this may or may not be the correct place for this, however, i really want to share a "nice" hobby story. all too often we hear of negatives in the hobby.

i recently purchase a bat from Tim Byington and it just arrived.

the story (hope to keep it short) is this:

i was notified by another forum member (bigtruck) about this bat (being on EBay) and in turn i took a look at it.

i contacted the seller and asked that since it had no bids would he be interested in ending the auction early. he said yes and agreed to send pics and what have you. the list price was $90 with shipping and i told them i'd make it an even $100.

the seller did not want to do a straight PayPal transaction for whatever reason and strictly wanted to keep it through EBay. i emailed several times asking how to pay for an active item. no response.

the person i was actually dealing with, i later found out, was the seller wife.

so, to my surprise the seller had put it back up on EBay through the "buy it now" option (without contacting me in the least) and it had been soldto someone else!

i was in shock.

i get an email from Tim stating that he had seen my thread about the bat and knowing that i wanted it, he picked it up and said he's sell it to me at his cost. i was floored. i could not believe that another collector, who ive never meet or spoke with, would do something like this.

to say the least, i was very appreciative. i can not say enough about this little experience. it was great.

i have an very rare example of a player that i love to collect and its because of the foresight of a fellow collector that i have it.

thanks again Tim.