Opinion on possibly modified Carlos Lee bat

[cjosefy]

Someone sent me an email asking my opinion on these two bats, and I thought I'd throw it out for a larger net. The first link is the original auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=150143879485

Now, here is the just finished auction for just the Carlos Lee bat:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=270154754091

Looking at a great deal of factors on these bats, it looks to me that they are the same bat, except that the second auction has a load of pine tar on the bat.

Some of you guys have sharper eyes, so let me know what you see.

Thanks.

[Vintagedeputy]

It is exactly the same bat..........good catch.

Now I'd love to hear from the seller how pine tar got applied where none existed before.

[eGameUsed]

As many of you know I am the seller! I just answered two e-mails regarding this from the buyer of the auction and another collector. Let me start by saying I wish someone would have e-mailed me prior to the auction end, as I would have canceled the auction. The Lee bat was sold as received, and no pine tar wa added. After winning the auction of 6 bats just at the last minute, I paid, received the bats, and didn't look back. After doing some research I found that the Luke Scott bat is in similar situation with added tar in the lower handle area. All other bats appear fine! In fact, I took the following picture for a collector that was interested in a Lee bat the other day:



The top bat is the bat in question! I never even thought to question the bat! I have already talked with the winner of the auction and intend on not selling this bat to them, as that is not how I handle my sales. I also e-mailed the seller. After researching the seller some I can not convince myself as to how this happened, as they appear to be in the bulk lost package business. Again, it would make sense if all the bats were altered or not as pictured, but only 2 of the 6 bats are different with similar pine tar. I am awaiting a response!

I have no need to alter one bat for any sort of gain. Obviously from the picture above I am not short on Lee bats. Again, I wish someone would have pointed this out to me prior to auction close, so I could have settled this earlier!

Thanks,

[Vintagedeputy]

Chris,

Thank you for stepping up and being available for questions. If I'm reading this correctly, are you saying that the bat you received from the 6 bat lot had pine tar applied when it arrived, which was different from the picture in the original auction that you won?

Jim

[Gyro123]

Would love to someday be in a financial position in which I could purchase bats and not even verify/comfirm that I received what I had purchased. Chris , you should thank your lucky stars to be in such a place. At least the mix up was caught and the situation resolved. Great investigative work.

[33bird]

So, the guy that you won the bats from, altered the Lee bat before he sent it to you? If that's what you're saying that doesn't make sense to me. Why would he go to that trouble? Please advise.
Greg

[eGameUsed]

Jim,

That is correct! The bat I had listed on eBay is as recived. In fact, the original wrapping it was in was a newspaper stock wrapping and it was stuck to the bat as I recall. The Luke Scott bat was in similar situation with the pine tar lower on the handle. Just a couple of more notes.

First, I sent the original seller a message through eBay this morning in addition to the e-mail I sent from the paypal.com e-mail address. I suspect the paypal.com address might not be checked as it is specific for payments.

Second, I have received multiple e-mails this morning presumably from forum members asking me how I could have done this and how they never plan on buying from me again. Again, no one brought this to my attention until the close of the auction. I am at fault for not inspecting the bat in comparison to the original listing.

Third, I came on the forum immediately this morning to post a note as I plan to be open about this situation. I also plan to post a note on my website in regards to this situation as I do not want some of my other customers to think I am trying to avoid this issue or decieve people. I have nothing to hide. Clearly from the picture above I am not going to try and pull a fast one. My reputation is more important to me than making $100. When I came on here this morning to post, I noticed that Chris Josefy already posted links to the auction. Again, I was never confronted with this prior to the auction close. Not questioning the intent of Chris Josefy to post or calling into question forum rules about asking sellers questions and giving appropriate time to respond, but I want people to to know they can ask questions and could have helped me a ton.

Finally, I do NOT intend to sell this bat or let is make it to the hobby. I was comfortable paying the $93 for the bat as pictured. Once received it went in to the Carlos Lee bat box with 9 other Lee Rawlings 2007 bats at the time. When choosing one to sell, I chose the uncracked one as my experience shows those tend to do better on eBay when trying to generate some business.

This forum is intended to help buyers make better decisions! I think it can also be a resource to sellers. I admit, I need help at times. In the future, if there is another situation like this, please e-mail me earlier so I can take the item off the market. In this case, this one slipped by me and I did not go through a full inspection of the bat. The buyer (Josh Garza) and myself have been in communication and the sale will not be completed. I offered him one of the other bats pictured above if he so desires, or we just nulify the sale. I plan to reconcil the issue, even if it means eating the $93 I paid for the bat. I handle hundreds of different Astros bats a year and don't want to loose any potential customer or cast a shadow of doubt because of this.

Thanks for reading!

[eGameUsed]

Would love to someday be in a financial position in which I could purchase bats and not even verify/comfirm that I received what I had purchased. Chris , you should thank your lucky stars to be in such a place. At least the mix up was caught and the situation resolved. Great investigative work.

George,

My current inventory of Astros bats is at 1362 as of this weekend. My inventory cost on those bats is $161,898.90. This is one of 8 Carlos Lee 2007 bats I currently have, and 1 of 19 I have had since he came to the Astros. This is also not my fulltime job! I admit there was an oversight. I admit there are times when I do not fully look over an item when received because of the volume I handle. The only bat I paid close attention to was the Preston Wilson bat as I had intended on a quick move on that one since it was outside of my speciality.

Thanks,

Chris

[eGameUsed]

So, the guy that you won the bats from, altered the Lee bat before he sent it to you? If that's what you're saying that doesn't make sense to me. Why would he go to that trouble? Please advise.
Greg

Greg,

I am waiting a response from the seller. I will post as soon as I receive. It does not make sense to me either. Same hold for the Luke Scott bat. I will be happy to post pictures of the Scott bat to show what I am talking about. Does it make sense that I would try to profit $150 on a bat when I handle $80,000 to $100,000 in sales per year?

Thanks,

[BaseballGM]

Last time I posted on a very similar situation regarding "stars added", I was suspended by the moderator. I may be this time. All I have to say is fool me once.....