Antique show find

[mjkm90]

Last Sunday was the second antique show of the year in my town. As usual, I was there 30 mins. early and about 10th in line. I usually pick up several nice pieces and a few marginal items each year this way. There are two dealers who specialize in many of the things we all like but they don't seem to pick over the show much. Both have nice product but one is overpriced and the other has lower end baseball.
Anyway, on this day I had 30 minutes to cover the show, make my deals, and head for home to make my daughters early soccer game. There are about 150 dealers in a series of sheds and tents with great traffic flow. When the chains and locks rattle to mark the opening I get very excited but do my best to play it cool and off I go. The first building had a dealer with a lot of nice sporting goods of all types except baseball. He has baseball paper items and softballs in the box, but every time I ask for baseball he says he didn't bring it "hello knuckle head...we and four other guys ask you every month to bring baseball!!!". The next building had the overpriced guy so I fly through asking "baseball? baseball?" of every dealer, but nothing. Next building the same until I guy gets all excited, starts telling me he has something really special, and takes five minutes of my valuable time before pulling out a stub from some regular season game at Briggs field for $50. Rather than spend another three explaining how screwed up his idea of special and pricing are with regards to baseball, I moved on in a huff. I finished the buildings and headed to the tents. A gal who has turned up some niiiiiice pieces for me over the years said she has three old bats that will be with her for the next show, but garage sale fodder was all she had today. I reach the tent with the other dealer, and talk a few minutes. He had some nice leather helmets and a few trophies, but no high end baseball for me. Around the back of his tent I go. As I pass the opening I see long dark wood and leather!!! four bats and three gloves. I immediately grabbed a thick handled dark bat and a one inch web seconds before a guy reached for the newer "crap". A pretty nice full web softy. No markings. The bat is a real peach however. I have never seen this brand before. Definately from the teens or early 20s. It's just shy of 36" has a super fat handle, flat end, lathe marks, and great stamping. The glove was $40 and the bat $35, but she took $70 for the pair. I would have paid $300 for that bat in a second. I couldn't believe it was no more than 20 feet from that dealer and he didn't get it. What a putts. I made it home in plenty of time, and am enjoying my finds.

[vintagesportscollector]

Nice pickups Mike. Like the glove, but LOVE the bat. I have never seen that brand before either. And thanks for the show story..enjoyed it!!

[slidekellyslide]

Very nice....You stole those at $70...Never seen that bat either.

Thanks for sharing.