In 2009, a journalist by the name Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn, bought 200 objects from eBay. These were cheap trinkets, the average price for each was no more than a few dollars.
They then called 200 authors and asked them to write a story about one of the objects.
They returned to eBay to sell the objects with their stories in the descriptions.
One of the objects was this beautiful horse’s head. Bought for 99¢ and sold with a story for $62.95.
They managed to sell all 200 objects for an insane $7964.
This wasn’t a hoax. No one was being tricked. The stories were clearly labelled as invented on the listings.
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You can checkout the objects and their stories on the significant objects website here https://significantobjects.com
Working on a longer piece about storytelling in business here https://www.joshpitzalis.com/story