I think I might have waited a little too long to list my Roberto Alomar bat on eBay..

[godwulf]

I'm not a big "news person", so it wasn't until I was writing up the listing for my '04 Diamondbacks Alomar that I found out about. all the recent bad news in his life. This may sound like a weird (or maybe even insensitive) question, but do you think the recent sexual misconduct allegations, the Blue Jays taking down his retired number, the firing from MLB and the resignation from the Hall of Fame Committee will cause collectors to shun or devalue Alomar's stuff? Hey, if it does, it does, I'm just curious what others think about it.

[3arod13]

For some collectors, yes. For some collectors, no. For most collector investors, yes. We all think differently. Most collectors, I believe, care about what the player does/did on the field, and not so much about their personal conduct or life (although sexual misconduct allegations are pretty serious and on most peoples radar these days). Interest would be better if this didn't occur, but you still have your hardcore player collectors that still want their stuff. As with Arod, I hate that he used PEDs, but that hasn't changed my mindset about him as a fan and collector.

[godwulf]

Thanks, Tony. I appreciate your input.

Now I have a different question. The auction for my Alomar bat just ended without a bid. I did some research on pricing before listing it - saw what other Sellers, on eBay and elsewhere, were asking, and I saw mostly bats with zero use and even "show" bats, signed and unsigned, priced much higher than what I eventually listed mine for ($399 + shipping). The gamers with obvious use, Sellers wanted four figures. If I'd had even one bid I would have netted - after eBay took their slice - less than 350. I was good with that, but apparently I was the only one.

My thinking was that there have to be Alomar collectors out there who are looking for one of his Diamondbacks bats; he was only with the team for a year and a broken hand early in the season limited him to 38 games - how many bat orders could he have made?

As a collector I never focused on Hall of Fame players, although I do have six of Randy Johnson's bats, which I'm sure I'll eventually get around to listing and getting no bids on. That I have the Alomar bat is mostly a fluke - I used to collect any player with a Diamondbacks connection.

I'm trying to divest myself of all the jerseys, bats, helmets, fielding gloves, etc. that I collected for almost 25 years, and things have gone pretty well, for the most part. On some of what I think should be the (relatively) higher end items, though, I'm just hitting a dead end. I've got the Johnson bats, and I have a signed, game worn Max Scherzer Team USA jersey with a team letter that I have/had high hopes for, but now I'm starting to think I just don't understand the market and to be honest I'm a little depressed about it.


For some collectors, yes. For some collectors, no. For most collector investors, yes. We all think differently. Most collectors, I believe, care about what the player does/did on the field, and not so much about their personal conduct or life (although sexual misconduct allegations are pretty serious and on most peoples radar these days). Interest would be better if this didn't occur, but you still have your hardcore player collectors that still want their stuff. As with Arod, I hate that he used PEDs, but that hasn't changed my mindset about him as a fan and collector.