One red paperclip
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One red paperclip is a website created by Canadian blogger Kyle MacDonald, who traded his way from a single red paperclip to a house in a series of fourteen online trades over the course of a year.[1] MacDonald was inspired by the childhood game Bigger, Better. His site received a considerable amount of notice for tracking the transactions. "A lot of people have been asking how I've stirred up so much publicity around the project, and my simple answer is: 'I have no idea'", he told the BBC.[2] The story has inspired countless copycats, who have attempted to trade their way up from a paperclip (or other small items) to something expensive, with varying degrees of success.[3]
Trading timeline
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MacDonald made his first trade, a red paper clip for a fish-shaped pen, on July 14, 2005. He reached his goal of trading up to a house with the fourteenth transaction, trading a movie role for a house. This is the list of all transactions MacDonald made:[2]
- 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.
- On July 25, 2005, he travelled to Amherst, Massachusetts, with a friend to trade the doorknob for a Coleman camp stove (with fuel).
- On September 24, 2005, he went to California, and traded the camp stove for a Honda generator.
- On November 16, 2005, he traveled to Maspeth, Queens and traded the generator for an "instant party": an empty keg, an IOU for filling the keg with the beer of the bearer's choice, and a neon Budweiser sign. This was his second attempt to make the trade; his first resulted in the generator being temporarily confiscated by the New York City Fire Department.[citation needed]
- 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, scheduled for February 2006.
- On or about January 7, 2006, he traded the second spot on the Yahk trip for a box truck.
- On or about February 22, 2006, he traded the box truck for a recording contract with Metalworks in Mississauga, Ontario.
- On or about April 11, 2006, he traded the contract to Jody Gnant for a year's rent in Phoenix, Arizona.
- On or about April 26, 2006, he traded the year's rent in Phoenix for one afternoon with Alice Cooper.
- On or about May 26, 2006, he traded the afternoon with Cooper for a KISS motorized snow globe.
- On or about June 2, 2006, he traded the snow globe to Corbin Bernsen for a role in the film Donna on Demand.[4]
- On or about July 5, 2006, he traded the movie role for a two-story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "From paper-clip to house, in 14 trades – Canada – CBC News". Cbc.ca. July 7, 2006. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
- ^ a b "Man turns paper clip into house". BBC News. July 11, 2006.
- ^ Free, Cathy (August 20, 2020). "A guy once swapped a paper clip to get a house. This woman is trying to do the same". The Washington Post.
- ^ ATS #41 – The New Marketing Podcast with guest Corbin Bernsen Archived July 16, 2006, at the Wayback Machine Across the Sound (July 1, 2006)
Further reading
[edit]- Macdonald, Kyle (June 28, 2007). One Red Paperclip: How a Small Piece of Stationery Turned into a Great Big Adventure. Ebury Press. ISBN 978-0-09-191452-3.
- TEDx Talks (November 20, 2015), What if you could trade a paperclip for a house? | Kyle MacDonald | TEDxVienna, retrieved June 26, 2018
External links
[edit]- "One Red Paperclip Website" Red Paperclip Official site.
- Red Paperclip Story at the Kipling website