1800s Baseball Bat

[ruth-gehrig]

Originally Posted by mitleth

Michael,

I know it's been almost half a year since that auction, but I was the winner! Here is the funny thing, your snipe bid should have taken it home EASILY! I had the high bid, and as I was riding down the interstate in the car, I was watching closely, as I really wanted the bat. I told myself I wouldn't go any higher than $250.

Well, as the auction went under a minute, 20 seconds actually, the bid was rapidly approaching $250. I talked myself into a bid of $280. Here is the funny thing (not so funny at the time), I was using ebay mobile on my phone so it took a few more seconds to bring up the bid window, so I was typing really fast and knew I only had a few seconds to get the little higher bid in. Anyway, in all my haste, I didn't look closely before I hit confirm bid.

And then, BOOM! I see the winning bid was 510.00, and at first I said, wow that went high, only to then realize I had won.

When I had placed the bid, I was in such a hurry, and didn't pay attention to where I placed the decimal point, so I accidentally put in a bid of $2800!!! OOPS!

At first I was really pissed at myself, but when I got the bat, I was super excited. I'm not a bat expert and don't really have any idea of the actual age of the bat. I'm just starting to amass a collection of baseball memorabilia. Bats are my first priority as they just interest me so much. I wanted to start my collection with a bat from the early early years, so a hand made bat made sense to me.

So is it worth $500? Who knows, but now I have a fun story and a great beginning piece to my collection.

Oh wow what a story indeed! I'm glad it found a good home without costing you any more than it did. Nice bat to start your collection off with BTW. If you care to share all of us here at net54 love pics and would definately enjoy pics of this bat as well. Enjoy, Michael

[Runscott]

I've done that a few times as well. At some point we'll here the story of an underbidder who bid $2,700 by accident!!!

[mitleth]

I will definitely post some pics for you guys when I get home. I'm out of town for a few days. I, too, like pics. I get pretty jealous of a lot of the collections on here. I am a high school teacher that doesn't have a ton of disposable income. So my collection is slowly, very slowly starting.

I like the Cigs, Hendricks! Those are pretty cool.

-Mitch

[D. Broughman]

The bat may be a Massachusett's style bat if it has the same handle as mine. It is hard to see if it is or the mushroom style. The first bat in the picture is the Massachusett's style and the fourth one is a mushroom style. Sorry for the bad picture from the book.

[ruth-gehrig]

What book is this from??

[D. Broughman]

Here it is.

[mitleth]

Dynarl,

It looks more like the massachusetts style bat, but given the page seam and grainy photo, i can't be exact. However, I don't think it is a true mushroom style like the one pictured, in that it doesn't have a distinct ridge where the mushroom "attaches" to the handle. It's more of a smooth transition like the 'Mass style.

Also, I remember the guy in the auction said he bought it at a flea market in Kansas, and that the person that sold it to him picked it up at an estate sale in Nebraska. I know it's a bunch of he said she said, but being from Nebraska, I was excited to get it.

Can't wait to post pics in a few days and see what you guys think! I really hope its not a farm tool!