Rare or Used which is better???

[brianborsch]

Hello all,

I have a question which applies to almost everything in the Game Used Universe. Which is better? A very rare GU item or one that has tons of use?

There are many examples that have come up on this forum. For my example I have a 2006 Rawlings GU Ryan Zimmerman bat. This bat is uncracked, has just 1 ball mark and a few seam marks as well. There is moderate pine tar right under the red ring. Very light use. It is auto'd by Ryan as being "Game used Rookie Year". Now if you look at the bat you will notice that rawlings gave it a more burned look on the upper half. I was told they were doing this special for some players for them to try out and see if they like it.

Well, Ryan only had a few rawlings bats in 2006 (like 3-this being 1 of them) and of those 3 this is the only one with this type of finish. I think it would be safe to say that this bat may be one-of-a-kind or at the very least VERY RARE. It is a model 523B (Barry Bonds?) but the name on the bat reads Ryan Zimmerman -Pro-. I also have a LOA with Zimmerman holding this auto'd bat up and stating in it the bat is game used.

The other two Zimmerman rawlings red ring gamers are cracked.

So that being said, would you say this bat has a lot of potential to be very valuable (provided Zimmerman has the kind of career people are expecting him to have)? Or do you think a better investment would be a bat with tons of use? See the pics, let me know....

[suave1477]

I personally would get this one over a heavy used bat because of its rarity. I would think that a rare bat will always have more value then any others especially since this is 1 of 3, what are the chanes you will find another. Also if he decides he likes this bat and orders more you will have one of the very first.
A heavy Game Used bat most likely you can find somewhere down the road, but when are you going to find another like this?

[brianborsch]

Thats what i was thinking as well. From what I understand, the more nurned bat is the only one he ever got. His other bats looked like this:


He ended up liking his LVS' better so he went back to that. Thanks for your opinion. I was just checking to see if rarity counts for something over use. Of course having both would be the ultimate piece. We can't always have it all though...

[Nathan]

It comes down to personal preference on this one. Obviously it's nice to have an item (bat, jersey, helmet, whatever) that displays an enormous amount of use, but given the choice between that or one that has some sort of rarity or historical significance, the one I'd pick is "it depends".

I think there's too many variables between any two given particular items to make any sort of a blanket generalization as to which is more preferred.

[brianborsch]

I agree. I mean, I was collecting Mauer stuff, but soon everyone will have Mauer stuff. Thats why I got this Zimmerman bat. Not much use(although it is signed Game Used and there is a a ball mark with a few deep seamers as well as pine tar), but there won't be another like it. At least not from 2006. I think it looks cool, kind of like Joe Jackson's bats with the darker top half of the bat, although that was due to staining and this is different.

On the other side, if it were to have moderate use, I would definitely be happier.