Dave Bushing is recognized as one of the utmost experts in game-used bats and sports equipment in the hobby. Between the Glove Collector Price Guides and Store Model Bats and Baseballs written in conjunction with Joe Phillips, the MastroNet Bat Guide written with Dan Knoll and Marshall Fogel, and his own Spalding Bat Booklet, there is no question that Bushing enjoys sharing his knowledge with fellow collectors.

In early 2008, Bushing announced that he was going to stop authenticating for MEARS, and would spend most of his time focusing on his love of buying and selling collectibles.

Thanks to Dave for taking part in the third installment of Q&A Week on Gavel Chat.


Gavel Chat: Dave, as we talked about at the PCCE in Chicago a few months ago, you are no longer in authentication. Are you going to pull a Brett Favre and have second thoughts on your decision?

Dave Bushing: I am much more at home in my renewed duties of acquisition for Mears online. I still do loads of research on items, I just do not evaluate or grade them anymore, nor do I sign off as such.  Authenticating is a very frustrating and time-consuming job and I am glad to be spending my time in other areas.

GC: Was there an event long ago that triggered your love with the hobby? What was that event?

DB: I have loved collectibles since I was in grade school but it was a mother load of 1970-72 Topps cards that I bought while driving a UPS truck in Houston from one of my customers that put me on the path that I have followed since that day in 1984.  I started selling the cards and putting the profits into mid-1950s cards and about two years later, I sold all my cards and started running ads for equipment, and the rest, as they say, is history.

GC: What is your most memorable purchase?

DB: Easy. It would have to be the 1930 Hack Wilson Cubs game-worn home jersey that I bought at the Sandwich antique show on the second day of the show. It was raining and I wasn’t going to go but I got talked into it and since it was raining, I went to a dealer that sold used books, an item that I have always been interested in.  Hanging from the top of his tent was the jersey priced at $95. He told me it was Hack Wilson and that he had been offered $80 the day before but he was holding firm on the asking price. He named the price and I bought it and then I had to sit down and regain composer.  It was like winning the biggest lotto I had ever hit.

GC: I see that you purchase many non-sports items. Why the infatuation with vintage toys?
 
DB: I wrote an article on MEARS where I answered this very question. It goes back to my earliest memories and the desire to buy the stuff I never would have gotten or the toys that would have been under a Christmas tree 100 years ago.  What can I say, I love old toys, space toys, car toys, ships, trains, western, movies, television, comic characters, Indy 500, etc. etc. Like I said in the article, it would be easier to list what I don’t like.

GC: In general, what are the most undervalued types of sports memorabilia?
 
DB: Game-used bats from special teams of the more obscure players.  Anyone can get the big name stars from teams like the ‘54 Indians, ‘67 Red Sox, ‘61 Yankees, etc., as long as you have the deep pockets, but some of the more common players are next to impossible. If you disagree, ask the ‘69 Mets guys how many Ed Charles bats they have or Sandy Amoros for the 1955 Dodgers, or maybe the bats of first-year expansion team members. Given the true rarity of some of these bats, they still seem under-priced when and if they come up for sale. You could be the wealthiest collector in the world but all that money can’t buy what can’t be found.  Plus, the history of guys like Riggs Stephenson or Bing Miller is what baseball was all about.

GC: When you were first introduced to online sales and eBay, did you ever think it would have as big of an impact on the hobby as it has?

DB: EBay, as a collector, I knew it was going to be huge. No longer did I have to go to 100 toy shows all over the U.S. when I could cruise the net and find new toys every day at my price all from the comfort of my own home. It is the single greatest advent to happen to the die-hard collector, akin with the invention of the television. It has changed my and just about every others collectors life forever.

GC: What is your most memorable item that “got away?”

DB: Got Away- tough question. I am constantly working on deals and you are never going to get them all. So my answer is any deal that you put your heart into and you know you made a killer offer and it doesn’t happen for whatever reason.

GC: How healthy do you see the sports memorabilia hobby in five years?

DB: Limited supply on the real stuff and ever growing numbers of collectors that may start off buying the more common modern stuff, but once they dig into the really rare and historic stuff, they start working backward and you have another die-hard collector. The ratio of new collectors versus retiring collectors seems to be huge and given the increased demand for the really great stuff, where else can it go but up.

GC: Do you think good vintage sports memorabilia is starting to dry up?

DB: This goes with the above question. Yes, more and more great stuff is getting sucked into killer collections. Yes, there will always be sell-offs by die-hard collectors who change focus, upgrade or need the money but you have only to look at a major auction catalog from 15 years ago and the volume of incredible shirts and bats and then look today. There is still a lot of great stuff available but nowhere near the quantity that was around back then.

GC: Where do you see Dave Bushing in 25 years?

DB: Well Chris, that would make me 77, and if I am still standing, can’t imagine I won’t still be doing what I am doing since I really do love what I do (authenticating aside) and can’t imagine myself retiring as I don’t golf or play tennis or fish. I am a collector and buying and selling is not only my career, it is my hobby.