Significant Objects

Fancy Piggy Bank

28. January 2010

[The auction for this item, with story by Martha McPhee, has ended. Original price: $3.00. Final price: $20.50. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.] My grandmother gave me the piggy bank when I was four, for Christmas, wrapped in a box with bows. She said, “A penny saved is a [...]

Mystery Object

22. January 2010

3 Comments

[The auction for this MYSTERY Significant Object, with story by Ben Greenman, has ended. Original price: 99 cents. Final price: $103.50. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.] This object was the first artifact found at the Hasegawa house in Osaka, Japan, in 2006, immediately following the death of Nobuhiko Hasegawa. [...]

Cat Napkin Ring

15. January 2010

0 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Julie Klausner, has ended. Original price: 50 cents. Final price: $31.00. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.] On the bus in the morning, Judith Zinn-Lasser squints to read the small classifieds in The New Yorker, in hopes of finding something really [...]

Pepper Shaker

14. January 2010

2 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Philip Graham, has ended. Original price: 99 cents. Final price: $28.00. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.] Lily hesitates before the open door of the empty pantry. Alone on one of the shelves sits a silvery white saltshaker, seemingly the only [...]

Smoking Man Figurine

7. January 2010

1 Comment

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Vicente Lozano, has ended. Original price: $2.99. Final price: $37.00. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.] This little smoking man did not appear in Inglourious Basterds. But he came close. Back in 2007, during development, Quentin Tarantino was visiting the Santa Monica [...]

Dolphins Box

4. January 2010

0 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Jenny Hayes, has ended. Original price: $1.49. Final price: $10.50. Significant Objects will donate the proceeds of this auction to 826 National.] I reach into my jacket pocket, rolling the dolphins around in my hand, the way I used to when I was little. My fingers remember [...]

Lighter Shaped Like Small Pool Ball

11. November 2009

3 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by (Six-Word Story Contest winner) Rob Agredo, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $27.] “You lose,” she puffed.

Rooster Oven Mitt

6. November 2009

0 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Victor LaValle, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $51.99.] Who the hell goes to Portugal? In my family? The question arose as my sister and I were going through my grandmother’s things—her effects. She’d died of old age at Queens General Hospital and she’d been longing for [...]

Amoco Yo-Yo

4. November 2009

1 Comment

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Mark Sarvas, has ended. Original price: 25 cents. Final price: $41.] When I was seventeen, I was expelled from high school. My father, reasonably enough, gave me a choice: Get a job or get out. The only job for a 30-mile radius was the night shift behind [...]

Felt Mouse

3. November 2009

0 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Meghan O'Rourke, has ended. Original price: 50 cents. Final price: $62. ] After my mother died, a stranger emailed me. He told me that my mother had been the most important person in his life. They went to Catholic school together. He was unpopular, she was popular; [...]

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Fancy Piggy Bank

Mystery Object

Cat Napkin Ring

Pepper Shaker

Smoking Man Figurine

Dolphins Box

Lighter Shaped Like Small Pool Ball

Rooster Oven Mitt

Amoco Yo-Yo

Felt Mouse

* S.O. v2 — for 826 National

S.O. v1 — the EXPERIMENT