Ronnie James Dio’s Childhood Home Up for Sale on eBay
If you’ve got about $100,000 to burn, want to own a piece of rock ‘n’ roll history, and don’t mind relocating to upstate New York, good news: You can enter the bidding to own the house that metal legend Ronnie James Dio grew up in.
The house, located in Cortland, N.Y. — about a two-hour drive from Rochester — holds three bedrooms and one bathroom in its 1,000-square foot floor plan, but the real value is the knowledge that you’re living in a local landmark. As the person who’s selling it on eBay put it, “This is the house he grew up in, wrote songs in, had parties in, and played in.”
In fact, the seller insists the house is only up for sale because his family needs more room. “We bought the house from Ronnie about 3.5 years ago and have enjoyed living there but it is too small for our growing family,” says the listing description. “I am listing it on eBay in the hopes that a TRUE Dio fan can get this house and enjoy owning a piece or heavy metal history.”
So what do you get for your investment, other than a new heating system and hot water heater? The promise of stumbling across some rock memorabilia (“Ronnie told me himself he buried a trunk that we never got around to digging up … I have found an old mic of his and what looks like some spelling tests that were pushed into a knot hole in the floor”) as well as the fun that goes along with “people [coming to] visit the house getting their picture taken out front or by the street sign of Dio Way.”
If you’re interested, place your bid now — the auction ends on August 31.