School of Curiosity

School of Curiosity

School of Curiosity

Explore. Dream. Discover.

You can scroll the shelf using and keys

The power of stories

August 7, 2013 , , , , , , , , , ,

Are stories just stories or can they create value?

In 2009 Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn wanted to find out, so they set about  a curious experiment: They would purchase cheap trinkets, ask some of today’s most exciting creative writers to invent stories about them, then post the stories and the objects on eBay to see whether the invented story enhanced the value of the object.

It did: The junk, originally purchased for a total of $128.74, sold for a whopping total of $3,612.51 — a 2,700% markup. The most highly valued pairing in the entire project, bought for $1.49 and sold for $197.50, was a globe paperweight with a moving handwritten story by  Debbie Millman.

Stories have power, use it wisely.

Have a curious day.

What do you think?

Please keep your comments polite and on-topic.

Follow

Get every new post on this blog delivered to your Inbox.

Join other followers: