Thoughts on Wade Boggs bats on ebay from Celebz-Direct....

[danesei@yahoo.com]

Re: Thoughts on Wade Boggs bats on ebay from Celebz-Direct....

I was hoping you guys can help me with a bat I plan to purchase from Celebz Direct, I'm now a bit worried. It's a Mattingly gamer, I believe from the later part of his career. Pictures can be found here:

http://s1267.photobucket.com/user/Ka...?sort=3&page=1

Mike, I knew there were concerns with CD's shilling and whatnot before I won the bat, but after getting it, I wouldn't touch their game used bats anymore. Treat anything sold by them as autographed retail stuff.

[danesei@yahoo.com]

Re: Thoughts on Wade Boggs bats on ebay from Celebz-Direct....

Alicea signing a blank LOA. Letter is typed at a later date when Scot returns from his trips. Do your own homework!

BTW, how was Scot not indicted along with Brad Wells for the ASI issue?

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/i-team/fraud-sports-memorabilia-dealer-bradley-wells-tells-fbi-prominent-card-companies-knew-jerseys-fakes-article-1.1159317

I still find that particular article entertaining. It details Monette telling Wells to take bats to the batting cages to make them look used.

[MikeKam]

Re: Thoughts on Wade Boggs bats on ebay from Celebz-Direct....

I was hoping you guys can help me with a bat I plan to purchase from Celebz Direct, I'm now a bit worried. It's a Mattingly gamer, I believe from the later part of his career. Pictures can be found here:

http://s1267.photobucket.com/user/KamiMike/library/Mattingly%20Bat?sort=3&page=1

[Nnunnari]

Re: Thoughts on Wade Boggs bats on ebay from Celebz-Direct....

Alicea signing a blank LOA. Letter is typed at a later date when Scot returns from his trips. Do your own homework!

[earlywynnfan]

Re: Thoughts on Wade Boggs bats on ebay from Celebz-Direct....

Bat is not what you were led to believe. That's what eBay's return policy is for. Don't fool with these fools, just send it back and get your refund. And never trust them again.

[danesei@yahoo.com]

Re: Thoughts on Wade Boggs bats on ebay from Celebz-Direct....

That said, the new owner of Celebz Direct is Chris Caronongan, apparently. At least that's the name on the return address for what I ordered.

Amendment to the above...

Daniel Caronongan is the name that shows up on Paypal for who the payment was sent to, so I guess maybe the person's name might be Daniel Chris Caronongan or maybe they're brothers or father and son.

In any case, the response I got back wasn't encouraging. They essentially said that there were lots of pictures in the auction (and none showing the upper handle, so I couldn't verify before getting it in hand that there was no pine tar/moto on the bat), and the bat could have been used once or many times. Very disappointing response,s ince the seller told me before the bat was paid for that they believed it was game used. Now they're trying to pass the buck, but there's no one to pass it to, so they're saying I should have known the bat wasn't used from the pictures.

It also irks me that someone with 77% bidding activity with Celebz ran the price up by $45 or so. There was another bidder with 44% activity in the listing, as well, but I'm assuming they were just another interested party like myself.

[danesei@yahoo.com]

Re: Thoughts on Wade Boggs bats on ebay from Celebz-Direct....

couldn't they have at least brought the bats into a cage...but i guess that would take more time and effort...

Doing so would have constituted fraud on the part of the seller. If they sell the items as received from Boggs, they can always claim he told them the items were game used.

That said, the new owner of Celebz Direct is Chris Caronongan, apparently. At least that's the name on the return address for what I ordered. My item shows no game use, and I just emailed him regarding it. We'll see if he says it's Luis Alicea's fault.

FWIW, I expressly asked whether the item, absent Alicea's statement, would be viewed as game used, and Celebz responded that it would. I really don't see any signs of use. There's no mota stick or ball marks. There is what *might* be a single ball mark in the area between the handle and the barrel... basically the area where a bat would potentially break if hitting a MLB pitch.

