Sorry, but why would those Red Bull ones be on eBay? I was once told by a friend of a friend of Ben Stokes that he usually passes his old bats down to academy players at Durham, I believe.
I hope they do go on eBay, though. I really do!
There's a New Balance bat on eBay right now that was apparently for Ben Stokes but was leftover as it was around that time when the controversy, etc, took place. Looks like an absolute plank with NB stickers on it, however. Again, 'looks'... There were pics of those Kane Williamson GN Velocity bats posted on one thread some time ago by potzy248 and they certainly didn't look pretty. Some few inconsistent, swervy and unclean grains, but I'd bet that they ping like hell.
So something that looks like a plank, may not be. That's why its important to check it out in person. But then again, there's a dilemma: one cannot always check a bat out in person, so one almost always has to take a risk. Trust is super-super important. The most important thing, in fact, I believe, when it comes down to these sort of things. The speed of trust as well.
Ryan Grundy from Hitman almost had me buy what seemed like a plank for 4K. He said it was an MRF that was given to a friend of his because his friend knew a friend that knew Sachin. Then I noticed inconsistencies in what he was saying and all, and I took my time with him. You ask him plenty of questions, he only answers a few and he's deliberately vague. Amazing liar he is, I'll tell you. He even told me that he sold a bat that was made for Virat Kohli, one of his very own, from his bag, for $2500 AUD.........
Would anyone believe me? Thankfully, I haven't deleted those messages.
He also wanted $2000 AUD for a used NB Steve Smith bat that he said he would get me. I ended up catching him out. Kept saying 'I don't get why you would want a player's bat when the bats I have are better than what they give to players?' and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He was always deliberately vague and once you ask him enough questions and don't act like one of his typical customers that get conned out of their money, unless you were born with a very rare genetic mutation guaranteeing a profound level of dumbness, there is no way you'd be able to see through him.
It's sad because I was really excited for the Steve Smith bat and jumped around on my bed when he told me that. He even said it would be one from the Champions Trophy. I know... I eventually found out that he outsources his bats and couldn't give two s***s about integrity. Don't know how people buy off him.
Told me once that he was getting a Steve Smith bat from 'Jatin at SS'. He uses these big names and takes advantage of people's naiveté. Admittedly, I didn't know much about Jatin Sareen or any other bat directors, for that matter, at the time. Only a bit. I knew for a fact that SS had nothing to do with Steve Smith's bats and it was Protos that made them. He doesn't even know the profiles/shapes/preferences of some of these player's bats. I can even get a bat custom-made by SS - nothing hard at all. Doesn't mean it is of the players! So I grilled him after that, and he then goes on to say ridiculous stuff that doesn't align with what he'd previously said. Says that he needed 2K for the Smith bat because players are contractually more responsible for their bats nowadays. I even believed that.
Hear this: He told me a couple of time that he doesn't rate SG. Even said that Smith's bats made by Protos are like 'shop bats' and that F.C. Sondhi a.k.a Protos, are average. Like, wth? Root, (formerly) Stokes, Smith, Miller, Finch, all use bats made by them. As if this 'expert' knows more than the experts that have been in the cricket equipment manufacturing business for dozens of years.
I'm 18 btw, and 17 at the time, so he thought it'd be easy to con me. I ended buying an authentic bat of the Little Master's that was picked out from his personal collection that is his box of around 30 BAS bats in his Mumbai house, after a mutual friend travelled there to watch his 199th test. Will certainly doing a special post with plenty of pics and details. Haven't done so yet because of the amount of scepticism I was afraid it would invite. Only bad thing is that the thick yellow chevron grip that Sachin Tendulkar had used himself (yes, the bat was used by him...) was taken off, though there was a bit of it left, and it had been replaced by a simple blue octopus grip. Nothing huge compared to some of the bigger bats that the great has used at other times during his career. It weighed about 2.12, although it picked up extremely light (but that may have something to do with the fact that I'm 6ft. 5) and the edges measured about 39mm. I've read pretty much everything on Sachin's bats since like primary school, and he's used some much bigger bats. It's also taped near the bottom and the toe has a bit of crack. Front Adidas sticker taken off but the outline and all is easily visible. Its funny because I always told myself that his bat would be the hardest to obtain and it was in the financial sense, but didn't know that I had a friend that knew Sachin.
But, now I couldn't care less as to what others may think. It cost me a lot of money - almost half my savings.
I also got a leather jacket that was from Sachin with the bat because the friend I bought it off was just that nice and leather jackets aren't really his thing, but its for sale on eBay at the moment as I'm looking to fund something fairly vital for the new season. Won't say much on here, as I believe its not appropriate?
Overall, I'm sorry if I annoyed anyone. This may not have been the most appropriate thread to post the latter-half of the email on, but I had to get it out.
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Topic: Ben Stokes (Read 7874 times)