Thank you for the awesome nudge in this direction! I am going to take a stab at this and I will report back.
I bought one of the SD holders on ebay, took my tab apart to verify the original idea-- while the card reader will fit in the place circled in the photo above, I don't think that it is going to be ab absolutely perfect fit. Again, I will report on what it takes.
As to the 10 pin connector, I believe that I have found the correct parts. I ordered some a few days ago, and they should be here by the 24th. I will know for sure then, and share the part number if I got it correct. If anyone else wants to hunt for them though, they are known as board to board connectors, as well as mezzanine connectors by some manufacturers.
Although they are SMD, they should be just barely large enough to solder with a real iron, a hot air rework station would be awesome, but I have been doing SMD work/rework with a normal iron for years. It takes lots of magnification, a steady hand, and tweezers, but ultimately it can be done.
The only big question I have, is where did these SD readers come from originally-- it say's p7500 on the silk screen on the reader, but as far as I can tell neither the 7500 or 7510 ever came with external SD... hopefully it will be plug and play, but I am going to refrain from hacking my tab's back up until I verify it does work.
Thanks again for the idea!
Later,
Jason