The bat is signed by the player, but my opinion would be it was a bat pulled from the player's bag and given to Alicea.

[spartanservitto]

Re: Thoughts on Wade Boggs bats on ebay from Celebz-Direct....

If every athlete is representing their items as legit and Scot is selling them then we would have a bigger issue here. It's the athletes selling their items as game used which would be a much bigger legal problem for themselves.


-Tony

[earlywynnfan]

Re: Thoughts on Wade Boggs bats on ebay from Celebz-Direct....

They definitely have people bidding on their items. A lot of re-listings and just about all of their items have 10+ bids within the first day.
Some of their stuff is good. Do your homework and have a set price in mind, don't get into a bidding war.

OR, we could just boycott sellers who shill and they'll have to find something else to do. Or is Scott the only one with Wade Boggs bats?

I know there are a lot of people who cherry pick the few quality items Coach's Corner has each month, too, then they bitch about the fraud they do unto others. Seems a little selfish, to me.

[onlyalbert]

Re: Thoughts on Wade Boggs bats on ebay from Celebz-Direct....

I'm going to go to bat for Scot here. I've boughtba few things from, and the pricing was fair and all legit stuff. He gets his stuff from the collections of the players he signs so legitimacy should not be a prop in theory. I don't know about the stuff he puts on ebay. Seems like he tries to sell it on his site first then moves it to the bay if it doesn't sell. Haven't looked at the bids, but I think shill bidding on ebay is an absolute huge problem. And I am not saying this is happening with Scot's stuff.

[Nnunnari]

Re: Thoughts on Wade Boggs bats on ebay from Celebz-Direct....

They definitely have people bidding on their items. A lot of re-listings and just about all of their items have 10+ bids within the first day.
Some of their stuff is good. Do your homework and have a set price in mind, don't get into a bidding war.

[Hoosier39]

Re: Thoughts on Wade Boggs bats on ebay from Celebz-Direct....

Buyers beware!!
The owner of celebz direct is none other than scot monette, who was the previous owner of authentic sports investments and elite sports marketing - both are no longer in business and have a long history of fake game used items!! Game used bats will have deep seem marks, cleat indentions, rarely seen clear writing from 'new' balls' and the tar from a 13yr old bat won't be wet looking still!

And to add- I find their bidding activity on their auctions to be very interesting. I'm not saying they are shill bidding, but I do think "something" is going on. I follow quite a few of their auctions and things just don't look right

[obeyone10]

Re: Thoughts on Wade Boggs bats on ebay from Celebz-Direct....

Buyers beware!!
The owner of celebz direct is none other than scot monette, who was the previous owner of authentic sports investments and elite sports marketing - both are no longer in business and have a long history of fake game used items!! Game used bats will have deep seem marks, cleat indentions, rarely seen clear writing from 'new' balls' and the tar from a 13yr old bat won't be wet looking still!

[Nnunnari]

Re: Thoughts on Wade Boggs bats on ebay from Celebz-Direct....

Still waiting for examples you said you'd give us months ago.

I bought at '92 Rawlings All-Star bat. The bat arrived, it turned out to be a promo bat, heavy pine tar which was still sticky, and no game use. The bat and LOA were signed by Boggs stating the bat was game used in the '92 All-Star game. Boggs swung a LVS in the All-Star game. They sold two of these Rawlings All-Stars. These guys basically grabbed a bunch of Wade's old stuff, told him what to write on the items, printed up a stack of LOA's and had Wade sign them.
They sold a Boggs Sox jersey with his NOB as game used, are you kidding?
Boggs has no clue about the game used hobby, how much knowledge the collectors have and what is truly considered "game used."
These guys don't care about the hobby and are unethical.

[yanks12025]

Re: Thoughts on Wade Boggs bats on ebay from Celebz-Direct....

These guys are amazing. Here's another pristine bat which is mysteriously broken.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wade-Boggs-S...item4d138a52a5

Still waiting for examples you said you'd give us months ago.