# Balls - cheapest and priciest **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [September 6, 2025, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/balls-cheapest-and-priciest/1022791 "2025-09-06T16:40:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/balls-cheapest-and-priciest/1022791/41 "2025-09-08T17:25:41Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Cheapest - match grade air gun pellets. Airsoft pellets are cheap balls and some people do it competitively. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/balls-cheapest-and-priciest/1022791/42 "2025-09-08T21:56:31Z")
> [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > Until relatively recently (last few decades) a pitcher would cherish a ball that had any scuff or other disfigurement that got past the umpire, because they could use that scuff to their advantage. Nowadays most pitchers want pristine baseballs and will request a change of ball if they detect any disfigurement. I suspect that knuckleballers, in particular, were the pitchers prized getting a scuffed ball, as any scuff or foreign substance on a knuckleball will enhance the unpredictable nature of its movement. But, and probably not coincidentally, the knuckleball has died out as a major-league pitch. When I was in high school and college, in the late 1970s and 1980s, and first really getting into baseball, there was still a handful of well-known knuckleball pitchers still in the game: Gaylord Perry, Phil and Joe Niekro, Charlie Hough, Wilbur Wood, and by the '80s, Tom Candiotti. Most of them were also known for (or _strongly_ suspected of) doctoring the ball with Vaseline, scuffs, etc. Since then, there’s only been (AFAICT) four MLB pitchers who’ve made a career out of throwing the knuckleball: Tim Wakefield, Steve Sparks, R.A. Dickey, and Steven Wright; there hasn’t been a single pitcher who regularly uses the pitch, and has had any kind of an MLB career, since 2019, when Wright last played. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/balls-cheapest-and-priciest/1022791/43 "2025-09-09T00:23:30Z")
Thank you for that! Now I have something more to talk about with my BIL from Perth. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/balls-cheapest-and-priciest/1022791/44 "2025-09-11T15:05:59Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > > [@Mark\_Finn](#): > > > > My guesses- cheapest: table tennis balls $1.40 each. > > Shooting marbles are about 25 cents each. That’s pretty low. How much does a cornhole bean bag cost? ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2025, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/balls-cheapest-and-priciest/1022791/45 "2025-09-11T20:08:29Z")
Professional-grade soccer balls retail for about $200, or about ten times the cost of a perfectly serviceable ball. Not sure why an individual, as opposed to a professional soccer club, would ever want to buy those, but my local soccer supply store stocks them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/balls-cheapest-and-priciest/1022791.md?page=2)