Comments on: Top Ten Sales — Updated

By: Sold! At $4.50 a Word…. | Editors' Blog

Sold! At $4.50 a Word…. | Editors' Blog — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:40:39 +0000

[...] Sittenfeld to craft significance for flotsam purchased on the cheap at thrift stores, then selling story and object as a pair on eBay. That’s what we did with the object you see above and this winning story by [...]

By: And the Winners of Six Words on a Significant Object Is… | Not Quite What I Was Blogging

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:42:32 +0000

[...] Sittenfeld to craft significance for flotsam purchased on the cheap at thrift stores, then selling story and object as a pair on eBay (Gibson’s story of an ashtray catapulted its value to $101 from $2.99). [...]

By: Mort

Mort — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:43:25 +0000

…well, now i know what to get you for christmas…already have an idea on an xmas gift for Josh…the smashed shards of a Bar-B-Que sauce jar ; )

By: Rob Walker

Rob Walker — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:55:30 +0000

I don’t know, Mort — a fake banana might just be the perfect great Christmas gift. Speaking of which, that $76 sales price obviously puts it in the top ten, and squeezes out another animal in the process. I guess we’ll have to update this list again soon.

By: Mort

Mort — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:23:15 +0000

…seems a figurine has character, which the imagination can imbue and embellish with personality…function is a plus (ash tray, fish spoons)…ideally it should be decorative or have some aesthetic appeal (duck head)…possibly tapping into a pre-existing narrative or mythology (glass slipper)…but there will be anamolies (“4″ tile)…….and $76 for a fake banana seems to crest the high watermark for inanity ; )

By: Mort

Mort — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:53:07 +0000

…what you have is an indication of what the average e-bay literate art-minded person is prepared to splurge on a lark…could be using info in pricing every day “objects d’art” or setting ticket prices for cultural events…have to see whether the scarcity mentality or impending Christmas season effects the remaining 17 items ; )

By: Joshua Glenn

Joshua Glenn — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:42:34 +0000

Just went and looked at the score set so far. At the moment, the modal score is $15.50 (without including a $15.53 and a $15.75) — but that could easily change. The score $20.50 is not too far behind (esp. if you count $20.51), and $26 not far behind that. The scores $14.50, $21.50, and $31 could also catch up in the remaining weeks.

Also, if we decided to round up/down, that would make a difference.

What objects have sold for $15.50, so far? TOOTHBRUSH HOLDER (Terese Svoboda: EVIDENCE), DEVICE (Tom Bartlett: FOSSIL), STAR OF DAVID PLATE (Adam Harrison Levy: EVIDENCE), POPSICLE-STICK CONSTRUCTION (Sara Ryan: FOSSIL), PIGGY BANK (Matthew De Abaitua: TOTEM), SANTA NUTCRACKER (Kurt Andersen: EVIDENCE), and then the two almost $15.50s — KITTY SAUCER (James Parker: EVIDENCE, TOTEM) and DUCK VASE (Matthew Klam: TALISMAN, TOTEM). Just to make this a list of 10, let’s add the scores immediately above and below the $15.50 cluster: $16.49 for DOME DOLL (Jason Grote: TALISMAN), and $14.90 for BASKETBALL TROPHY (Cintra Wilson: EVIDENCE).

OK — 4 of the 8 (and 5 of the 10) are EVIDENCE, followed by TOTEM and then TALISMAN and FOSSIL. Whereas in the Top Ten list posted above, TALISMAN and FOSSIL are a dead heat, followed by EVIDENCE, then TOTEM. In other words, TALISMAN and FOSSIL are tied for most popular among the objects with the highest scores, while TALISMAN and FOSSIL are tied for least popular among the objects with the modal scores. So at this stage we might be able to predict that the majority of people are likely to find an object that is EVIDENCE attractive; however, an elite minority is likely to find an object that is a TALISMAN or FOSSIL attractive. Very useful information!

Of course, the project isn’t finished yet, and all this could change. We’ll probably also think of a dozen other ways to crunch the numbers. Perhaps we’ll have to bring a statistician on board…

By: Joshua Glenn

Joshua Glenn — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:10:36 +0000

Fascinating to think about what this all means!

We also might want to determine the “modal score” (perhaps my 1 year as a sociology grad student will finally pay off?) in/of our data set, and look at the objects that cluster around that score. Perhaps that will provide us with an important angle on this experiment’s outcome…