import from the menubar.  That should default to the Shared user account; select all the contacts and click the Open button to import them.
When done, delete them from the Shared user account, and delete the temporary user account.