Comic-book artist and sports memorabilia collector Todd McFarlane made an appearance on “Long Gone Summer,” a 30 for 30 documentary that appeared Sunday night on ESPN. McFarlane owns the ball Mark McGwire hit for his 70th home run in 1998, which stood as the single-season record until Barry Bonds bettered that mark with 73 round-trippers in 2001.
McFarlane, who also owns the ball Bonds swatted out of the yard for No. 73, purchased the McGwire ball shortly after the 1998 season, winning the auction with a $2.7-million bid that came out to a little over $3 million after taxes and fees. Even for a high-roller like McFarlane (WealthyPersons.com estimates his net worth at a cool $350 million), that’s no bargain.
So just how badly did McFarlane overpay for his precious piece of Big Mac memorabilia? Ken Goldin of Goldin Auctions (where a Mike Trout rookie card was recently sold for $900,000) told TMZ the McGwire ball would probably sell for only $250,000-$300,000 at auction today. David Kohler of SCP Auctions gave a similar valuation, pricing the ball from McGwire’s 70th blast between a quarter million and $400K. By bidding at the height of McGwire’s popularity, and long before the slugger’s accomplishments were tarnished by his admitted use of performance-enhancing drugs, McFarlane likely cost himself over $2 million.
That’s pocket change for a multi-millionaire like McFarlane, but in terms of ROI, The Amazing Spiderman artist didn’t exactly knock it out of the park with his McGwire purchase.
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