Trade #3

This is Bob (not really). He loved my squishy ball. And who can blame him? It was purple. It was squishy. It was a ball. And those rubbery neddle things... who could resist running their fingers through them? Certainly not Bob. He wanted it. But so did five or six other kids, so he knew there would be some competition.

And what was I offered for my purple squishy ball? Well, one kid offered me a green squishy ball just like mine. Ha. Cute. No thanks, kid. Another offered a bigger squishy ball three times the size of mine. That one made me tilt my head and ask why. I was told he had three big ones but mine was small enough to put in his backpack and take it to school. As I've said before... I guess you can't argue with that logic.

But Bob here offered me something even better. A baseball. But not just any baseball. When he showed it to me, at first I thought it was dirty. Then I looked closer and realized it was COVERED with signatures. Calm down, calm down. It was NOT the 1927 Yankees, as much as I would have drooled over it and asked Bob what planet he had been born on. No, Bob's baseball was signed by the Camden Riversharks. They are a minor league team. I'd never heard of them. Neither, apparently, had Bob. He said the ball was given to him by his uncle?/ dad?/ older brother?... I can't remember exactly, but some male relative. And it had been sitting on his shelf for months.

I knew instantly that despite the fact that the names on that ball were very unlikely to ever be worth more than they were that day, as a stand-alone ball it was still pretty cool. After all, it wasn't just one or two names. It was the whole team. I counted 22 signatures and started cross-referencing them with names I found online. Once I saw the third match, I knew I had to have that ball.

Bob was happy to trade with me. You can see the look of smugness on his face, knowing that he got the better of me. But there's no photo of my face that day. My smile was even bigger because I knew something that Bob didn't... baseball fans can be obsessive. And I knew that all I had to do was find the right fan... one who knew the potential of the ball and also thought the team-signed ball was at least a little special. I figured I'd have to be a little patient for this one because my audience would be a little smaller.

Turns out I didn't have to wait that long. :)
Tune in next time for the results of my next awesome trade. For now, click on the links up top, already. My wife's cakes can't appreciate themselves! Thanks for reading.