As Ruth revolutionized the "autograph " market and world by signing baseballs and making them collectibles, at the time not very valuable but in the sense that people wanted them , he did as well with photos , to a large degree; and with bats to a degree. People did not collect signed bats back then of Ruth or for that matter any player, baseballs were what people wanted. Ruth signed bats as far as I could learn years ago were a "premium " in the sense that he did not mass sign them and were usually given away to close friends, relatives , teammates , business associates, sick people, and lastly as prizes in contests ( although baseballs were the usual contest winning prize ). I do not specifically know how tightly Ruth guarded his game used bats but most of the autographed bats I have seen are store model bats.
He signed bats in far fewer quantities than anything except perhaps for the elusive Ruth signed jersey. In fact I heard years ago when I was looking to buy a Ruth signed bat for my collection that there maybe were less than a couple of hundred authentic Ruth signed bats out there in the market.
I would like to hear from anyone if they have an updated estimate on the number of Ruth signed bats in the market or in collections.
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