Babe Ruth 40BR DDD bats

[rholmes]

Anyone want to comment on the relative rarity of H&B store model Babe Ruth bats from the dash-dot-dash labeling period...1917-1922?

They are obviously scarce. They rarely come up on ebay, and recorded auction house sales are slim pickings as well. A quick google search only brings up 3-4 examples...one from Mears years ago for 5K + change (an anomaly at that price?); another that went as a gamer because it had Ruth side-writing (30k or so if I remember correctly); and another from ebay a year or so ago that was listed at 5k but was canceled before the auction run was up.

Anyone on the board have one in their collection? Are there more of these in collections than sales history would indicate and folks just aren't giving them up?

I ask primarily because I have one that I picked up years ago for what I thought was a good price, and after having Fred Lowman fix a handle crack always thought I'd sell. Never did, but I'm doing some spring cleaning and moving some stuff, so thoughts have gone around to this bat again.

[murphusa]

Pictures, please

[rholmes]

Length is 36"

[jpop43]

Here is our example of 40BR -.- store model bat (34", un-cracked)...this one does also happened to be signed by Smokey Joe Wood.

http://dugouttreasures.com/productDe...D=8&prodID=287

Jon