Kudos to John Taube of JT Sports!

[gameused]

Hats off to John Taube a highly respected bat authenticator and dealer.

John recently listed and sold a Derek Jeter/Alex Rodriquez bat and noted that the bat was used by Arod due to its game use characteristics.

We all know Derek Jeter bats sell at a premium to Arod bats and he could have turned his cheek and listed it as a Jeter bat for a lot more money.

John is as honest as they come and always puts his customers first, in my opinion one of the best in the business.

I have bought and sold with John in the past and he is a class act.

Best regards, Bobby

https://www.digitalfm.com/gameusedba...l.cfm?sku=3176 (https://www.digitalfm.com/gameusedba...l.cfm?sku=3176)

Alex Rodriguez Game Used Derek Jeter Bat
Derek Jeter model P72 form the 2006 season is game used by Alex Rodriguez. The left barrel is covered with ball marks and deep stitch impressions. the front barrel and right barrel have many deep cleat marks which is an Arod trademark. The lower handle has a heavy coat of Mota Stick, also an Arod characteristic.
A nice chance to own the bat of the Yankee captain and future first ballot Hall of Famer, used by Arod, also a future first ballot Hall of Famer. The bat is acompanied by our PSA/DNA Letter of Authenticity.

[Number9]

Great post; and a cool bat too, connected to both Jeter and Arod.

[Rboitano]

I agree he gets some of the highest quality bats and is very reasonable in pricing compared to some of the other large dealers.

[JETEFAN]

I agree !! John has always been top notch. I recently visited his office and he showed me the bat. Many people would have passed it off as a Jeter.


George

[camarokids]

I just bought a nice Tino Martinez off him , see other thread for pics of bat , very nice ....

[sylbry]

Ok, I am having a hard time grasping the point of this thread. I don't understand why cudos are being given to a man for doing his job. He is a bat authenticator. If anyone should know the difference between A-Rod and Jeter use characteristics it should be John. He just did what his profession expects of him. That is why he is respected. That is why Lou Lampson is a joke.

I don't mean any disrespect to John. I have never dealt with him but only have heard great things about him. Rather I think the original post rubbed me the wrong way. Is it to the point where we have to publicly point out and praise the auction houses, dealers, and authenticators who do their jobs correctly because their are so many who try to deceive in the name of the almighty dollar.

If that is what it has become, I would like to thank John. Thanks for being on the collector's side.

Bryan

[3arod13]

Ok, I am having a hard time grasping the point of this thread. I don't understand why cudos are being given to a man for doing his job. He is a bat authenticator. If anyone should know the difference between A-Rod and Jeter use characteristics it should be John. He just did what his profession expects of him. That is why he is respected. That is why Lou Lampson is a joke.

I don't mean any disrespect to John. I have never dealt with him but only have heard great things about him. Rather I think the original post rubbed me the wrong way. Is it to the point where we have to publicly point out and praise the auction houses, dealers, and authenticators who do their jobs correctly because their are so many who try to deceive in the name of the almighty dollar.

If that is what it has become, I would like to thank John. Thanks for being on the collector's side.

Bryan

Excellent point. In my 31 year of collecting, this hobby has gone from being a lot of fun (for me) to where everything is being questioned and debated. Even when individuals provide tremendous documentation for their item, I see many still people wanting to beat it up to find flaws in it. Yes, many players, deals, collectors, authenticators, etc. are dishonest and only concerned about making money. Honesty? Integrity? Morales? Where have they gone. However, there are some like John who do make you want to praise them for what they do for this hobby.

I guess this thread it more about praising John because is he one of the few who are knowleage and play by the rules.

I have dealt with John. Never bought from him, or had anything authentiacted by him, but have contacted him on a few bats I own. He communicated with me well and was very helpful. What I like most about John was that he was willing to help me, but wasn't pushy for me to send my bats to him. If I wanted to, that was fine.

Anyway, with the lack of Honesty, Integrity, and Morales in today's hobby, guys like John you just want to priase. Yes, he is doing what he gets paid to do...but not many do.

Kudos John

[bscott]

First of all, I agree with those who give due praise to this seller.

It is important to single out not only the crooks, but the honest and fair dealers/sellers as well.
Catching crooks is fun, but being honest in this business requires character.


That said, what I find interesting about this thread, and about the "A-Rod-used" Jeter bat, is what might happen to that bat down the road.

For starters, is the bat psa/dna encoded?
Is the bat so thoroughly documented that it can never again be re-sold as a Jeter gamer?

While we dole out praise to the seller, should we assume the buyer is equally honest?

(Note: I do not know the buyer. I have no idea who bought the bat. If the buyer happens to read this, please know this is not personal criticism. This is not an accusation. I am just a cynic who is merely hoping to initiate dialogue. Fact is, I personally think it is a great bat. As a Yankee fan, I am quite aware of A-Rod's struggles last season, and I recall stories of A-Rod's experimentations with other players' bats.)

This is a unique bat that will retain its value as it is. But, right now, Jeter gamers are currently more valuable than A-Rod gamers, and that fact must present a certain temptation to certain capitalists out there.



Just fodder for thought.

-bscott.

[Number9]

I dont mean to speak for John Taube, but I think all bats he handles are PSA/DNA certified and have ink implanted that only shows up under a certain light.

I do think we are the point in this hobby, and this is pretty sad, that we have to praise and value and thank the few honest people out there (dealers and collectors). After collecting for 10 years, the list of people that have shown me they can't be trusted would be very long. And I would also say its not all dishonesty, a lot of it just not knowing, or trying to find out, what they are selling.
So I think what we are praising John the most for here is taking the time to research and consider the bat thoroughly to be sure of what it is. I think a lot of people in this hobby are guilty of 'well it has the right tags so it a game used jersey' OR 'well it has his name and number on the bat so he used it'). That's not enough and most of us have paid the price financially or through stress for this kind of thinking and learned to do more research into the item and the seller.
I have only bought from John Taube once but he showed integrity and regard for a customer in that deal.

Mike

[Nnunnari]

Does anybody else think that there is a lack of definitive evidence linking this Jeter bat to A-Rod? If I'm not mistaken, a heavy coat of mota stick on the lower handle is also a Jeter characteristic, and I believe jeter taps his bat with his spikes as well, maybe not as often and as forceful as A-Rod does.
If you google images of game used Jeter bats, most of them have a very similar layer of mota stick as A-Rod gamers. I know John has handled a lot of Rodriguez and Jeter gamers and I trust his opinion, but then again it is just an opinion. Unless there is a part of the description which I am missing, it seems odd to me that this bat was obviously used by A Rod.

[BULBUS]

i agree, jeter and arod have similar characteristics until their bats have heavy use. then they are more distictive. this bat does not have heavy use.

also, looking at steiners current auction for an enrique wilson used mariano rivera bat and comparing it to jt's rivera bat, it brings up questions on jt's bat. check out the 2 bats:

http://auction.steinersports.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=79817214&prmenbr=55076099&aunbr=80163924

jt's bat:
https://www.digitalfm.com/gameusedbats/itemDetail.cfm?sku=2687

[GameBats]

FYI.......Enrique Wilson taped the handles for Mariano. I had the oppurtunity to speak with Mo and he informed me all his bat handles are taped by Enrique Wilson (for use by Mariano). Tha bat listed on Steiner happens to have Wilson's # on the knob indicating Enrique utilized the bat. I woul feel comfortabl that Mariano used the bat listed by JT during B.P.