As cultural treasures go, the house is a Mickey Mouse job. And the way it's being sold is a little goofy.

But there it is on the eBay Internet auction site for Dumbos or Cinderella investors to bid on: the two-story home where Walt Disney was born 105 years ago this week on Chicago's Northwest Side.

The four-bedroom frame house at 2156 N. Tripp Ave. was posted Thursday by owners Radoje and Barbara Popovic. The auction is to last 30 days, and bidding starts at $280,000 for the home, built in 1893 by Disney's father, Elias.

That's slightly above the median price for a house of that size and age in the working-class neighborhood of Hermosa, industry data shows.

The Popovics, who bought the home for $190,000 in 2002 and have been renting out the floors separately, hope the historic value boosts the bottom line.

They went to eBay instead of listing the house on the regular market "because we feel there is someone out there that might be able to take the building to the next step and do something with the historical significance," Barbara Popovic said.

Born Dec. 5, 1901, Walt Disney lived in the house for four years before the family moved to Marceline, Mo. He left behind no wall markings, chicken scratches or any other early signs of the genius that would create such youthful icons as Mickey Mouse, Pluto and Walt Disney World.

"It doesn't make it any less significant," Popovic argued. "I'm sure there are kids who live down the block and maybe even play with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck who may not know Walt Disney was born there."

That has long been a concern for Disney aficionados and historic preservationists, who during the 1990s sought to have the house designated a city landmark.

After the owner before the Popovics fought off the designation, those efforts have been dormant, leaving the house's cultural lineage largely invisible to all but die-hard tourists and scavenger hunters.

Disney biographer Neil Gabler, who toured the home while researching his 2006 book "Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination," said the house hasn't changed much since Elias Disney--a carpenter for the World's Fair--built it.

"There is still a good deal of Elias Disney in that house," Gabler said. "One can still see the general shape and the footprint."

The family left the area because they were worried about local crime, spurred by a 1906 neighborhood robbery that led to a Chicago police officer's death, Gabler said.

After Walt Disney began realizing his artistic talent in Marceline, the family returned briefly to Chicago when he was a teenager. Disney became a newspaper cartoonist at the former William McKinley High School, near Adams Street and Damen Avenue.

Given its largely forgotten role as the birthplace to one of the most influential figures in American history, it's almost fitting that the Disney house be sold on eBay, Gabler said.

On the Web site, the steeple-shaped house's picture sits a click away from bids for Dallas Cowboy cheerleader shot glasses, electronic Santa figures and, of course, Disney charm bracelets.

"Everything winds up on eBay eventually," Gabler said. "It's the great resting place for American culture."