Very Sad
 

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Another amazing piece of history destroyed by a stupid card company. We're talking about a game-used BABE RUTH bat here !! This is something that belonged in a museum or a collector could've put it out on display at card shows from time-to-time so children could enjoy it and learn about baseball history.

If you guys see Topps at the National, seriously, ask them WHY they did this !!

Money.

.

Just like cutting up Lou Gehrig's pants for a patch card...these are all sorts of wrong.

When the creators of these cards line up at the pearly gates, I can see St Peter taking a 2nd look at his clipboard and saying, "Hold on a minute, you're the bastard who cut up the Babe Ruth bat to make a baseball card? Yeah, sorry you can't come in."

We can only hope the greedy SOBs are held accountable in the end.

Very sad
 

Agreed, just egregious in its short-sightedness and stupidity. Someone once
told me, "The answer is money. What's the question"?

Trent King

I'm not sure I understand this. It's a piece of the bat that's been shaved off and placed in the card? How does it fit in there?

Hahaha !!! Good post!

Ultra-modern cards are very thick. I don't think it was shaved off. The bat was probably cut-up in one of those jigsaw machines and a big piece was put inside the card. As for the other pieces, they'll be used to make more stupid 1 of 1 cards in the future.

That’s post career , at best it’s a coachs bat .

Could it be a pro stock bat? For example, made after Ruth's death? I'm asking because I don't know how long H&B made bats with Ruth's signature on the barrel.

If that's the case, no great loss to the hobby, but somewhat misleading for the person who will likely grossly overpay for that card.

What kind of proof can Topps provide on the origin of the bat? Are there before pictures of the bat before it was hacked up? Why in the world if it is a 1/1 created to be exclusive did they chop off part of the nameplate? Make a Jumbo card with a redemption card in the pack. Short sighted stupidity agreed, and greed

That would make it way better but as a bat collector it still saddens me. Heck I even cringe when I see Wade Boggs store models cut up to make silly(to me) coat racks and such.

Totally agree about the name plate.

I expect their proof as to the game use is based on someone's opinion but I'm sure they have pics of the actual bat for provenance.

Not sure from just the partial name plate how MGH can tell it is post career but I would assume there is a tell and he is correct.

A lot of value lost if indeed it is post career.

Still, it is a neat card that someone will enjoy pulling from a pack or who knows it might still be a redemption scenario.

It will be valuable either way and will probably drive sales of the product it is slated to be in!

Pack/box openers are obviously gamblers and why not have a big prize possible from a pull.

I'm sure when it is pulled there will be a lot of media craze which will be good for Fanatics/Topps.

Their business is selling sports cards, not full size game used bats no matter the historical significance.

Unfortunately, Fanatics has entered the game used bat arena. Just saw(on the website) they have a Pete Alonzo gamer from '21 for $3500.00. Yeah!

Yes, Fanatics will be in all areas of the hobby overall but the Topps card brand will not be selling game used bats.

Obviously, they could have inserted a redemption card for the actual game used bat, but they would have lost the thousands of game used swatches they also gleaned from the bat that they can use in many Topps brands going forward.

It is a business for them, not a hobby.

These suck, but let's not fool ourselves about Babe Ruth bats and Lou Gehrig jerseys being displayed publicly or donated to a museum. Of course some are. And many others are locked up in someone's mansion next to the 15M paintings and will never be shown to anyone other than the business colleagues of Daddy Warbucks.

Usually the back of the card will say "Game Used" or "Relic" in some way. That can help to explain if this was during or post career

It clearly says "Game-Used on the front side (directly beneath 1 of 1). Eager to hear from Matt on what specifically marks this as a post-career Bat. I guess when Topps says "Game-Used", it doesn't necessarily pertain to an MLB game? Pretty sleazy, if true.

I think they have been updating the fine print more recently that describe if the relic is link to the player or some random patch from a jersey etc.

Fully agree. How can they justify chopping off a key part of the name plate? At least make it a jumbo that has room to accommodate the full name.

Most Ruth bats have Trademark above the name. Genuine didn't become a standard til the forties. The Square 'G' in genuine was used on some bats from '46-48.(Malta Book). Most popular endorsed players would have Trademark stamped on the bat to protect their names as valuable assets, with Ruth being the biggest name

These are the same companies that cut up addie joss pants or a john mcgraw jersey for profit so this does not surprise me in the slightest.

Let's not forget Babe Ruth did a lot of charity and barnstorming events where the game used bats and balls were readily given out as souvenirs to other players, organizers, and fans. While they're not exactly common, they're not extremely rare.

Huge difference between those bats and a 1920s era game used bat.

Another Topps “card”
For me this is the type of thing I would immediately sell .

Another chopped nameplate with Genuine above the name makes me wonder what qualifiers are used by Topps to call these Game Used. A quick check on PSA Pro Bat Facts shows that of the 24 nameplate legible Ruth bats that they have examined and presented as gamers, all 24 have Trademark above the name.

At least if they are locked up they aren't destroyed. Things rarely stay locked up forever.
.

Good. As it should be. If you own it, it's yours to do with, unless you're saying that because it's an historical item, the owner should be FORCED to share it with everyone??? If that is really what you believe and it's not just more typical envy and hating the rich, post your address and let everyone know when they can come and check out your collection.

This isn't me agreeing with cutting up bats, but the reason that I don't mind as much is because one bat will go into hundreds of cards, getting into the hands of collectors who can't afford a game used bat. The particular one posted above is going to be expensive, but they are plenty of cheaper ones, where people will gladly pay three figures for part of a bat. I can see the appeal of doing it when one bat gets distributed to hundreds of people.

For fun, here's my "Babe Ruth" bat, which was used in the original Babe Ruth movie. There are promo photos of Ruth holding a bat with William Bendix. Not sure if it's this bat, but the grain lines up. I just won't claim that it is, but it's possible. I got this bat at seven years old from the niece of William Bendix, after I cleaned up the attic in her house. She was best friends with my grandparents, and of course at age 7, I immediately went right to the bat when I saw it. She gave it to me a few hours later when we were leaving.

I promise I won't sell it to Fanatics

John,

Send the bat to me, I'll open an authentication service. You tell me what to put on the cert. Tell me what grade you want on it and it might even be possible that the bat is truly an authentic game used Ruth bat! I'll look really closely and if it does turn out to be a real Ruth game used bat, then the price of my authentication will probably increase 10x.

I guess we have differing opinions about companies cutting up historical pieces.

Speaking of items that could be cut up and put in the hands of collectors because of the "rarity" of the item. Have you ever considered cutting up one of those hard to get Corcoran N172s so that other collectors can own, at least a piece, of an N172 Corcoran? :p

The bat definitely isn't game used, too good of shape, but it was probably screen used. I believe that Bendix used the bat for ads because it looks like one in some old ads based on the grain. I'm certain it belonged to Bendix, so there's that.

Send me your Corcoran and I will cut it up. I'll even pay you for it.

I would add an asterisk to my original statement that I'm not talking about items that exist in small numbers. Babe Ruth bats are not rare compared to something like a Dots Miller game used jersey from the 1909 World Series. If only 4-5 Ruth bats existed, then I would be completely against it.

Interesting view but I don't think I can get there on being ok with cutting up Ruth, Cobb etc.. bats, especially game used ones. But I understand where you are coming from.

+1!

:)