One red paperclip
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The website One red paperclip was created by Kyle MacDonald, a Canadian blogger who bartered his way from a single red paperclip to a house in a series of online trades over the course of a year. MacDonald was inspired by the childhood game Bigger, Better, and the 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.[1]
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[edit] Trading timeline
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 tranactions MacDonald made:[1]
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.[2]
- On or about July 5, 2006, he traded the movie role for a two-story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan.
[edit] Background on MacDonald
MacDonald (born October 3, 1979) is a Canadian citizen from Belcarra, British Columbia. He has a bachelor's degree in Geography from the University of British Columbia.
MacDonald has travelled to over 30 countries, on every continent. Some of his travel adventures include delivering pizza by scooter in Sydney, Australia; sheep herding by dirt bike in Western Australia; modeling as an Italian soccer player in Bangkok, Thailand; firing a machine gun in Cambodia; squid jigging in Newfoundland and Labrador; delivering several hundred post cards at one time to the Galápagos Islands;[3] and moving to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, for three days just so he could get NWT polar-bear-shaped license plates for his car.
[edit] Bibliography
- Macdonald, Kyle (June 28, 2007). One Red Paperclip: How a Small Piece of Stationery Turned into a Great Big Adventure. Ebury Press. ISBN 9780091914523.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Man turns paper clip into house BBC News (July 11, 2006)
- ^ ATS #41 - The New Marketing Podcast with guest Corbin Bernsen Across the Sound (July 1, 2006)
- ^ Message in a Barrel The Port Moody Station Museum Blog (Aug. 29, 2005)
