Ridiculous Bo Jackson - over the knee broken bat

[CampWest]

$1,925 for a Bo Jackson?!? Wow, just wow... Great looking bat, but I am just astonished at this price. http://www.ebay.com/itm/261008586057

[ironmanfan]

Economics 101

supply/demand

[GoTigers]

I think the "broken over knee" description drove up the price. Thats one of the iconic images of Bo

[CampWest]

What I was surprised by was the amount of premium... There have been about a dozen Bo bats on the market in the past year or so... They've sold from $400-600 that I've seen. I did not expect a 350-500% premium for a bat broken over the knee.

Like I said it is a really cool bat, and I'd have loved to buy it as a critical memory of my childhood and baseball and growing up in KC watching Bo. I remember watching the game the first time he broke a bat over his knee after a strikeout. It was a lasting memory.

Yeah Supply/Demand rules everything. I just was surprised the demand for a knee broken bat was that high compared to other great Bo examples.

[1929tudor]

That is nuts. I have a Bo Jackson bat been trying to sell on Ebay for 500.00 with full PSA and haven't been able to sell so I didn't relist it and this is 4 times as much and broken at that. I guess maybe i should break the bat in half and see if i can sell it then. LOL. People will pay what they want and it's mind boggling sometimes

[89ASMVPBats]

I was the current high bidder when I went to bed last night, about two hours before the auction ended. I did not expect my $500 bid to win, but was floored when I checked my email this morning. It is certainly a unique item, in good condition and it is becoming increasingly difficult to find Bo gamers from his days with the Royals. That being said, you could buy a lot of quality gamers for that price. It's also a bit frustrating because the sellers of the over-priced Bo gamers current on eBay (those over $800) will now point to this auction as a reason not to come down in price.

Drew

[sylbry]

I don't understand how people are comfortable with this bat. Unless you can find a picture of Bo breaking that bat the buyer is just buying a story. Anyone could have broken that bat. Perhaps the two highest bidders did manage to photomatch it based on the one photo available?

The pictures do a horrible job showing the bat. The handle is well used but the barrell doesn't really appear to be. The seller doesn't show the break from the barrel half. Is that really the correct handle?

I have no reason to doubt the seller but if you are spending that much money it would be good to have some better photos.

The funny thing is the bat was listed at a starting price of $100. And based on the seller's other bat auctions I bet it had a buy it now price of around $150. The seller should be thanking the first bidder for getting rid of the BIN.

[Jags Fan Dan]

I don't understand how people are comfortable with this bat. Unless you can find a picture of Bo breaking that bat the buyer is just buying a story. Anyone could have broken that bat. Perhaps the two highest bidders did manage to photomatch it based on the one photo available?

The pictures do a horrible job showing the bat. The handle is well used but the barrell doesn't really appear to be. The seller doesn't show the break from the barrel half. Is that really the correct handle?

I have no reason to doubt the seller but if you are spending that much money it would be good to have some better photos.

The funny thing is the bat was listed at a starting price of $100. And based on the seller's other bat auctions I bet it had a buy it now price of around $150. The seller should be thanking the first bidder for getting rid of the BIN.
I was thinking the exact same thing. Without a photo match to one he broke over his knee, the premium on this bat is completely unjustified in my opinion. Like tudor said, take any Bo bat and snap it in half and you have that bat, unless it is photomatched.

[CampWest]

I don't understand how people are comfortable with this bat. Unless you can find a picture of Bo breaking that bat the buyer is just buying a story. Anyone could have broken that bat. Perhaps the two highest bidders did manage to photomatch it based on the one photo available?

The pictures do a horrible job showing the bat. The handle is well used but the barrell doesn't really appear to be. The seller doesn't show the break from the barrel half. Is that really the correct handle?

I have no reason to doubt the seller but if you are spending that much money it would be good to have some better photos.

The funny thing is the bat was listed at a starting price of $100. And based on the seller's other bat auctions I bet it had a buy it now price of around $150. The seller should be thanking the first bidder for getting rid of the BIN.

I had those same thoughts as well... FYI, I think I saw this before it had bids and do not recall a BIN.

[89ASMVPBats]

CampWest is right, there was no BIN for this auction, just a reserve.

I am assuming that the high bidder emailed the seller for additional photos as I did. The seller graciously sent me 8 different photos of the bat from all angles. Based on the ball marks, marking on the knob and the break itself everything appeared legit in my humble opinion. That being said, I still can't understand the price.


Drew

[nick1980]

yeah without any proof it was broken over his knee the price was crazy, I am a huge Bo fan and have owned quite a few used bats but without proof that is a bit high

[mdube16]

If it is and can be matched to be the bat he broke over his knee I dont think the price is out of line. Its an iconic item from the 90s. The bat had its own score baseball card for gods sake!

[mdube16]

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb345/ldsports/bobat.png

[kylehess10]

Here's a full-res closeup:

http://i48.tinypic.com/2iiiyhu.jpg

[sylbry]

I stand corrected on the BIN. Wouldn't that have been something if he was just looking for $150 or so and ended up with $1900. Got to imagine he was floored with that final price.

It isn't the bat in the photo Kyle provided. Not sure if the photo from Kyle is the same incident as the card or not. The card photo is from 1990. You can tell by the custom sleeves. Maybe he was using a 1990 bat, maybe not. The bat sold is 1986 to 1989.

[mdube16]

I am only aware of one bat over bo's knee incident so if that's not it the auction was snad.

[Canseco44]

I don't know the exact number of times he broke a bat over his knee, but it was without a doubt more than once.

Todd

[gorilla777]

Yes, he did the trick at least a few times.