Kentucky Dish

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Dean Haspiel, has ended. Original price: $2. Final price: $6.75.] Kentucky reminds me of my first and, probably, only encounter with a friend whom aliens had, supposedly, abducted. In the late … Continue reading

Penguin Creamer

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Sari Wilson, has ended. Original price: $3. Final price: $31.] It’s incongruous. The buttery finish, the fluted spout, the air hole in the back of its head offering a peek into … 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

Bird Figurine

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Sung J. Woo, has ended. Original price: 50 cents. Final price: $52.] Last summer, my wife and I held a barbeque in our back yard. After the event, I saw a … Continue reading

Grain Thing

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Joanne McNeil, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $20.50.] Among the many misconceptions that prevail about my great-grandfather, Hartford Townes Hastings, the most infuriating is the idea that he was … Continue reading

Porcelain Scooter

[The auction for this Significant Object, with song (MP3, and lyrics, below), by Teddy Blanks, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $2.38. This was part of a special collaboration with Design Observer, where it was co-published here.] CLICK BUTTON … Continue reading

#1 Mom Hooks

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Rachel Berger, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $5.50. This story was part of a special collaboration with Design Observer, where it was co-published, here.] In the fall of 1991, … 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

Rope/Wood Monkey

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Kevin Brockmeier, has ended. Original price: 50 cents. Final price: $41.] I was more or less in love with this girl, and her name was Samantha. I thought I was ugly, … Continue reading

Small Stapler

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Katharine Weber, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $10.50.] Thirty-two years ago I was sent by the Smithers Employment Agency to interview with the worst client in the history of … Continue reading

Unicorn Figurine

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Sarah Weinman, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $26.] A week after the shiva, still not quite used to seeing my own reflection in the uncovered mirrors, I mustered up … Continue reading

Cow Vase

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Ed Park, has closed. Original price: $2. Final price: $62.] If you came of age in the ’70s and ’80s, you probably have some sense of what the fantasy game Dungeons … Continue reading

Ireland Cow Plate

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Sarah Rainone, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $41.] As my husband and I were driving back to New York after my mother’s funeral, I spotted a general store on … Continue reading

Meat Thermometer

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Nicholson Baker, has ended. Original price: 75 cents. Final price: $51.] Everything had a temperature in those days.

Foppish Figurine

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Rob Baedeker, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $17.82.] Baron Von Blauheimer “Muscle Dove” Statuette This is a porcelain statuette of the Baron Von Blauheimer holding a “peace dove” on … Continue reading

Cape Cod Shoe

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Sheila Heti, has ended. Original price: $4. Final price: $77.51.] I never thought of leaving Cape Cod. I imagined I would live there my entire life long. But then Jack and … Continue reading

Popsicle-stick Construction

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Sara Ryan, has ended. Original price: $2. Final price: $15.50.] Anne Cole writes: The summer when I was nine, Mom bought boxes and boxes of popsicles on sale, lemon-lime, some discontinued … Continue reading