What's everyone's thought on game issued bats?

[dodgerbats]

Re: What's everyone's thought on game issued bats?

Put a little Pine Tar on it! Just Kidding!

Mark

[godwulf]

Re: What's everyone's thought on game issued bats?

I will go with a bat that has obviously never been used if the price is right and mostly only as a "filler" for the collection - you know, the way some guys who collect card sets will buy a cheap card in very bad condition till they can get one that's better.

Whenever I've gotten impatient and spent more for an "issued' bat than it was worth, I've regretted it. For instance, I paid $300 for an unused LS Justin Upton bat in '07, mainly because it had his '07 ST number on it, and because his bats, at the time, were selling for big bucks on those rare occasions that they came up.

I've since bought an '07 Max Bat, also with his ST number on it and with great use, for half that amount, and also recently bought a sweet '08 Marucci "J-Up" for a little more than 200.

Hindsight is 20/20, as they say, but if I had it to do over, I'd never pay anywhere near that much for an unused bat.

[tigerdale]

Re: What's everyone's thought on game issued bats?

I agree, sometimes that brand new louisville slugger, with just the right look...its beautiful!! In some cases, depending on the records, it may even be tougher to find the new/unused bat of a player.

[brianborsch]

Hello all,

I have been thinking about this because I have been leaning this route for awhile now. I wanted to see what everyone's thought is on game issued bats.
I like the idea of collecting them because they are clean and are what they are. You typically don't have to worry about it being faked as there is no use on them. As long as they match factory records or player's requests, then you don't have to worry.
Now don't get me wrong, I like a bat with good use too, but with so much deception in the market, I almost want to stop collecting game used stuff because I always will be questioning things in the back of my mind. Of course this applies to bats with little to no provenance, but the bats with great provenance (like photo-matches, etc.) are expensive!
That's the other positive with game issued bats: They are typically cheaper!
Anyways, what are your thoughts?

BB