Shohei Ohtani accomplished baseball history on September 19 to become the first player to ever join the 50/50 club and now the ball he hit has been sold at auction.
The 30-year-old Los Angeles Dodgers player became the first person to get 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in the same season.
Shohei previously became the sixth player to ever achieve a 40-40 season and he was the fastest player to reach that milestone. Now he’s the first with a 50-50 season!
The fan who got the ball at the game brought it to auction company Goldin to be sold and it went for several million dollars. The most surprising part is the shipping cost.
Keep reading to find out more…
The auction on Goldin.co ended at 10pm ET on Tuesday night (October 22) and the final price was $3.6 million.
The actual final price for the buyer is $4.392 million with Goldin’s Buyer’s Premium fee added. The Buyer’s Premium is a fee assessed to the winning bidder which is 22% of the final bid price of items purchased, with a minimum Buyer’s Premium of $19.
The sale of Ohtani‘s ball will go down in history with the $4.392 million number, making it the most expensive baseball in history following Mark McGwire‘s 70th homerun ball for $3 million.
In addition, you might be surprised by the shipping cost! Despite paying well over $4 million for the memorabilia, the buyer is also responsible for a $19 shipping fee for delivery to a U.S. home address. The buyer is also charged a 0.9% insurance fee per auction order, which is $39,528 for this order.
While an insurance fee is understandable, you’d think free shipping would come with a $4.3 million sale!
See where Shohei ranks on the list of the highest paid baseball players of 2024.
