Soon after Dave Davison squeezed the baseball in his glove, Chicago’s Sheffield Avenue turned into Sotheby’s. One man offered $5,000 for it. Another man offered $10,000.

At that point, Davison, a veteran Wrigley Field ball-hawk, tucked Barry Bonds’ 752nd career home run away for safekeeping.

“I don’t know what you would call an insane amount of money,” Davison said in an e-mail. “To me, paying $10,000 for a ball is a little insane.”

A few years ago, that figure would have been considered insanely low. But now, as the slugger’s popularity sinks like the ‘64 Phillies, the value of his memorabilia is also in a tailspin. According to an article in the July 10 issue of Sports Illustrated, a Bonds rookie card is worth about $20, $40 less than its peak of $60. Historic home run balls, which sold for seven figures in the naïve 1990s, are going for a fraction of those prices.

As he hacks away at Hank Aaron’s home run record, local sports collectible vendors are noticing a lack of interest in Bonds items.

“If it was Ken Griffey Jr., the demand (for his memorabilia) would be crazy,” said Chris Morse, who owns Chris’s Cards and Comics in Salem.

“During the Cal Ripken (consecutive game) streak, everybody was looking for Ripken stuff,” said Morse. “With Bonds, it just isn’t happening. So many people don’t want him to break the record.”

Bonds memorabilia, “It’s not selling at all,” said Phil Castinetti, who owns Sportsworld in Saugus. “Nobody cares. It’s sad.

“Everybody knows he’s a liar and a cheater. If he just came clean it would be different.”

As Mark McGwire obliterated Roger Maris’ single-season home run record in 1998, people flocked to Morse’s stores seeking a piece of history.

“You couldn’t get enough of his stuff in the store because he looked like the All-American guy,” Morse said.

Years later, when steroid allegations exploded with the force of a million M-80s, perceptions were altered. On March 17, 2005, during the now infamous hearing in front the House Government Reform Committee, McGwire stayed mum on the subject of performance enhancing drugs. The value of his memorabilia items, which Edd Nantoski estimated spiked more than 150 percent in 1998, took a dive.

“They immediately tanked,” said Nantoski, who owns Sportsfan Attic in North Andover.

If Bonds was on the verge of Aaron’s record, say nine years ago, balls Nos. 755 and 756 would be in high demand. After all, comic magnate Todd MacFarlane once bought McGwire’s 70th home run ball for $3 million in 1998.

“If it was then,” Morse said, “the (balls) would be going for insane money.”

Bear market for memorabilia

Nantoski likes to say that he’s in a “life enhancing” not a “life sustaining” business. Barry Bonds rookie cards, David Ortiz signed pictures and Cal Ripken Jr. lithographs — all items displayed in his Main St. store — are interesting mantle pieces. But the demand for memorabilia just isn’t what it used to be.

For many children of the 1950s and 1960s, baseball cards were only small rectangles that made a cool noise when slid between the spokes of their Schwinns. Mickey Mantle and Sandy Koufax cards were often thrown out by the time baby boomers went off to college. Old cards are rare. That’s why they’re worth so much today.

Now, collectors stockpile cards. And fewer moms and dads are tossing aside dusty Topps and Donruss sets. It’s created an overflow.

“There’s so much of it out there now,” said Will Berube, who owns Will’s Cards in Groveland. “You can get pieces of bats and jerseys. It’s much easier to get that stuff than before.”

But because Bonds rarely signed at autograph shows, his image is not as ubiquitous as other superstars, Morse said.

“It’s not like Pete Rose,” Morse said. “Pete Rose signed every day of his life.”

Even in this jaded era, there will always be a demand for unique items. When Bonds ties and breaks Aaron’s record, someone will pay — if it isn’t enshrined in Cooperstown — thousands for the baseball.

“There’s only one ball,” Berube said of the potential record-breaker. “There’s not a whole bunch of balls. There’s going to be someone out there who’s really going to want that. It’s not in my league.”

The question is, will it be in anyone’s league? Probably. But not the for kind of money that it would’ve sold for a decade ago.

In the public’s eyes (outside of San Francisco), the often cantankerous Bonds is just not a sympathetic figure.

“I think Barry’s personality has more to do with the price of the ball than the steroid suspicions,” Davison said. “It would be easy to over look the “cloud” if he came off as a nicer human being.”

Said Castinetti: “Bonds has been lying for years. Plus he’s not a nice guy on top if it all.”

The record and beyond

By his own estimation, Davison has snagged a combined 4,200 batting practice and game home runs over the past two decades. (He also said he’s given away about 500 to friends, family and Little League teams).

In 1998, when the Cardinals were in town, people would offer $100 per McGwire batting-practice pop. That year, he watched his friend, Moe Mullins, catch Sammy Sosa’s 62nd home run in 1998 and then have it pried away by another fan.

Needless to say, Davison is excited for the small windfall about to come his way.

He assumed home run No. 752 would sell for between $5,000 and $10,000. When people offered that kind of money just moments after he snagged the ball, he had to “rethink those estimations.”

He quickly put the ball up for auction on eBay. As of Friday afternoon, the highest bid was $11,300.

“I honestly don’t think real collectors care about (Bonds’) attitude,” Berube said.

Davison for one, isn’t sure what’s going to happen to the record-breaking baseball. “Here’s hoping there’s no scrum (for it),” he said. In a perfect world, it would bounce into the stands and back out onto the field.

“By the way,” he added, “I would be more than happy to give my ball, and any of the other balls I have for that matter, to the Hall of Fame for a lifetime pass to any and all MLB games.”

That might not be such an insane request after all.



Memorabilia by the numbers

$3 million: The amount Mark McGwire’s 70th home run ball sold for in 1998

$2.35 million: The amount a Honus Wagner card sold for in February, the most ever paid for a baseball card

$1.3 million: The amount Babe Ruth’s bat — that he used to hit a home run in the first game played at Yankee Stadium — sold for in 2006

$2.4 million: The cost to build Yankee stadium in the early 1920s

$220,100: the amount Barry Bonds’ 715th home run sold for on eBay