Bobblehead of the Day : Matt Kemp ( Over The Wall Catch Gold Glove Variant )

We finally come to my current favorite bobblehead of my collection. The Dodgers gave away a "common" version of this bobblehead at the stadium back in 2010. A great looking bobble but there was a reoccurring problem with a lot of them. The wrist tended to break off a lot which makes Kemp look like a talented amputee. Before I started on the variants I actually bought this version and low and behold it came in damaged and hand less. A disappointment obviously. Well I found out about this gold variant version via other bloggers like DodgerBobble and Plaschke, Thy Sweater Is Argyle . Well the variant versions do not come cheap and are not for sale very often so I always had my eyes open. Obviously the place I thought I would acquire it promptly was eBay and there was one that was going for 150. Tad much for my taste but I decided to wait it out as this was the off season of 2011 and baseball products usually are cheaper at that time and we still had the stench of McCourt around so demand was lower. I bidded my time for almost three months and the seller dropped it to 120. Sold a few things myself and jumped on it and in the end out of pocket cost was nothing as I sold enough excess stuff to acquire the bobble at 120. Now I had to hope that the shipping would not damage the oft weak wrist of the bobble. Bobble arrived a few days later and was in perfect condition. Now I just had to wait for the 2012 season to get it autographed by the man himself.

Off to the stadium on a Saturday and Kemp had the usual crowd waiting for him but again I was right in front with no one I had to deal with getting over to get to Kemp. Now, the Fingers to Sky bobblehead has him batting so he has the batting helmet on which means no grooves but this one has him out on the field so he has a cap on which means grooves on the bobblehead. I have seen many people get this bobble signed on the wall part of it so as Kemp was walking by I was hoping he would do the same but he decided to sign on the cap. His signature hit the groove and "moved" a little but no biggie in my eyes. I just got my gold variant bobblehead which i paid nothing more out of pocket signed for free when his signature goes for 80 plus nowadays. So I am not going to complain about a little "slip" in the autograph. Well for the time being this is my favorite bobble but the Dodgers will be giving out another Kemp bobble this year and I for sure will be picking that one up and if there is a variant you know I'll be in line to pick it up.