Collector Stories | The Ultimate Trade with Bobby Witt Jr.

Bryan Janick’s Trade with Bobby Witt Jr.

Date: Jul 31, 2025

Author: Greg Bates

Topics: Baseball, Cards and Culture, Collector Stories, MLB

Length: 941 Words

Reading Time: ~5 Minutes

There are some trades collectors never forget. For Bryan Janick, wheeling and dealing with one of the biggest names in The Hobby and on the baseball diamond goes down as a dream trade.

Kansas City Royals superstar Bobby Witt Jr. is a huge collector of his own cards. On his Instagram account, bdubs.cards, Witt enjoys posting various cards from his collection. He even sets up deals with fans to get his hands on his cards.

About a year ago, Janick acquired a Witt 2022 Bowman Chrome® Sapphire Red /5 in a PSA 10. Earlier this year, Janick — who recently retired from being a police officer after 12 years working at The Pentagon — is in the process of opening the Goatz Sportz Cardz shop in Herndon, Virginia.

“I planned on putting that card on display in the shop, where people can look at it,” Janick said. “My old boss from the Pentagon police reached out to me, and he’s a big Orioles fan, and was like, ‘Hey, let’s go to the Orioles-Royals game.’” The tickets were front-row, presenting a unique opportunity. “I thought, okay, if we’re going to be right next to the Royals’ dugout, I might as well try and reach out to Bobby and see if he wants to make a trade.”

That’s exactly what Janick did, sending Witt a direct message on Instagram. He explained that he was a retired police officer who was going to be opening a card shop, and he wanted to see if Witt was interested in making an in-person trade of the 2022 Bowman Chrome Sapphire card for a game-used bat and picture together.

Just days before the game, Witt responded: “Let’s do it.”

“I was like, ‘For real?’” Janick said. “I didn’t know for sure if that was him or not, but it was the day before the game, I was like, ‘Hey, where should I meet you to do this trade?’”

Witt instructed Janick to be by the Royals’ dugout pregame, and he would try to come out and make the deal. If Witt couldn’t make it out, he told Janick he would have someone there to make the swap.

“I was like, ‘I would really like a picture with you,’” Janick said. “I wanted a picture with the bat on display at the card shop. He responded back, ‘Okay, I’ll come out.’ He was like, ‘I’ll give you a second bat as well.’”

Trading with an MLB Star

Janick and his former boss arrived in Baltimore for the game on May 2, and it was pouring rain. While waiting at a sports bar, Janick received a message from Witt telling him he was available right then. The two guys raced to the ballpark about an hour and a half prior to the first pitch.

Waiting by the dugout, Witt saw the guys coming down the stairs, and security roped off an area at the corner of the dugout to ensure the transaction happened uninterrupted.

“I was like, ‘Oh, man. He’s really out here waiting for me,’” Janick said. “I gave him one of my T-shirts for Goatz Sportz Cardz and then I gave him the card.“

The two got a photo together, and Janick reveled at the bats. One was game-used and signed, and the other was a show model version that was also autographed.

Big Royals collector Tom Ink enjoys photo-matching MLB players’ bats and figuring out when they were used in games. Ink dove into the bat Janick received from Witt and discovered he used it during a few games earlier this season, and during spring training.

“It was very well used,” Janick said. “It has some very unique marks on it, too. It was awesome.”

Witt told RIPPED that he enjoys making trades with fellow collectors.

“I’ve made a few trades this year with people that have reached out through my Hobby account on Instagram,” Witt said. “I know that being an active athlete, I have some items that can be rare or valuable like equipment, tickets, experiences, so it’s fun to offer those up and both sides get a win out of it.”

Witt wasn’t necessarily looking to get his hands on one of his 2022 Bowman Chrome Sapphire Red cards. But he’s always happy to add another one of his rarer cards to his collection.

“I’ve been documenting my chase for the rainbow on my Topps Update rookie card,” said Witt, who is a big New England Patriots fan and is actively collecting Tom Brady and Drake Maye cards. “I have the Red variation of that one.”

Janick still can’t believe he made his biggest trade ever with one of the current faces of MLB.

“It’s priceless, because, one, the amount of publicity for the card store that I’m opening,” Janick said. “So many people have messaged me and been like, ‘Oh, where’s your shop? Oh, I’m not that far away.’ Or, ‘I’m 30 minutes away and I’m definitely going to stop in.’”

For good reason, Janick is now a big Witt collector after their interaction together.

“I saw a Topps article of a collector, she collects Mike Trout autographs of every year that he played,” Janick said. “I thought I would do something similar. I’m collecting a game-used card autograph or either a jersey or bat relic that’s autographed for each year that [Witt] plays. I have all the way to this year.”