> Next, Walker asked some unknown writers to each write a short story that contained one of the objects.

so no, the price jump isn't because of stories written by someone established. But I do think it likely that buyers thought of themselves as buying a piece of writing more than an old pair of nail scissors (or whatever). What was sold was the object plus a printed copy of the story.

To my mind, this largely invalidates these experiments as evidence that things are valued more when accompanied by stories. (They probably are, but this isn't good evidence.) Perhaps what it actually shows is that a short piece of writing is valued more when accompanied by an appropriate artefact. Perhaps what it shows is that you can often find someone to buy a short piece of writing for a few tens of dollars. Perhaps what it shows is that anything unusual and new will attract some attention -- in small quantities.

I'm reminded of the "Million Dollar Homepage" from back in 2005, recently featured on HN. It was a clever idea; the creator found enough takers to make his million dollars; but subsequent attempts at recreating the phenomenon weren't so successful. No doubt it's possible to make a few thousand dollars a year out of selling tchotchkes with stories. That doesn't tell you anything about whether you can make much more from a larger-scale tchotchke-selling business by attaching stories to everything. Maybe you can, maybe not.