Mpire has teamed with eBay to create a special website to track the upcoming auction of San Francisco Giant Barry Bond's 715th home run ball. The site, at www.ebay.com/715, was launched on Wednesday to allow visitors to place bids on the ball and keep track of the bidding, which starts at $10,000.

Anrew Morbitzer Holds Up Bonds' 715th Home Run Ball.

The website includes a short animation to see how the ball was recovered by unsuspecting fan Andrew Morbitzer, along with highlight clips of the home run hit courtesy of ESPN 360. Visitors can also purchase baseball memorabilia on the site and access pricing information to track the worth of other baseball memorabilia.

Mpire launched last year as an auction-management service for eBay sellers. Last month, it expanded its mission by creating a shopping site where consumers can find, research and compare items from online-auction and classified sites, including eBay, Yahoo, Overstock and Craigslist. Mpire uses market-data from eBay to reveal pricing trends.

Dave Cotter, co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Mpire, said the shopping service also benefits eBay sellers who use the Mpire auction-management tools. "We heard from sellers, "how do I drive traffic to my listings?" Mpire gives its sellers featured placement on the Mpire shopping site. Currently, there is no charge for being featured on the shopping site

Cotter said later this summer, Mpire will launch an analytics tool so its sellers can track traffic to their listings. They will be able to see what search terms shoppers are entering, the number of impressions and the click-through efficiency of keywords.

Cotter said Mpire created the shopping site because all the other shopping services are dominated by branded sellers. "Mpire has created a sandbox for the rest of the world to play in."

The "715 Home Run Ball" site went live on Wednesday with a countdown to the bidding start date (July 24). AuctionWire is managing the eBay auction.

http://www.ebay.com/715