by BretMan » February 5th, 2010, 8:29 pm
I'll second the motion to buy Joe's book. I've used mine so much that the cover is falling off!
The price a glove originally sold for is a good indication of its quality level. Just like the old adage says, you get what you pay for. The Wilson catalog for that year listed only two gloves that were less expensive than the Rice model, while there were about a dozen more expensive ones. Retail prices ranged from $20 to $86. That puts the average price of Wilson gloves that year at roughly $56.
As a "ballpark" reference, I'd consider any they sold in the $40-$50 range as "mid-priced", anything above that as "top-line" (as opposed to "top-of-the-line", which would be the most expensive A2000's) and anything below that as "lower-priced". That's just a rough guideline, though, not a hard and fast rule. That particular year, the average price is probably skewed a little higher as they sold five different versions of the A2000 and relatively fewer low-end, player endorsed models. But the different retail prices are a reflection of the size of the glove, the quality of the leather and materials used and how well the glove was constructed.
One thing about those old gloves- even the lesser-priced offerings have better leather and are probably more durable than anything you can buy for the same price nowadays!