Banana Bat

[ruth-gehrig]

Anyone here pick up the banana bat off ebay? I was first loser :rolleyes: (or underbidder)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Primitive-Curved-Baseball-Bat-Unknown-What-Is-This-Possible-Prototype-/171813457290?ssPageName=STRK%3AMESINDXX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=oRantxJYEmqWqz%252B8w%252F2t%252F%252BMwY4A%253 D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

Thoughts and comments on the bat?

[yanks12025]

Was it even a baseball bat?? I was thinking some sort of tool. Has no markings on it from kinst and I doubt some regular joe would have made one.

[ruth-gehrig]

Being from Wisconsin was a good sign as Kinst was from the state. Were all Kinst bats marked? Was it perhaps Kinsts' prototype? I have no idea!

[ooo-ribay]

Anyone here pick up the banana bat off ebay? I was first loser :rolleyes: (or underbidder)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Primitive-Curved-Baseball-Bat-Unknown-What-Is-This-Possible-Prototype-/171813457290?ssPageName=STRK%3AMESINDXX%3AIT&_trksid=p2047675.l2557&nma=true&si=oRantxJYEmqWqz%252B8w%252F2t%252F%252BMwY4A%253 D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

Thoughts and comments on the bat?

My thought is you were lucky not to win. :p

[perezfan]

Well that's the least I've ever seen one sell for. They typically go well over $4K on the rare occasion one surfaces.

The chipped knob and lack of branding probably accounted for some of this. Plus it was a poorly executed and uneducated eBay listing, IMO. I bet lots of prospective bidders simply missed it (myself included).

For those not familiar, here's some background...

http://blog.robertedwardauctions.com/?p=322

http://www.robertedwardauctions.com/auction/2011/1225.html

http://mobile.dudamobile.com/site/seamheads?url=http%3A%2F%2Fseamheads.com%2F2010%2F 11%2F23%2Frare-baseball-bat-uncovered%2F&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F#2846

http://www.vintagebaseballgloveforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4453

[vintagesportscollector]

Mark definetly knows...déjà vu all over again...

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=173452&highlight=Banana+bat

[vintagesportscollector]

Billy Sullivan's great-grandson is also a member of the board (pbspelly) and I recall a thread, I believe, where we discussed a banana bat with him.

[ruth-gehrig]

Mark you are correct....it was a very uneducated ebay listing that I just happened to stumble upon.

The seller couldn't see stamping of any kind although of course that doesnt mean it wasn't there, just perhaps very light.

I went for it (although obviously not hard enough) so I could make some determination in person.

[WWGjohn]

I was salivating all trough the listing and wondered who got it. Kinst apparently got a couple of patents for the banana bat, 1890 and 1906, although I've only seen patent drawings for the 1906 version (had grooves on the inside of the curve). It's among the rarest of 19th century bat types and you're right, it was poorly listed. Bet that guy's jaw dropped at the final bid.

John

[perezfan]

Agree...

Ecstatic seller / happy buyer.

Shoot Michael... Wish it was you that got it! Perhaps another will come around... At this rate it should be mid-to-late 2018 :p