How to trade one red paperclip for a house

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How to trade one red paperclip for a house

By Tom B ⋅ April 10, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Who: Kyle MacDonald

Investments: one red paperclip

Outcome: two-story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan

How: bartering his way from a single paperclip to a house in a series of trades spanning just over one year

MacDonald got the idea for one red paperclip from a childhood game called “Bigger and Better,” and announced his quest on July 12, 2005 with a post on Craigslist. The website was followed online by nearly a thousand people, according to bookmarking data provided by del.icio.us. And so the story began..

• On July 14, 2005, he went to Vancouver and traded the paperclip for a fish-shaped pen.

• He then traded the pen the same day for a hand-sculpted doorknob from Seattle, Washington, which he nicknamed “Knob-T”.

• On July 25, 2005, he traveled to Amherst, Massachusetts, with a friend to trade the Knob-T for a Coleman camp stove (with fuel).

• On September 24, 2005, he went to San Clemente, California, and traded the camp stove for a Honda generator, from a U.S. Marine.

• On November 16, 2005, he made a second (and successful) attempt (after having the generator confiscated by the New York City Fire Department) in Maspeth, Queens, to trade the generator for an “instant party”: an empty keg, an IOU for filling the keg with the beer of the holder’s choice, and a neon Budweiser sign.

• On December 8, 2005, he traded the “instant party” to Quebec comedian and radio personality Michel Barrette for a Ski-doo snowmobile.

• Within a week of that, he traded the snowmobile for a two-person trip to Yahk, British Columbia, in February 2006.

• On or about January 7, 2006, the second person on the trip to Yahk traded Kyle a cube van for the privilege.

• On or about February 22, 2006, he traded the cube van for a recording contract with Metal Works in Toronto, Canada.

• On or about April 11, 2006, he traded the recording contract to Jody Gnant for a year’s rent in Phoenix, Arizona.

• On or about April 26, 2006, he traded the one year’s rent in Phoenix, Arizona, for one afternoon with Alice Cooper

• On or about May 26, 2006, he traded the one afternoon with Alice Cooper for a KISS motorized snow globe

• On or about June 2, 2006, he traded the KISS motorized snow globe to Corbin Bernsen for a role in the film Donna on Demand.

• On or about July 5, 2006, he traded the movie role for a two-story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan.

Some interesting facts:

MacDonald now holds the Guinness World Record for the Most Successful Internet Trade.

At the housewarming party where 12 of the 14 traders were present, he proposed to his girlfriend and she accepted. The wedding ring was made from the original red paperclip he got back from the first woman to have agreed to trade with him.

One red paperclip homepage: http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/

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