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Updated 10/07/2008 01:22 PM

Going, Going, Gone: Collectors To Carve Up Old Stadiums For Keepsakes

By: Shazia Khan

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If you’re not yet ready to say farewell to Yankee or Shea Stadium, you can own a piece of the memory-filled ballparks. NY1’s Shazia Khan filed the following report.

As the Yankees and Mets bid adieu to their current digs, a garage sale of stadium proportions is underway.

“This is the time when you're trying to reflect and hold on and grab a few things,” said Brandon Steiner, founder and CEO of Steiner Sports.

There is plenty up for grabs, and fans can buy everything from seats to signs, turnstiles and ticket booths. Even sod and infield dirt from the historic ballparks are for sale.

Long time Mets fans Marv Muller bought a pair of Shea Stadium seats from the Mets and the city for $869.

“They are going to go in my backyard and it'll be a memory I can have forever,” said Muller.

Barry Meisel's sports memorabilia company MeiGray Group scored an exclusive deal to sell nearly every other piece of Shea.

Napkin dispensers are going for $35, turnstiles for $1,500, dugouts for $100,000.

Meisel said the considerable interest in Shea is not hard to believe.

“Shea Stadium is among the more popular and iconic stadiums,” said Meisel. “Certainly the fact that it is a New York stadium adds value to that, so will things go up in value. Because as things get older and as Shea becomes more of a memory there will be more people who want a piece of it.”

Over in the Bronx, the city and the Yankees have yet to announce who will sell the stadium's big ticket items like the clubhouse, seats, lockers and foul poles, and for how much.

Steiner Sports has an exclusive partnership with the Yankees to sell game-used collectibles like bases and jerseys, and is now in talks to sell parts of the stadium.

Steiner said the piece-by-piece sale of the House that Ruth Built is expected to hit a home run.

“I think the Yankee Stadium thing will probably be one of the great collections and maybe one of the greatest sales as far as breaking the stadium down of all time,” said Steiner. “Pretty much almost anything you buy at Yankee Stadium will maintain some solid value and in some cases increase.”

How do these sellers put a price on a memory, on things ranging from dirt to dugouts? Experts say there really isn't an exact science.

For Steiner, it often begins with the fans.

“It starts off by walking around the stadium like a lunatic and just asking people how much would you pay for that, so I get a general sense of what they think is fair,” said Steiner. “And then you kind of work your costs and different things into it and then you come up with some selling prices.”

He is trying to make sure the prices aren't too far afield for baseball fans and collectors.