Is my .75 cent Ping putter worth $1000?

[Buzz35]

A little over a year ago at a local thrift store here in Vermont I found an old Ping Anser putter for .75 cents. I really like Anser putters and was surprised to find this old one in a bin of pretty rubbish clubs. 

 

I brought it home and tried to clean it up the best I could. It had a lot of green oxidation on it which told me it was most likely made of copper. I replaced the old grip, which was falling apart, with a new one and started using it. I used it most of last year and it has been a great putter.

 

Winter is ending here in Vermont and I am excited to get back out and play. I was going through my clubs and was curious on how much my .75 cent putter is really worth. A quick online search showed that these old putters were worth maybe $30 to $40 dollars but I noticed that mine was a little different from the pictures I was seeing. My putter has a mostly blank face with the letters BeCu on the side. I looked this up and found out it stands Copper Beryllium, the metals that make up the putter. Then I saw something curious.

 

There was a link to an auction back in 2017 where a BeCu putter sold for over $1,000. It was a special edition KBI Anser putter. It was 1 of 200 made for the company that supplied the metals to Ping back in 1974. It looked a lot like my putter, so I looked at mine and yes it has the KBI stamp on the back.

 

My questions are how rare are these putters really? Are they really worth $1,000? Are there any Ping experts out there that can tell me more about this putter?

 

Thanks

[kwcsports]

I don't know about KBI Pings but your putter is a beauty. 👍

[03trdblack]

Yeah it's worth a good amount.  The prices I've been seeing are more in the $3K range though.

[WillyL]

Nice flat stick. Great find‼️ I read somewhere a long time ago about cleaning Ping BeCu clubs with Coke😂. Might want to check it out. 

Edited April 6, 2023 by WillyL

[nosil]

2 hours ago, WillyL said:

Nice flat stick. Great find‼️ I read somewhere a long time ago about cleaning Ping BeCu clubs with Coke😂. Might want to check it out. 

 

He shouldn't clean the putter;  if it is really a high dollar putter it needs to have the patina and would likely lose value if cleaned.   Would have been better if it still had the original grip as well. 

Edited April 7, 2023 by nosil

[WillyL]

35 minutes ago, nosil said:

 

He shouldn't clean the putter;  if it is really a high dollar putter it needs to have the patina and would likely lose value if cleaned.   Would have been better if it still had the original grip as well. 

Good point. 

[Jeff58]

You absolutely do have a KBI Anser putter. As has been noted, the grip is not original and would affect an auction price. However, many putter from that time frame were sold with the “Pro Only” grip, and their value is minimal. Consider replacing the incorrect grip on your putter.

[ColinKelvin]

That's quite a find, and is indeed a 4-figure putter.  Congratulations!

 

Oh and yeah, do NOT clean it with coke, or anything else for that matter.