Ryan Braun ebay Bat - Be Wary

[mattmueller]

Offered on ebay is a Ryan Braun bat from the 2008 season, offered as game used.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I have no prior experience with the seller and the seller offered limited response to my questions. So, as a collector of Braun bats, I offer the following observations as to why I am not likely to be a bidder.

1) The bat still has remnants of the sticker on the knob. This is unlike any game bat I have seen.

2) The seller indicates the bat was received directly from Braun at a game in San Diego on 8/13/08. Seller would not confirm if the bat was given directly to him by Braun, or given to a third party by Braun. Either way, from my experience bats that Braun has given away personally - either at a game or for a charity - Braun will autograph them, and if he knows the person, personalize the autograph. A good example of this is the LVS bat that was in a GUU auction.

3) From the seller's reply to me, he indicated that the bat is from a batch made on July 24, 2008, which is a red flag. Numerous bats from this date have been offered for sale, and these bats have always been "issued" or have been bats with no use characteristcs that were offered as game used. Most common were the dozens and dozens of bats Mikita sold as issued bats, mostly with autographs, but others without have been out there as well. I think the forum's Skube was offering one, zanebats had one. Anyhow, point here is that of the literally dozens of bats from this date that are out there, this is the first one to show alleged game use.

Just my observations as to why I would be wary of the bat.

Matt

[Manram]

I could tell right when i saw that the pine tar looks off too

[BrewCrewSackers]

Yup, I saw this one too. Very fake!!

[mattmueller]

The above referenced bat is back, but now with an autograph! What is really interesting to me, is how the bat magically lost the remnants of the maple leaf sticker on the knob from last time, which was replaced by an "8". That is odd to me how that would happen. To clarify, seller has yet to respond to my questions on the bats.

For comparison, the new listing:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Not that I think anybody is going to drop $999 on a Braun bat, but for the reasons noted in the original post, plus the magic morphing of the knob, be wary.

Matt

[legaleagle92481]

This is the downside of the forum this guy obviously read this thread and altered his item accordingly hopefully no unsuspecting nonforum member buys it. They sold make this site so only members can access it to prevent people from lurking without signing up and read everything and everyone should have to submit their Ebay ID which would embarrass people like this if he were a member. Just my two cents.

[mattmueller]

Note, there is nothing in my concerns noted above that indicated a game bat should have an 8 on the knob, it just says the maple leaf sticker is abnormal. But I hear what you are saying.

Matt

[mattmueller]

Seller's response to the magically disappearing sticker and appearing 8:

When I asked Braun to sign it, He asked where I got it and I reminded him that he gave it to me. He then looked at the nob and peeled off the sticker. The then said, "Its one of mine, And I am able to sign it." The 8 was already there. If you look at the pics before, it looks like it had been peeled off and reaplyed or something. Maybe its something he does so people dont try to sell bad bats.

[SkubeBats]

This bat just sold on EBAY for $281.00. I feel bad for the buyer because they don't know what they bought.