Rob Walker & Joshua Glenn bought 100 pieces of junk store items from flea markets in New York City.

The objects had no obvious value whatsoever.

The items included:

- Plastic toy planes
- Snow globes
- Novelty pens

$128.74 was spent in total acquiring these objects.

A few months later they sold every single one of these junks on eBay.

Total sales made?

$3,612.71

How could they have made a 2,799% return on these worthless items?

Were they marketing geniuses?

No.

They were journalists, and they had just concluded one of the most thought-provoking experiments to measure the commercial value of storytelling.

They called the experiment: 'Significant Objects'

Their writing for the New York Times had a common theme around the question of what gave objects their value.

Their idea was that the emotional value that comes from attaching a story to an everyday object is so strong that it can be measured in terms of objective value

To test this, they paired each of the objects they bought with a published writer, and asked the writer to pen a short story about it.

Then, they put each object up for auction on eBay with the fictional stories.

1:

Ceramic Horse Bust: bought 99 cents and sold at $62.95"

A ceramic horse bust made from a mould and painted by somebody at home.

It listed with a story by Beth Lisick about how two people met at a University hazing ritual, its value increased by 6,258%,to 62.95 Dollars.

2:

"Ceramic Bear Salt Shaker: 99 cents and sold at 36 Dollars"

A ceramic bear salt shaker saw its value shoot up from 99 cents to 36 Dollars after Annie Nocenti wrote a thrilling blow-by-blow account of a poker game with the salt shaker as the centerpiece

3:

"The heartbreaking story of the pink plastic horse"

The experiment showed the monetary value of heart-breaking stories too.

A devastating tale about a pink plastic horse from Kate Bernheimer delivered one of the best returns: from 1 Dollar to 104.50 Dollars.

How to make objects emotionally significant


The Significant Objects Project provided shoppers on eBay with an emotional frame of reference for the piece of junk they were looking at.

The stronger the emotion the more effective they are at priming people to buy.

For example: The most highly valued pairing in the entire project, bought for $1.49 and sold for $197.50, was a globe paperweight. Thanks to a moving story by Debbie Millman.

The experiment didn’t just tell stories

It also invited its audience to participate in those stories. Taking ownership of an object with a tale associated with it writes yourself into the next chapter.

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