What Aaron Judge’s record-breaking home run ball could be worth
Sports reporter Josh Schafer joins the Live show to speculate how the New York Yankee Aaron Judge's record-breaking home run ball could go for in sports memorabilia markets.
Video Transcript
SEANA SMITH: All right. Well, let's stick with baseball here. Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge breaking the American League single season home run record last night with his 62nd homer of the season. But what will happen with that ball? One fan has a very, very important decision to make. Yahoo Finance's Josh Schafer is following the story all over, tracking its every move. What everyone wants to know is how much is this ball going to be worth?
JOSH SCHAFER: Yeah, Seana, so I called a couple of people today, trying to figure that out, right? Because there's varying prices, of course, right? Everyone has kind of a different number here. But I spoke with Ken Goldin of Goldin Auctions, who's a very famous face in the space. He values this at $1.25 million. He thinks that's what the ball is worth today.
Aaron Judge could play tonight and hit a home run, by the way, which might move the value down slightly. He's not in the lineup, so we're not expecting that to happen. But that's what Ken Goldin thinks the ball is worth. What is it going to sell for? More than that because he thinks there's a little bit of a prisoner of the moment kind of scenario here.
And we should mention that there's already a $2 million offer out there, right? The Memory Lane president, JP Cohen. Now, actually, Memory Lane is a memorabilia company itself. And I spoke to Cohen earlier today. He's got a $2 million offer out on this ball, guys. And he's ready to pay it right now.
They've tried to reach out to Cory Youmans, who caught the ball. They haven't been able to contact him. They've tried to reach out to his wife, who's a sports reporter and a little bit more public facing. They haven't been able to contact her. But they want to buy this ball for $2 million ASAP.
Ken Goldin's advice to Cory? Don't sell it to them for $2 million. Put it up to public auction because what if someone wants to pay you 4? You don't know it until it's up for public auction. He thinks put it up in public auction over the next two weeks. That's the proper play with the ball.
DAVE BRIGGS: You got to think this ball goes for more than 2 million, don't you, Josh? Just based on--
SEANA SMITH: A 4? That's double.
DAVE BRIGGS: Based on what we're seeing in this memorabilia market the last couple of months.
JOSH SCHAFER: So here's the interesting thing, Dave. It probably will go for more than $2 million, right? But Ken, who knows the space better than you or I, right-- he follows the space. He sells the things. He doesn't think it's going to be worth more than $2 million two years down the line because there's not a lot of ball collectors. That's why everyone saying, trade the ball. Get Aaron Judge's cleats. Get his bat. Those are more popular collector items.
DAVE BRIGGS: Interesting.
JOSH SCHAFER: His bat last night is a more popular collector item that someone wants in their house then the ball. He said trading card space, more than 5 million people. The ball collecting space, probably less than 1,000. He doesn't think the ball is really what people want in the long-term.
DAVE BRIGGS: Got to tell you, being from New York and being a Yankee must at least double the value of that ball. If this was a Tampa Bay Ray, a Texas Ranger, a Colorado Rocky, half a million?
SEANA SMITH: Yeah, I was looking at that.
JOSH SCHAFER: I'm a Red Sox fan, so I'm not buying it.
SEANA SMITH: I know. Yeah, well, the price point really puts me out of it. It was the 2 to 4 million. If it was anything less, I, of course, would have been in. All right, Josh Schafer, thanks so much for that update.
