Pujols’ 700th home run ball fetches 160K at auction

The auction of Albert Pujols’ 700th home run ball ends on November 5th and so far is far from reaching the interest of other baseball collectibles.

Goldin, a company specializing in bids for all kinds of items, opened the tender on October 25th with a price of US$25,000. After 24 expressions of interest, the value has risen to US$160,000 on the goldin.co website.

This is the second ball he sent to the left field stands at Dodger Stadium on Friday, September 23, against Phil Bickford before 50,041 spectators, with which the Dominican became just the fourth player in history to cross the threshold of the 700 home runs.

From a historical perspective, Barry Bonds’ 700th home run ball sold at auction in 2004 for $804,129, following a court battle over ownership of that ball.

There are no such litigation or ownership issues in this case, as this ball was caught by Marlowe Leal, who is clearly seen in the video, and was part of Major League Baseball’s authentication program. Once Pujols hit home run No. 699, individually marked baseballs like this one were put into play.

Mark McGwire’s 70th home run ball in 1999 sold for $3 million. Aaron Judge’s 62nd home run this season is projected to be paid between $500,000 and $1 million.

Pujols finished his career with 703 homers after playing 22 seasons with the Cardinals, Angels and Dodgers.

The baseball piece for which the most money has been paid from a Dominican baseball player is a postcard of Fernando Tatis Jr., from 2016 in a White Sox uniform, which was acquired for US$217,200 after 21 bids at Goldin Autions.

For one of Wander Franco, from 2019, it was paid at US$193,200.