Interesting Item- Ebay Gehrig Bat

[Eric]

Hey everyone

Just noticed a high ticket item that closed a couple of days ago on ebay. Wanted to point it out to you all.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Lou-Gehrig-Game-...QQcmdZViewItem

Sold for $72,100

Lou Gehrig Game Used Louisville Slugger-Circa 1930's
"Small Signature"


Item Description:
The Palm Beach Auctioneer presents this Lou Gehrig Game Used Louisville Slugger. This bat was purchased by the owner from the grandson of a New York Yankee's batboy in the 1930's. This bat has the Louisville Slugger logo from the period of 1930 to 1947 and Lou Gehrig signature branded in the barrel. This bat also has 35 1/2 stamped in the bottom and tape wrapped on the handle. The bat is cracked and has some wear in the barrel. This bat weighs 36 oz.

[BULBUS]

Dave Bushing was the high bidder. Zane Burns was also a bidder.

[Swoboda4]

Zane tried to snipe Dave with 5 seconds to go! My hands are shaking sniping at $72 dollars let alone $72,000.

[Eric]

Found an article on the sale of this bat, including quotes from the buyer Dave Bushing.

http://www.nbc6.net/news/6281686/detail.html#

[jboosted92]

Dave, "being smart" im sure contacted the NJ seller, saying he had a real deal 38 gehrig game-used...guy probably said he'd pay $120K for it.....Dave probably put in a 100k bid...whammo...45k for knowledge and business skills!! Good for you Dave...!!

[imlemonysnicket]

This story was actually on the evening news Friday night here in Chicagoland. I just walked in and saw them talking about a bat, which is kind of odd for the news, and then Dave Bushing came on and started talking about it. The news anchors said something about "getting lucky if you know what you are looking for."

[earlywynnfan]

OK, I'm probably going to display some ignorance here, but i thought that LV bats with a stamped length were store models?

Ken

[JimCaravello]

Hi Ken - it was pretty common during the 30's and 40's for players to ask to have the weight of the bat stamped into the knob. Not an ignorant question at all - its a good one. When LS started stamping model numbers into the knob, the weights were no longer stamped - but were sometimes written on the knob in ink or pencil. Hope that helps! Jim Caravello

[martindl]

Like many i assume, i saw the bat while it was live, noticed what i thought was the bat length, put it in my favorites to watch, and thought no more of it. Knowledge is a wonderful thing, though money helps also. Even if i'd have known what it was it wasn't going to be mine at the price it went for.

I did find the newpaper article interesting - "frenzy of bids" - it had three bids, hardly a frenzy. And Dave's comments re. going from $50k to $72k in the last 8 seconds was wrong too - it went from approx $11k, to $12k, and then to $72k once Zane put his bid in.

[JimCaravello]

You know what's interesting about this piece - I don't know if I have ever seen a photo of Gehrig batting or standing with a bat that has a taped handle??? I am sure there is one out there.....Just a comment.......