Posted By:
Tom Boblittbeing here in Louisville, KY......
The undisputed heavyweight champion in minibats is Byron McCorkle at batsbyron@aol.com. I would estimate he has 4-5000 of them.
I had probably 500-600 but have whittled that down over the years as they take up MUCH more space than cards. There's really nothing out there on them though. Louisville Slugger began producing them in the early to mid 1920's with the 14" models and went to the 16" brown/gold models in the 1930's through 1950's, then the blond ash ones. Tons of different labels on the H&B / Louisville Slugger oval brands can help date them within a few years. Also if you collect or look at the Famous Slugger Magazines from Louisville Slugger you can see what 12-20 bats they made each year from 1921 or so through 1979. That can help you determine the ones they made for national distribution. They made them for all kinds of people also though for teams and for individual players to give out. So....there are tons but tough to really nail info down.
The Spalding mini's are pretty nice too.......