eBay's Home Page plea for a record-breaking home-run baseball went unanswered. Instead, lucky fan Matt Murphy who caught Barry Bonds' career home-run number 756 baseball will auction it through Sotheby's and SCP Auctions. The auction houses will offer the ball, along with No. 755, as part of an approximately 1300-lot Internet auction running August 28 - September 15. Sotheby's and SCP Auctions sold home-run ball No. 700 for $102,000 on June 10, 2005.

ESPN reported that Murphy wanted to keep the ball but is being forced to sell it because "several people told him he would be taxed on the souvenir just for holding on to it" (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2985139). The tax implications of catching a record-breaking baseball were hotly debated in the Wall Street Journal, with no apparent resolution (http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/07/25/tax-law-final-exam-question-barry-bondss-ball).

The starting bid for the Bonds number 756 baseball has not been determined.

http://www.scpauctions.com