Bonds' Record Ball ... Wait, $750K!?

I've written a couple of derisive, nose-in-the-air posts about the Sotheby's auction for Barry Bonds' all-time home run record ball, and now it's time to eat crow: the Bonds ball fetched $750,000 at auction, more than anyone's estimates, and more than lucky owner Matt Murphy was offered before the auction.

It looked like Murphy made a horrible mistake to turn down a sure-fire $500,000 up until the last day of the auction, when the ball rose in value from about $200,000 to its final price. Instead of becoming an item of total disinterest from buyers and fans, the better-than-expected price indicates that someone, anyone, still cares about Barry Bonds' record enough to pay a considerable sum of money to possess its worldly dimension.

Of course, this isn't exactly a crowning auction achievement either: Mark McGwire's single-season ball sold for about $3 million in 1998, back before everyone had more than a slight inkling the records were being achieved with the help of performance-enhancing drugs. And Murphy? After taxes, he gets about $90,000 -- nothing to sniff at, sure, but a paltry sum compared to lucky ballhawks in the past.

Ah, steroids. They make everything so fun, don't they?

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-16-2007 @ 4:08PM

Warden said...

Wait, he gets less than 80% of the money from the auction? Only $90K when it sells for $750K?

9-16-2007 @ 10:44PM

jon said...

No way this gets that much

9-16-2007 @ 6:40PM

Bill-DC said...

I think Murphy said he was going to split his take with his buddy who was with him. There was also a 20 percent mark up the buyer had to pay and that brings the ball to over $750 K.

I'm guessing Murphy had to pay a commission too but I would think he would get a little more than $90 k when this was over.

9-16-2007 @ 6:43PM

Now I read the ESPN article and the guy who sold the ball that TIED Aaron's record gets about $90k....

9-16-2007 @ 8:08PM

K Miller said...

We still don't know how much Matt Murphy took home after the sale, The facts in this article are apparently wrong. Perhaps PostmanE could give us the correct figures. He mixed this story with that of Adam Hughes, 34, a plumber from La Jolla who came up with No. 755 in the left-center field seats in San Diego on Aug. 4. Hughes said that after taxes and auction house fees, he expects to take home about $90,000 from the sale.

9-16-2007 @ 11:19PM

verily said...

Please. Rick Ankiel, Jay Gibbons, and Troy Glaus lend credence to former steroid pusher, Canseco's, revelation that 1900 baseball players were on performance-enhancers! Looks like the playing field was pretty much even, after all. Out of nearly 2000 juiced-up players, only ONE ( allegedly juiced)player hit over 756 home runs. Looks like some crazy, "conveeeniently" myopic white-supremacists owe Barry Bonds an apology! For MILLIONS of peopple read the SYNDICATED column that appeared waaaayyy back during McGwire's celebrated homerun race with Sosa in which the reporter said "cranky" McGwire blithely SHOWED him (the reporter) his (McGwire's) performance-enhancers. You could practically hear CRICKETS chirping after that SYNDICATED column was read by MILLIONS because a white man was besting a black one. Period. I say again - the rabidly racist white-supremacists here in Amerikkka who may have taken YEARS off of Bonds' LIFE with their cherry-picking racist evil, owe that SAME Barry Bonds an APOLOGY!
Verily