Baseball fans and sports memorabilia collectors will soon be able to own a share of Mickey Mantle’s childhood home in Commerce, Okla.
Rally, a company that allows people to buy shares of various memorabilia including wine and sports cars, will begin selling 47,000 shares in the home for $7 each for the property on Oct. 27, ESPN reported.
Rally said in a statement that the property had been valued at $329,000.
The company saw a number of potential options for how to utilize the property, which Rally bought for $175,000 in 2022.
Turning the house into a museum, an Airbnb-style short-term rental, creation of a little league field and creating trading cards with pieces of the property embedded in them were all ideas that have been floated.
Ultimately, Rally is hoping the Mantle name can help the venture into real estate pay off.
Mantle memorabilia has raked in big money, and a 1952 Topps card sold for $12.6 million in August 2022, becoming the most expensive sports card or piece of memorabilia.
“If we could do something like they’ve done in places like Graceland or in parts of Motown, where you have this place that a lot of people who care about the game and about Mantle will visit given the opportunity,” Rally co-founder and chief product officer Rob Petrozzo told ESPN. “We really believe that it’s just that they don’t know what exists.”
Rally is keeping somewhere between 1 and 5 percent stake in the property and is offering 2,200 free shares to Commerce residents, which will be paid for by Rally to keep from diluting the value of the other shares.
Commerce has a population of approximately 2,200 people.
Rally was still working out shareholders’ responsibilities in terms of “paying taxes, insurance, repairs and improvements to the property, or any operational costs of running a museum,” ESPN reported.
Petrozzo told the outlet they estimated that Rally’s cash reserves could cushion expenses for three to five years.
Mantle is widely considered one of baseball’s best switch-hitters and spent his entire career in Yankee pinstripes.
He helped lead the Yankees to seven World Series titles and was a three-time AL MVP.
In 1956, he captured the Triple Crown.
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