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Sold! McFarlane pays $450,000 for Bonds' 73rd HR ballPosted: Wednesday June 25, 2003 7:14 PMUpdated: Wednesday June 25, 2003 9:13 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Todd McFarlane got off much cheaper this time. The man who paid $3.2 million for Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball in 1999, bought the one Barry Bonds' hit for his record 73rd at an auction Wednesday for $450,000. Bidding by phone from Dallas, McFarlane was pleased with the outcome. "I knew it would go for a fraction of the other ball," he said. "I think we did well tonight." With auctioneer Cathy Elkies running the sale, which was conducted by Lelands.com, bidding began at $200,000 and moved in increments of $25,000. With all commissions included, the official purchase price will be recorded as $517,500. There were 12 registered bidders, some of them in the room at the ESPN Zone restaurant. McFarlane, on his way to a business meeting in Arkansas, was bidding over the phone from Dallas with Michael Heffner, president of Leland's handling his call. McFarlane said he hoped that his presence in the auction would scare off other bidders. "I'm hoping that they all know that I'm bidding and they'll go, `Oh, it's the psycho, he's got too much money,' and nobody will bid and I'll get it for the minimum amount. I'm hoping I'll just scare them by my presence and get it at low value." It might have worked that way. Leland's had estimated that the ball would sell for between $1 million and $2 million, but it was clear that the price would fall well short of that mark by the slow pace of the bidding. At one point, Elkies tried to encourage the bidders, saying, "What's another $25,000?" Later, as the bidding seemed to stall, she taunted the potential buyers, saying, "You'll be so sorry in the morning." Finally, it became clear that no one would top the bid by McFarlane, creator of the Spawn comic strip. McFarlane said he had set a limit of $2.1 million when he went into the auction for the McGwire ball. "We went well past that number," he said. "That limit didn't stop me last time." McFarlane would not say what his limit was for the Bonds ball. "I wish I didn't have this compulsion but that guy, Barry, broke the record, so now I'm in a position where, to some extent I've got to potentially protect my assets here," McFarlane said. "It's tough to say you've got the second-best ball." He said he would use the Bonds ball much as he did the McGwire one, putting it on display. "I'll make a quick call to the Hall of Fame to put it on display," he said. The ball was ordered sold after a two-week trial to determine its ownership. Alex Popov, a Berkeley, Calif., restaurateur caught the ball and lost it in a scrum. Patrick Hayashi, a graduate student, was at the bottom of the pile of people and picked it up after it fell from Popov's glove. The ensuing court battle cost both men hundreds of thousands in attorney fees and the sale might wind up being a loss for them. "The funny thing," McFarlane said. "These two guys have two sets of lawyers that they've got to pay court costs. These two guys could actually be in debt when it's all said and done. "They could actually be worse off for having that ball. Add up two sets of lawyers. I'm being generous if those lawyers fought in court for a combined total of less than $500,000." The co-owners seemed disappointed at the outcome. "It was about history," Popov said. "It wasn't about money. I've got 20 months of joy out of the experience. It was unpredictable. I had no expectations." Hayashi didn't think he made money.
"In the end, it's probably going to be a wash," Hayashi said.
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