The childhood home of Mickey Mantle, the legendary New York Yankees baseball player, was today (Oct. 27) listed for just $7. But don’t expect to be living in it anytime soon if you’re a buyer. The house is being offered in the form of 47,000 shares from Rally, a fractional investment platform specializing in collectibles.
Mantle’s property is the latest item to enter the frenzy of fractional ownership, where shareholders own a percentage of an asset. Art has particularly dominated the market in recent years, with companies offering up shares of artwork from the likes of Andy Warhol, Banksy and Francis Bacon. But with Rally’s first real estate listing, it looks like the industry is gearing up to expand beyond fine art.
Located on 319 South Quincy Street in the small town of Commerce, Oklahoma, Mantle’s home was purchased by his family back in 1934. It’s where Mantle, who went on to win seven World Series and enter the Baseball Hall of Fame, first learned to play the sport that would make him famous. A small barn located beside the two-bedroom home still contains dents from the baseball player’s stray hits.
Rally purchased the property last year for $175,000. While it may seem unusual compared to the company’s typical offerings of baseball cards and comics, the property’s relationship to Mantle makes it valuable in the world of collectibles, according to Rob Petrozzo, the company’s co-founder. “For us, one of the most collectible names in sports is Mickey Mantle,” he told Observer. A Mantle baseball card currently holds the record for the most expensive sports collectible, having sold for $12.6 million last year. With the Oklahoma home’s unique story, “it’s impossible for us not to look at it as a collectible,” said Petrozzo.
Investors in the home will be able to make proposals on how the property will be utilized in the future. In quarterly meetings, the shareholders, who will receive dividends from any profit realized, can vote on whether it turns into a museum, a national landmark or even a little league playing field. They will also be able to trade their shares on the secondary market in the coming months, according to Petrozzo.
Hometown loyalty
A significant portion of those investors will be locals, as Rally is planning on giving out 2,200 free shares to the residents of Commerce. “This is a really meaningful property, it’s the most famous home in Commerce without question,” said Petrozzo of the 670-square-foot house. The town, home to about 2,500 people, is still marked with streets and fields bearing Mantle’s name.
Throughout Rally’s process of purchasing and listing the house, Petrozzo heard numerous stories from locals about their connection to both the property and the Mantle family. “We got so much help from the town, the original homeowner, local officials,” he said. By giving them a say in the house’s future, Rally wanted to show that it recognizes Mantle’s childhood as a true collectible to be respected. “We didn’t want it to feel like we’re some company buying a house to commoditize it.”
