"I traded a paper clip for a house"

[Rambuchan]

This is one amazing story.

My name is Kyle MacDonald and I traded one red paperclip for a house. I started with one red paperclip on July 12 2005 and 14 trades later, on July 12, 2006 I will trade with the Town of Kipling Saskatchewan for a house located at 503 Main Street.

http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/

Look down the right side of the webpage to see the chain of trades that took place. I wonder what our economists make of this?

 

[Gladi]

Bright day
Interesting though the last few trades were part of his newly acquired celebrity status.

 

[King Flevance]

What is kinda cool about all this is the more publicity this story gets, the two chicks from Vancouver could put that paperclip on ebay and make a fortune. BUY THE PAPERCLIP WORTH A HOUSE! lol.

Crap, maybe I should get one of my mom's 1970's forks and see if I can get a house.

 

[Mirc]

It's amazing! I think I have a blue paperclip somewhere. Let's see where I can find a house to trade for it.

 

[Azash]

That's cool!

 

[PrinceOfLeigh]

"I traded a paper clip for a house"

These things happen down south /shrug

I reserve the right not to believe everything posted on the web.

 

[Rambuchan]

These things happen down south /shrug.

This dude is from Canada you northern halfwit!

 

[PrinceOfLeigh]

This dude is from Canada you northern halfwit!

I never said England you Southern puffta. You can't get a paperclip for the price of a paperclip darn Sarth London way.

*Grins at an excellent retreat*

 

[soul_warrior]

i have actually read this through.
truly amazing, and possibly only in the land of infinite possiblities (or its northern province)

anyone read about the infamous PowerBook scam?
to be read here
very nifty too.
not that i believe most of it, but still, a nice comic relief

 

[Pontiuth Pilate]

Would you trade away a stove for a doorknob? No.

Half of me thinks: there is only the illusion of barter going on here. What he is really trading on, with each barter, is the growing publicity of his attempt, first on Craigslist, then the internet and then even in newspapers and on TV. He essentially sold the privilege to be associated with the 1RPC project and receive reflected publicity. You can see that with the fact that what he is trading = basically marketing deals (a record contract, publicity for the town of Yaht, an afternoon with Alice Cooper).

The other half of me, though, has to admit the one really genius trade he made - the snowglobe for the movie role.

 

[King Flevance]

The doorknob for the grill was a barter. I would give away that POS grill for that doorknob. But I would use the doorknob for an ornament instead. Probably hotglue some yarn to its head to look like braids. Its a pretty cool ornament. The grill, has good trade value, but is basically junk to me. The generator looks beat up and no longer used so the guy that traded it, is probably a heavy camper and the generator was junk as he probably had it rotting because he used a newer one.

The keg for the snowmobile is where I got lost. That guy must be some huge budweiser fan. I agree that the trip to Yahk was publicity. He even says when the TV stations came in was after the snowmobile deal. Before that though, he had traded a red paperclip for a snowmobile. Then publicity carried him from that point on I think.

 

[AceChilla]

I played this kinda game as a kid at schoolcamp, our class would split in 5 groups and all of the groups started out with one teabag.

Then we all went into town and had to trade stuff door to door, and see which group ended up with the highest valued object eventually. If I remember correctly one group even ended up with a ghetto blaster.

I think some people give away objects they dont really care about anymore, but which are worth something to others. That and the fact that people wanna help out cute kids.

Or in this case get on the guys website, and get your name on TV.

 

[De Lorimier]

He lives in Montréal and had to travel for some of his trades so I saw him at the airport a few times. He's a nice kid and was always happy to give me updates. Good for him!

 

[Godwynn]

The keg for the snowmobile is where I got lost.

Same here, I'll go out and buy a couple of kegs, and then trade them in for a snowmobile and then sell the snowmobile..

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

Nice to see that he actually pulled it off. I remember someone posting this story a number of months ago.

 

[De Lorimier]

The snowmobile was a gift from a local comedian/radio DJ. It was a good stunt to get media attention for the kid by the DJ.

 

[warpus]

Why stop at the house?

He should keep going

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

Why stop at the house?

He should keep going

And where would he stop? A fighter jet?

 

[warpus]

And where would he stop? A fighter jet?

A night with Jessica Alba?

World peace?

Microsoft?

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

A night with Jessica Alba?

Good idea. Now...let's find a paper clip and get started!