Trade With DodgerBobble: Jose Bautista and Don Mattingly Sweet-Spot Autos.

I completed my third trade with DodgerBobble. You can check out our first trade here and our second here. DB has moved to collecting signed baseballs and he had his eyes on my Hyun-Jin Ryu ball that I acquired at 2013 FanFest. I really liked that ball but I was willing to consider parting with it for a couple of reasons. First, he's signed for six years and I'm confident I can track him down and get him to sweet-spot a ball at some point within the next half-decade. Second, the ball means more to DB right now, and I'm always happy to help a friend. And third, he traded me some amazing stuff.

Case in point, the jewel of the deal for me, this fantastic sweet-spot ball of masher Jose Bautista. I've got a few Joey Bats' RCs so when I saw this ball in DB's Bait I couldn't resist. eBay prices and the fact that he plays in Toronto would make it extremely difficult for me to ever acquire this piece otherwise so I jumped at the chance to add a sweet baseball to my collection of a dude who put up back-to-back seasons of 6.5 and 7.8 fWAR.

Bobble made it clear he'd be "willing to overpay" to knock Ryu off his list and not have to worry about grabbing his auto at a game or appearance. He was more than happy to go beyond the Bautista, so I requested the above Donnie Baseball ball and DB kindly obliged. Now I'm the one who doesn't have to worry about snagging Mattingly at a game, though I don't think it would have been too difficult as the Dodgers' skipper seems like a willing signer. It mostly means I don't have to go out and buy a baseball. :o

My main bobblehead amigo said he would toss in a particular signature because he remembered me posting about missing this player at FanFest each of the last two years. His generosity results in my ownership of a fantastic A.J. Ellis signed program which commemorates his winning the Roy Campanella Award in 2012. I always enjoy adding a signature of A.J. #WeWantMoreBetweenTwoPalmTrees

I was sent a slew of scans when we first started discussing the deal, and one card jumped out at me. Bobble doesn't collect much beyond autos but I had an extra Kemp/Kershaw dual relic lying around so I offered up a one-for-one swap for the above Bison patch and thankfully the deal was accepted as part of our larger sweet-spot swap. Numbered 061/199, it features three pieces of jersey from a road uniform and a sweeeeet patch piece with stitching and a seam, also hailing from a road jersey. It's my newest Mattycakes hit and I've been after one for ages so I'm stoked to be able to cross it off of my list.

A brand new Kid K made an appearance in the box of goodness DB handed to me, and it's even more killer considering it's the great blue frame parallel, numbered 533/599, from 2012 Gypsy Queen.

Finally, some random cards and in-person graphs were included as a throw-in, highlighted by a cool chrome C-Bills and an Ethier Ginter auto. Also, the Steve Yeager '78 Topps is awesome, largely due to the fact that Yeager is an awesome dude. So awesome he was even chain-smoking at a Caravan event I attended a few years back. Not that I condone smoking or do so myself, but it was just such a badass thing to see.

Thanks for an epic and awesome trade, my Bobble compadre! And good luck to the both of us in tracking down Greinke!