Bar Mitzvah Bookends

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Stacey Levine, has ended. Original price: $4. Final price: $10.50.] I’m not a collector, but really a purloiner, and there’s only a brief backstory to these novelties. When my second wife … Continue reading

Umbrella Trinket

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Bruce Holland Rogers, has ended. Original price: 29 cents. Final price: $21.50.] By my third visit to Dr. Peragua, I had decided on what I was going to steal. There were … Continue reading

Fish Spoons

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Mark Doty, has ended. Original price: $2.99. Final price: $76.] As a young man I read a poem I’ve never run across again since. I found it in the school library. … Continue reading

Ziggy Heart

[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 … Continue reading

Star of David Plate

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Adam Harrison Levy, has ended. Original price: $2. Final price: $15.50. This story was part of a special collaboration with Design Observer, where it is co-published here.] Now that Budd Schulberg … Continue reading

Miniature Bottle

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story Mark Frauenfelder, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $23.] Matt saw the tiny blue bottle on the third step of the main entrance to the Los Angeles Central Library. It was … Continue reading

Sanka Ashtray

[Bidding on this Significant Object, with story by Luc Sante, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $17.79.] Only now do I feel free to tell my part in the theft of the famed Light of the East diamond from … Continue reading