My favorite pickup of the decade was an 1896 baseball bat handmade and inscribed in Maine State Prison by a prisoner serving a life sentence. It had the original prison decal stating it was made in the prison and came with the original, but very tattered, leather carrying case. The bat itself was Near Mint plus, apparently unused. The bat was a working adult size but with a unique design, including rings cut into the barrel mimicking a Spaulding painted ring bat. You can see a couple of the rings in the left of the picture. After I bought it from a reliable source, I sent pictures of it, including a closeup of the decal, to the prison museum (it's now a state historical site, the original prison was largely destroyed by fire in the early 1900s). The curator said it was genuine and that the prison had a prisoner woodworking shop and baseball league.
