What do I look for in a Jeter game used bat?

[joelsabi]

Can some of you also tell me about what I should look for at the bottom of the knob? Does Jeter write his number on there? I've also seen some knobs with engraved dates and some without.

in general,no number on know while in the big league. i have heard it happening but never seen it.

when he was in the minors he wrote "JETER" on the knob of his bats.

[matt]

To answer the question on choosing a lightly used bat from a milestone season or a heavy-used bat, I personally love heavily-used bats and avoid anything shiny. The whole point for me is to have something that saw as much action as possible and both looks and feels like a part of the game. But thats just me. I know that some folks refinish bats to clean them up (just saw a Ruth bat that was refinished - what a shame). Still I think the value goes up quite a bit with use and the PSA/DNA scale or MEARS scales reflect use well. So with a high-end bat, I do not think shiny holds its value well.

Let me say one more thing to you as a new collector that is hard to accept, but that is true if you think about it....most bats in the hobby from any player were never used in a regular season MLB game. Modern stars get several hundred bats per year. They take thousands of swings with them, but the vast minority are in a game. They are in cages all winter and sprint, BP for another 6 months. Some players have separate BP bats (Arod with the G174 blond bats) and many others do not differentiate. But to me, a heavily-used bat with player traits and matching game style is your best bet short of the MLB holo. Thats also why the MLB holo is so valuable to me. Those bats broke in real games and can be video-matched every time in my experience.

You also asked about Steiner prices and in most cases everything is a negotiation with them and the prices start high. However, I doubt thee is much room to negotiate at the Jeter level. I doubt they get many good bats each year to play with. Regardless of the deal with Steiner, players do what they want with a lot of bats during the year, giving them to friends, attendants and selling them to mercy dealers.

Matt