Prices for current players’ game used bats

[ooo-ribay]

Originally Posted by MGHPro

Quality jeter bats are much more scarce than it seems. While there's a ton of jeter bats on the market , there really aren't that many with heavy/pounded use .

It seems to me the reason for that is that Jeter and many others consciously send bats to the market. Isn’t Steiner a large part of that? McGwire was doing the same during his 70 HR season.

Years ago, I had a phone conversation with Vince Malta. It was actually right about the time McGwires were going for insane prices. Vince theorized that Mays probably went through 750 bats in his career. Of those, he figured half were gone forever (dumpster, etc). Of the remaining 375, he figured half of those were in collections and would never be resold. So that left maybe 180 total Mays bats to be recycled through the market. I would put my Mays in the “never to be re-sold” but who knows what my wife will do with it when I’m gone...

[MGHPro]

Yes . Steiner has their hands in many teams game used items at this time .

As for mays - I doubt 375 honestly still exist .. unless there's a stash of them sitting somewhere unknown to the hobby .

Originally Posted by ooo-ribay

It seems to me the reason for that is that Jeter and many others consciously send bats to the market. Isn’t Steiner a large part of that? McGwire was doing the same during his 70 HR season.

Years ago, I had a phone conversation with Vince Malta. It was actually right about the time McGwires were going for insane prices. Vince theorized that Mays probably went through 750 bats in his career. Of those, he figured half were gone forever (dumpster, etc). Of the remaining 375, he figured half of those were in collections and would never be resold. So that left maybe 180 total Mays bats to be recycled through the market. I would put my Mays in the “never to be re-sold” but who knows what my wife will do with it when I’m gone...

[bat_master]

Originally Posted by MGHPro

Yes . Steiner has their hands in many teams game used items at this time .

As for mays - I doubt 375 honestly still exist .. unless there's a stash of them sitting somewhere unknown to the hobby .

Agreed. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the number of Mays bats in existence was in the 100-150 range. The numbers get even smaller the further you go back.

[Mark]

Originally Posted by bat_master

Agreed. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the number of Mays bats in existence was in the 100-150 range. The numbers get even smaller the further you go back.

Interesting estimate. When writing about the Louisville Find in 1992, Michael Montbriand estimated in the SCD that there were only about 800 bats in that find of pre-war, game used bats that carried the names of HOFers and star players.

[ooo-ribay]

Originally Posted by bat_master

Agreed. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the number of Mays bats in existence was in the 100-150 range. The numbers get even smaller the further you go back.

Well. Vince Malta's estimate was 375 Mays bats in existence but only half of those "available."

[packs]

Modern game used prices are insane to me too but sometimes it's the only way to get something "unique" for a modern player. As discussed, there is an abundance of material out there for any one player, but when you factor in game used, sometimes you can find yourself a totally unique item for an oversaturated market and player.

For example, here's my Mike Trout career hit #410. There is only ever going to be one of these, which makes it a cool Trout item and is much more interesting to me than a bat he used for batting practice that is technically "game used":

[parker1b2]

I think some of the bats are also purchased by non-collectors in a sense that they just want to show off a "trophy" for the lack of a better term. For example, my accountant is not a collector but does have Jeter bat he got from Steiner in his office.

[mr2686]

As someone that has a future interest in purchasing 5 or 6 game used bats for a bat rack in the memorabilia room, I find the prices on these things (considering the provenance, or lack there of,) a bit silly. Does anyone have a suggestion for a good book/reference material etc. for game used bats? I may end up looking at some secondary players...ones that are easily known but won't make the HOF and were good solid players.