Biography & Early Wealth Journey

STAN HONDA/AFP via Getty Images

One sports memorabilia expert estimates the ball's value to be in the $250,000 to $300,000 range, while another more bullish expert goes as high as $400,000, and both agree that a climb back to its $2.7 million gavel price is unlikely in the foreseeable future. Fortunately for McFarlane, his purchase probably wasn't made as a financial investment, and he was recently seen on the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on the McGwire/Sosa home run rivalry showing the ball off.

Interestingly, McFarlane also owns another baseball that could be said to be partially to blame for the depreciation of his McGwire one. Barry Bonds broke McGwire's single-season home run record in 2001, hitting 73 home runs for a record that still stands today. McFarlane reportedly paid $500,000 for Barry's #73 home run ball.

Primary Income Streams & Multi-Million Contracts

Of course, while few expect McFarlane ever to get a return on his $3 million investment, the value of the ball could climb if the ESPN documentary draws collector interest towards items relating to that 1998 home run chase, which is exactly what happened with Michael Jordan and Chicago Bulls collectibles after the release of The Last Dance. But McFarlane is doing OK financially in any case, and is set to make his feature film directorial debut with an upcoming new Spawn movie, so he's probably not losing too much sleep over the monetary value of his baseball collection.

Trending Wealth Dossiers: