Ty Cobb Professional Model Bat, ca. 1925
GUEST: So this is our Louisville Slugger Ty Cobb bat. Um, we think, from 1920s, 1930s era. My dad is an avid baseball, uh, collector, and so a gentleman, I believe he was in his 80s at the time, um, brought this bat to my dad and said, "I would like you to have this bat. I see you have a true passion for it."
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: And so my dad took it, um, and he put it in the corner, uh, forgot about it for 20 years...
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: Uh, until he sold his shop about five years ago. And then we actually saw you appraise a Ty Cobb bat on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW a couple years ago...
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: ...and that's what got our, uh, interest piqued in the bat. And so here we are today.
APPRAISER: Yeah, well, it's not very often that we find these in the wild. I believe that appraisal was probably a decade ago, actually.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: It's been a long time since I've seen one like this. And we'll get to the bat in a second, but we had a big change in baseball history last week. Ty Cobb, for years and years and years, has had the highest batting average in the history of baseball. Until last week, when Major League Baseball integrated the Negro League statistics. And now Ty Cobb is number two in all-time career batting average at .366, to Hall of Famer Josh Gibson, a Negro Leaguer who had a career average of .372.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: So that's a little bit of Ty Cobb history that just came down, I believe, in the last week or two. With that being said, let's talk about your bat. First of all, there's two types of bats. There's the bats that were manufactured by Louisville Slugger to specific weights, measurements, so forth, manufactured for the players. And then there was the store model bats. The store model bats were manufactured in all different sizes and shipped to sporting goods stores, to schools, to hardware stores, those types of things. Value is a huge difference. So first of all, the bat measures 36 inches. The bat weighs 38 ounces. So right there, that tells us that, wait a second, this is not your store model bat. This would have been a bat that would have been made specifically for Ty Cobb. That fits right into his range of the bats that he would have ordered. The label dates it at 1916 to 1933. However, Cobb retired in 1928. So for us, that places this bat to have been manufactured between 1916 and 1928. And also, Ty Cobb was known to tape his bats with about 11 inches of tape in a spiral fashion.
GUEST: (chuckling): No way.
APPRAISER: If you measure all the way to the tape residue, we have about 11 inches of tape. We have some spike marks, and then we have the stains, which are widely considered to be tobacco stains. So we have everything we want to see today in a bat that's a professional model bat, that has a really high likelihood it could have been used by Ty Cobb in a game. So, all that being said, any idea what, what, you know, the bat's worth?
GUEST: I don't, I mean, you, you see online what, what some have sold for, of course, you, you don't, you don't think it's worth anywhere near that. Mm-hmm. Um, but I-I have no, no clue. I-I wouldn't expect much coming into today.
APPRAISER: Yeah. At auction, you're looking at $75,000 to $100,000.
GUEST: That's unbelievable, unbelievable. I'd have never guessed.
APPRAISER: You're going to want to insure this bat for $125,000.
GUEST: Unbelievable, thank you.
$75,000 Auction
$125,000 Insurance
Shortly after Grant Zahajko delivered this appraisal in Urbandale, IA, in June 2024, he notified ROADSHOW that the owner sent the bat to MEARS Authentication LLC for further research and evaluation. On July 5, 2024, the bat was successfully authenticated, receiving a final grade of A9, just one tier below their highest grading level of A10. According to the MEARS website, “A bat being graded A9 matches known factory production details, exhibits significant signs of player use, and may have provenance or documented player-specific traits." During the appraisal, Zahajko estimated the bat to have been manufactured between 1916 and 1928. In his email to ROADSHOW, however, he stated that, "MEARS, who has more access to Louisville Slugger records, puts the bat at 1921-1931."
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Understanding Our Appraisals
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.
Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.
