How to Buy a Dice K Baseball Glove

Daisuke Matsuzaka is a very popular baseball player both in the New England region among Boston Red Sox fans and among Japanese baseball fans worldwide. Because of this fact, finding a Daisuke Matsuzaka, also known as "Dice K," autographed glove can be very difficult and expensive. There are ways for the average fan to get an autographed Dice K baseball glove if they really want it, though, it just takes persistence and the willingness to spend.

Instructions

1. Find a reputable sports memorabilia dealer in your area and develop a relationship with him. By developing a relationship, which includes making other purchases from the dealer, you will prove your seriousness in purchasing baseball memorabilia such as the Dice K baseball glove. If this dealer travels to shows or has connections among other sports memorabilia dealers, he will be willing to make inquiries to purchase the Dice K baseball glove for you. Expect to pay a premium of anywhere from 30 to 50 percent above the price the sports memorabilia dealer has to pay to acquire the glove for you.

2. Search on eBay, using the keywords "Matsuzaka glove," instead of Dice K. These are very limited on eBay, though. This glove will cost you well over $100 after you pay for the shipping if you win the eBay auction.

3. Visit local tourist and beach resorts in the New England area. Many of these tourist areas will have arcades that give away tickets or tokens based on your performance on the video games or other games such as skee ball at their establishments. Most of these arcades have a section in the arcade where players can redeem their tickets and a special section for sports merchandise. In this section, you might be able to find a Dice K glove available for redemption.

4. Join message boards for Major League Baseball, and the Boston Red Sox specifically. These message boards usually have a section where fans can sell equipment that they own. Along with this, the message boards allow fans to communicate with each other asking to purchase items that may not be listed for sale publicly.

5. Contact "Dice K" Matsuzaka through the Boston Red Sox by sending a handwritten letter to the team's main office. This is a long shot, but it has happened before where fans have contacted a player requesting a piece of memorabilia and received a surprise when they received just what they were looking for through the mail from that player or the team.

Tips & Warnings

• Sports equipment collecting is a very competitive environment. Do not get disappointed if you fail the first time, or numerous times. It takes persistence to get the memorabilia you desire.

• If playing for the Dice K baseball glove in an arcade that has it available for a redemption of a certain number of tickets, keep in mind it will probably cost much more money in game play than the item is worth. Only play if you really want the Dice K baseball glove and you enjoy playing the games for entertainment value to collect the tokens or tickets to redeem.