Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

hi guys im new here. just wanted to know your guy's opinions on what would be the best glove i can get for $100 or under for playing baseball with. i dont play for a team, but lots of people around my area get pretty competeive game out here during the summer. ive been using a Rawlings RSE16 H-web for a long time now and figured i'd like an up-grade. i play outfield by the way.

also, i seen a Rawlings RBG4 Steve Avery on ebay for about $15 brand new. good deal? or is this glove not very good? again im not looking for a top of the line glove. your opinions are welcome.

I would say the Steve Avery glove, in good condition, would be a good, inexpensive solution for you. While not a top-of-the-line glove by any means, it is well made and a worthy successor to the old RBG36 line. If it is a new, unused glove, it is definitely worth the price. If it is slightly used, I would still say it is a good deal.

thanks for the reply. it sounds as if ill be getting a pretty good deal on the glove, so i think ill go for it! thanks.

I think the RBG4 is pretty much identical to the RGB36, except that it is 13" instead of 12.5".

They aren't bad mid-priced gloves, especially if you find one of the earlier models. The latter ones seemed to get really cheapened with lower-quality leather and construction.

Being a Steve Avery model, this was probably issued during the early 90's while he was at his peak with Atlanta. So, it likely is the earlier, better leather.

To give you some idea on the quality of these earlier gloves, the 1990 RBG4 (which bore the endorsement of Fernando Valezuela) had a retail price of about $100, so it wasn't exactly a cheap piece of junk like some of the later models you'd find at K-Mart for $19.99.

BretMan,

When you say it had a retail price of $100 is this the suggested retail per Rawlings catalog? If not where do this price come from?

Yes- suggested retail price from the 1990 Rawlings catalog.

In actual practice, most gloves in their catalog would sell in retail outlets for perhaps 1/3 to 1/2 the MSRP. But when taken as a whole, in comparison to all of the gloves in their line-up, it is a good indicator of the quality of the glove.