Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Fashion designer Marc Ecko said he is the buyer of Barry Bonds's record-breaking 756th home run ball, and left its future to a public vote that considers possible steroid use by the Major League Baseball player.

``I bought this baseball to democratize the debate over what to do with it,'' Ecko, who paid $752,467.20 for the ball on Sept. 15 in an Internet auction, said on vote756.com, the Web site he set up to determine the ball's future.

The ball was estimated by sports memorabilia experts before the auction to be worth $500,000, cutting its value in half because of steroid allegations surrounding Bonds.

The Web site offers three voting options for the ball: to bestow it, giving the ball to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York; to brand it, burning an asterisk into the ball before sending it to Cooperstown; or to banish it, putting the ball on a rocket and launching it into orbit.

Ted Spencer, the Hall's chief curator, said it was an ``unexpected thrill'' that the ball might end up in Cooperstown.

``It's something we never entertained would happen,'' Spencer said in a telephone interview. ``We'd rather the only mark on it would be the mark made by the bat, but we'll take it under any circumstances.''

Ecko said during an interview with NBC's ``The Today Show'' that he refused to be outbid for the ball.

``I was going to bid whatever it was going to take,'' he said. ``I'm a collector of popular culture, and I thought it would be interesting for us to all have a pop culture moment together.''

Student Fielder

Matt Murphy, a 21-year-old student from New York, came up with the record-breaking ball after Bonds, a San Francisco Giants' outfielder, hit it into the right-centerfield stands in the fifth inning of a game against Washington at AT&T Park in San Francisco on Aug. 7.

Bonds told a grand jury that he used substances he didn't know contained the illegal performance-enhancing drugs, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2004. Bonds, 43, has publicly denied using steroids.

Voting on the ball ends Sept 25.

``I voted for the asterisk,'' Ecko said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mason Levinson in New York at mlevinson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 17, 2007 16:39 EDT