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[procricket]

made by sg by any chance

[SkipperJ]

Not quite Skipper. I think the Newbery 5 stars are the 3rd grade, although in terms of willow grading, probably grade 2/3. I think 5 star bats are bats which are only given to specific retailers to sell. Like some retailers deal with GM let's say, so they get sent 5 star GM bats by GM themselves. At least this is what I think I read a while ago...

Ok, thanks for clearing that up Chad and Pete 
Pete, indeed I have seen some really nice 5 Star Newbery bats. Hard to believe they are Grade 2/3.

[tim2000s]

Ok, thanks for clearing that up Chad and Pete 
Pete, indeed I have seen some really nice 5 Star Newbery bats. Hard to believe they are Grade 2/3.

Oh for the old naming conventions. 5* was always the best willow, then you went 4*, 3* and 2*.

GM half adopt this with their models with 909-Original being 5*, 707 & 808 being 4*, then 404-606 being 3* and 303 being 2*.

Newbery then screwed around with it making their 5* the lowest grade simply because it made people think it was a higher grade, and GN came up with the magical Pro Performance + others above 5*.

Meanwhile, just to be different, while others used stars, Hunts County used Crowns, with a 5 crown being the best. Then they produced an 8* willow bat, just for a laugh and to confuse the hell out of people...

[SkipperJ]

Wow, could they have made it anymore confusing   

I remember back in the day some Indian batmakers such as SG and SS used to market their top end bats as 7 star willow

I guess it's best to stick to basics - ignore the labels and look at the willow. bounce a ball on it if possible, and determine the "grade" for ourselves.

[PedalsMcgrew]

Which is fair enough if you have the bat in front of you....I've had a hankering to pick up a GN bat from eBay recently, for no other reason than I want one but I haven't got the faintest idea what their willow grades are! I don't know how much anything is worth in the GN range!