Mears
 

Interesting read http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_f...ad.php?t=41606

This thread seems to have gotten zero attention but after the thread about Mears and Spence I thought I would read it and I think others should too.

Wow...What more can you say...

Yikes....

Tip for those who don't want to read the whole thread (Took me an hour) read only the posts from the parties involved in the transaction.

For those of us not entirely familiar with game used bats - I have a few, maybe 4-5 but haven't seriously looked at buying one in a very long time.

What's a "team index bat"? is that the fancy name for player model bats marked like a real pro bat but not used?

Steve B

Team index bats were player model bats ordered by the team for general use. A team index bat could have been used by various players. They often were in different size and weight than what the actual player ordered so can be differentiated from, say, Mickey Mantle's personally ordered bats. Team index bats can definitely be MLB game used, but not necceesarilly by the player who's named on the bat. With a team index bat, there can be a debate about who actually used it.

It's the collectors' fault, all of us. A constant mantra, "This hobby needs to be cleaned up". Yet very few put their money where there mouth is, and cave in just to have that rare item. In the meantime, these crooks are making $ hand over fist - for doing squat. It's gotta be on of a few industries that makes huge profits nowadays.

Any sensible person would agree, ample enough reason to boycott this particular auction house. If you don't believe it, ask any kid if we're being hoodwinked. Steve F

Thanks for the explanation. I didn't know they did bats like that with players names. The only one I have has the team name. (Cubs, and was supposedly Damon Berryhills.)

Steve B

I took a piece of baseball memorabilia to the National last year I was considering selling. All I kept hearing from individual dealers was "keep your fingers crossed" if you consign to an auction house. Now I know why!!

Another stolen document maybe?
 

This just in to my EM box from MEARS:

Regarding "Lot #2: 1865 Rare Abraham Lincoln Signed Endorsement Concerning the Case of Sergeant Major Adam Laws, 19th United States Colored Troops", we have been contacted by the National Archives and Records Administration Office of Inspector General and informed that the Lincoln document appears to be an official Federal Record. It has been requested that MEARS Auctions withdraw the item from our current auction while the National Archives and Records Administration Office of Inspector General establish more clearly it's provenance.
If after the review the provenance has been clarified, we will offer the consignor the opportunity to re-auction the document at a later time.

Regards,



Troy R. Kinunen/MEARS Auctions

Team index bats have caused much heartache throughout the hobby. A Ted Williams index bat was auctioned by Legendary last Fall and it ended up on eBay, presumably, when the original buyer realized he had nothing better than a store model bat. They are marketed as game issued, implying the team ordered the bat for the player who's name is on the barrel which is misleading at best and criminal at worst. An unsuspecting buyer think's he's getting a bat ordered specifically for the player in question, when in reality, some hack in AA used it.

I've told this story before, but it seems appropriate in this thread:

When I was a "hack" in the Padres organization and playing in Class AA Wichita, our bat orders were backed up at the factory. We were running really low on lumber, so the parent club sent six dozen bats from among the extras the major leaguers had. By pure luck, I was among the first to the ballpark the day those bats arrived, and as I was looking through the boxes, I came across two C271 Tony Gwynn models.

The player in me grabbed them because C271 was the model I used, and the collector in me grabbed them because they were Tony Gwynn's bats. I ended up using one and bringing the other home at the end of the season.

Had I (or anyone else) been so inclined, it would have been pretty easy to use any of those six dozen bats and then down the road pass them off as being game used.

End result
 

Interesting read. Did this issue ever get resolved?