Two men ordered by a San Francisco judge to sell Barry Bonds' 73rd home run baseball and split the proceeds better sell quickly, say memorabilia experts familiar with the case.

"Any publicity is probably good publicity, but this whole court debacle has delayed the sale of this ball, has lessened the excitement over it," says Joe Orlando, president of sports memorabilia rating agency PSA.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Kevin McCarthy ruled Wednesday that Alex Popov, who first got a glove on the Oct. 7, 2001, home run ball, and Patrick Hayashi, who came up with it after a scramble, had equal claims to the prized memento, estimated to be worth about $1 million.

That figure pales next to the $3 million comic book artist Todd McFarlane paid for another record-setting ball, Mark McGwire's 70th home run of 1998. But Orlando says there are two major differences between Bonds' ball, and the 1998 homer, which fetched the highest price ever paid for a game-used sports memorabilia item.

First, McGwire's record-breaking season came decades after Roger Maris set the previous record of 61 in 1961. The "anticipation factor" surrounding McGwire's season, said Orlando, likely boosted the sale price.

But McGwire's ball was also auctioned soon after it was hit, allowing little time for that excitement to dissolve.

The ball that Popov and Hayashi have battled over, on the other hand, remains locked in a safe deposit box in Milpitas, Calif. The two sides will have to cooperate to find an auction house, and then negotiate fees with that auction house, which could take more time and money.

Steve Curtis, owner of the Studio City, Calif., shop Sports Memorabilia Etc., also doubts the ball will fetch as much as is being suggested.

"I think people who could [afford] the ball have to keep in mind what happened to the McGwire ball," said Curtis. If Bonds was able to break that record so soon with his 73rd, then why can't his new record also be broken, the dealer asked. "I think the buyers will be a little more cautious this time around."

Bonds also doesn't carry the cachet that McGwire did. "In terms of its significance to history, [Bonds' home run] is huge but in terms of its value as a collectible there are lots of other factors, primarily player popularity, that come into play," says Orlando.

He cites the sale of three 500th career home run baseballs — smacked out by McGwire, Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray — which have all sold for between $250,000 and $550,000. By comparision, Bonds' 600th career home run, which puts him in the more elite company of Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron, sold for only $40,000 at auction.

"It tells you a lot about how the public receives Barry Bonds as a person," says Orlando. "I don't know Barry Bonds personally but the perception is that he's a bad guy."

Bonds' 600th home run, hit during the 2002 season, was itself the focus of a legal dispute between four men who made a verbal pact to split the proceeds of the ball if any of them caught it. That suit was brought to a relatively speedy resolution while Popov and Hayashi continued battling over their coveted memento.

Four pretrial attempts at settlement failed, and Popov has maintained that he called Hayashi personally to settle the matter before the courts were ever involved.

Hayashi was willing to sell the ball and divide the proceeds, but battled over the ratio of the split.

In the end, both stand to gain considerably less than they would have had they initially done what even Barry Bonds recommended: Sell the ball and split the cash.

Popov and Hayashi will ultimately have to negotiate with an auction house to sell the ball, or sell it on Ebay, where McGwire's 70th was sold. Curtis believes their best bet is to select an auction house.

"People can get caught up in the moment bidding on it and they might end up paying more than they wanted," said Curtis. "With Ebay you can't generate that kind of excitement."

In addition to the likely depreciation of the ball's value, both men will have weighty attorney's fees after a year of legal wrangling. At one point during the trial, Popov said his tab totaled more than $100,000, while Hayashi appears to have retained his legal team on the basis of a contingency fee.