4. Mark McGwire 70th Home Run Baseball ($3 million or $4.3 million today)
Mark McGwire is an infamous former MLB player, who is now working as a bench coach. Back in the 1980s, his baseball career was shining bright, both in club and national levels. Unfortunately, he used performance-enhancing drugs since those early years of his career.
Back then, the drugs he took were not prohibited by MLB. Only until 2004, they were classified as anabolic steroids. This scandal was a shame to American baseball. But it looks like that just adds even more value to McGwire’s memorabilia.
A few months after he confessed to taking the muscle enhancement product, the ball he hit for his 70th home run was sold at Guernsey’s auction house. Including buyer’s premium, the ball was sold at a staggering $3 million. That is around $4.3 million today.
More than three hundred people attended the Guernsey’s auction at Madison Square Garden that day. Among nearly one hundred bidders, ten of them were bidding by phone, including the lot winner. When asked about his name, the anonymous buyer said, “Tell them, I’m a heck of a baseball fan.”
