Tag Archive | "novelty item"

Flip-Flop Frame

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

2 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Merrill Markoe, has ended. Original price: 59 cents. Final price: $21.80.] Any image that has been carefully placed in an antique gold frame embossed with angels and laurel wreathes becomes transformed in to something elevated and celestial. “All you need to know about this old person/building/animal/plate of [...]

Continue reading...

Coconut Cup

Friday, September 11, 2009

4 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Annalee Newitz, has ended. Original price: 25 cents. Final price: $10.] At this point most people realize that getting marketers involved in space travel is a bad idea. But fifty years ago, right before the Martian economy collapsed, there was a craze for luxury space cruises [...]

Continue reading...

Ziggy Heart

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

6 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Todd Levin, has ended. Original price: $2. Final price: $50.] Have you ever hated someone solely for her dumb benevolence? For bland and witless good cheer? It’s the lowest of unfair acts, I know, but as soon as a smile crosses Mary Eileen’s lips, my jaw tightens [...]

Continue reading...

Metal Boot

Friday, July 31, 2009

9 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Bruce Sterling, has ended. Original price: $3. Final price: $86.] In early 1861, before the Union blockade closed the port of New Orleans, four ships arrived from distant Naples. They bore eight hundred and eighty-four Italians, soldiers under the command of a little-known Louisiana adventurer: [...]

Continue reading...

Dome Doll

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

7 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Jason Grote, has ended. Original price: 99 cents. Final price: $16.49.] I wish to reassure anyone who is considering purchasing me that it is not my look of need, afflicting though it may be, that is responsible for the fate of my last three owners. For [...]

Continue reading...

Spotted Dogs Figurine

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

11 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Curtis Sittenfeld, has ended. Original price: $1.00. Final price: $17.50.] It’s not that I think I married the wrong man. Because really, how can any of us make a decision except as the person we are in a particular moment? I met Larry and Ronald less than [...]

Continue reading...

Nutcracker with Troll Hair (or something)

Friday, July 17, 2009

8 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Adam Davies, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $14.50.] Authentic MR. YODELS Love Totem The “Sylvia St. Etienne” edition This is the only witness to — or, some say, the cause of — the tragic death of legendary chanteuse and muse to famous Ecuadorian footballer Francisco Chavarria NOT AN IMITATION! Condition The artifact [...]

Continue reading...

Fred Flintstone Pez Dispenser

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

1 Comment

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Claire Zulkey, has ended. Original price: 50 cents. Final price: $5.50.] Apparently, people collect these things. I’m not sure I understand why. Is it for the candy? I find that hard to believe. There are so many better candies than Pez that it’s not even funny. Me, I’d rather eat a sugar [...]

Continue reading...

Necking Team Button

Thursday, July 9, 2009

5 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Susannah Breslin, has ended. Original price: 50 cents. Final price: $36.88] I reached my hand into the drawer, withdrew it, and looked at what lay in my palm. “ALL AMERICAN OFFICIAL NECKING TEAM,” the pin read. It was hard to reconcile the words with my father. At [...]

Continue reading...

Mule figurine

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

4 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Matthew Sharpe, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $14.50.] This is the statue of the mule that I have sculpted by my hands, but if you are the serious person about the hand-sculpted statues, also serious when you are knowing how to feel the deep meaning [...]

Continue reading...

Smiling Mug

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

14 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Ben Greenman, has ended. Original price: $2. Final price: $32.08.] This object is best known from its appearance in the 1939 film No News From The Navy, a comedy starring James Wilton as a hapless midshipman who cannot set aside his seafaring ways, even when he is [...]

Continue reading...