Wants For Sale

In July 2007, long before Instagram, Justin Gignac and I had a painting project called Wants For Sale. We painted things that we wanted, then sold the paintings for the price of the real items. Buy “A Wii” for $270.92 or a “Slice of Pepperoni” for $3. When the painting sold we bought the thing.

In the first two weeks, over 40,000 people visited the site. Over 3,000 people joined our mailing list, where paintings usually sold out within 10 seconds. The project has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, NPR, GOOD, Daily Candy, blogs and newspapers worldwide. We fulfilled over 65 wants, including a plate of Buffalo Wings and a full Vegas Vacation.

We also created a sister site, Needs For Sale with all paintings benefitting charity.

In 2011, BBH partenered with us to create Good Shirts for UNICEF and raised $375,000 for their cause.