Awesome story. This guy had an idea. He wanted to see if a large paper clip could turn into a house. His method was to trade the paper clip for something better and continue that trend until he got a house. So far, his journey has landed him a year's free rent in Phoenix, AZ but continues to try to get himself a house... I wish I had an idea like this.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060417/ap_on_hi_te/paper_clip_to_house_4

Quote :

"Kyle MacDonald had a red paper clip and a dream: Could he use the community power of the Internet to barter that paper clip for something better, and trade that thing for something else — and so on and so on until he had a house? ADVERTISEMENT After a cross-continental trading trek involving a fish-shaped pen, a town named Yahk and the Web's astonishing ability to bestow celebrity, MacDonald is getting close. He's up to one year's free rent on a house in Phoenix. Not a bad return on an investment of one red paper clip. Yet MacDonald, 26, vows to keep going until he crosses the threshold of his very own home, wherever that might be. "It's totally overwhelming, I'm not going to lie," he said by phone from Montreal, where he and his girlfriend, Dominique Dupuis, live with two roommates. "But I'm still trading for that house. It's this obsessive thing." The story begins last July. MacDonald had spent years backpacking, delivering pizzas and working other part-time jobs, suiting his jack-of-all-trades, restless nature. He paid his $300 share of the rent by occasionally promoting products at trade shows. But he yearned for one piece of settled-down adulthood: a house, which he knew he could not afford. It's clear, however, that MacDonald has a knack for promotion. Asked what he had talked up at all those trade shows, MacDonald slipped right into his spiel for the employer, TableShox.com. "You ever sat at a wobbly table at a restaurant?" he said. Beyond a gift for advertising table stabilizers, he's a geography buff, keeps a blog and writes short stories. Random interactions with strangers and the rich kitsch of North Americana provide his favorite material. Put it all together, and you have the outline of MacDonald's quest. He advertised it in the barter section of Craigslist.org, the Web site teeming with city-specific listings for everything from job openings to apartment rentals. At first, MacDonald said merely that he wanted something bigger or better for his red paper clip. No mention of a house — he feared seeming flaky. While he was visiting his hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia, two women gave him a fish-shaped pen for the paper clip. Later that day, MacDonald headed to Seattle to catch a ballgame and a flight home. Before the airport, though, he stopped to see Annie Robbins, an artist who had just stumbled upon the Craigslist barter section. She admired its anticonsumerist vibe, she said, so she answered MacDonald's posting "on a lark." MacDonald left her home the proud owner of a small ceramic doorknob with a smiley face, made by the son of an artist Robbins knows. Next up was Shawn Sparks, who was packing up to move from Amherst, Mass., to Alexandria, Va. Sparks, 35, is a huge fan of Craigslist barters, having acquired his 1993 Chevy Blazer in a trade for a used laptop. Sparks offered MacDonald a Coleman camping stove. Sparks had two, and didn't want to lug both on his move. And he needed a new knob for his espresso machine. Done. The men celebrated with a barbecue at Sparks' house. MacDonald gave the camping stove to a Marine sergeant at Camp Pendleton, Calif., getting a generator in return. East again. MacDonald swapped the generator for an "instant party package" — an empty beer keg, a neon Budweiser sign and a promise to fill the keg — proferred by a young man in Queens, New York City. Before the trade, MacDonald left the generator in storage in his hotel. When he went to claim it, he was told it had been confiscated by the fire department because it was leaking gas. "If there was ever a movie based on all that, that would be the closest to losing it all," he said, recalling his anguish. But more on movies later. MacDonald reclaimed the generator by tracking it to a firehouse in lower Manhattan, where he got a Tootsie Pop from the crew and petted their Dalmatian. The beer package went to a Montreal disc jockey, in exchange for a snowmobile. Here's where the project's grassroots purity may have gotten compromised. MacDonald's blog, http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com, was attracting attention, and MacDonald was invited onto Canadian television. Our wandering man was asked if there was anywhere he wouldn't go to trade the snowmobile. An obscure place came to mind, so he spit it out: Yahk, a hamlet in the Canadian Rockies. Some publicity-seeking ensued. A snowmobiling magazine offered an expense-paid trip to Yahk in exchange for the snowmobile. The trip went to Bruno Taillefer, Quebec manager for the supply company Cintas Corp. He got headquarters to let him give MacDonald a 1995 Cintas van that he had been planning to sell. MacDonald gave the van — stripped of Cintas logos — to a musician seeking to haul gear. In turn, the musician, who works at a Toronto recording studio, arranged a recording contract, with studio time and a promise to pitch the finished product to music executives. MacDonald handed the contract to Jody Gnant, a singer in Phoenix who owns a duplex. And that is how Kyle MacDonald has turned a paper clip into a year of shelter in the desert. Where it goes now, who knows. He says he has offers from Hollywood studios to turn his story into a film. But he pledges not to accept gifts or overly lopsided trades that would undermine the peer-to-peer joy that he says has animated his journey. Asked what he has learned from all this, he responded: "If you say you're going to do something and you start to do it, and people enjoy it or respect it or are entertained by it, people will step up and help you.""

4/16/2006 11:21:14 PM

amusing

4/16/2006 11:23:19 PM

amazing

4/16/2006 11:28:03 PM

except if you trade that much shit on the web eventually you gonna get scammed.

4/16/2006 11:30:08 PM

one time in pre-school I started with some shit I didn't want to eat and bartered for pretty much everyone's food over the course of lunch time

4/16/2006 11:30:24 PM

wtf

4/16/2006 11:41:50 PM

They had something like this on that Fox show, "My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss". They gave a chicken to three people and they were supposed to continously barter for something better. The winner ended up with an expensive champagne.

4/16/2006 11:46:44 PM

words.

4/17/2006 12:57:52 AM

rad

4/17/2006 2:03:07 AM

didnt they do that on an episode of pete and pete where they traded for a baseball card?

4/17/2006 2:07:49 AM

Quote :

"except if you trade that much shit on the web eventually you gonna get scammed. "

i WANT to be that scammer.

4/17/2006 8:18:49 AM

still pretty awesome he went from paper clip to a year's free rent.

4/17/2006 8:27:53 AM

bttt

7/8/2006 1:27:49 PM

I did that in middle school at the mall with my summer camp. We started with a paperclip, and in two hours ended up with a CD and a giant box (the task was to get something expensive and/or something big).

7/10/2006 10:27:02 PM

^ I think you're really cute.

IM me.

7/10/2006 10:28:15 PM

Do the lunch with the gargs, k?

7/10/2006 10:34:50 PM

seriously

I love her red hair and her mesmerizing smile.

Her bf must be a lucky guy.

7/10/2006 10:35:44 PM

she has one post man..for god's sake let her inhale the pleasant TWW air for a bit before you duct tape her mouth and put her in the trunk.


3 posts...minimum.

7/10/2006 10:37:56 PM

whatever d00d.

She likes Indian dresses as well...I would kill 10 goats to get to meet her.

7/10/2006 10:38:53 PM

Lace the roofie with curry, gargs

7/10/2006 11:35:08 PM

this is old as hell

7/10/2006 11:50:46 PM

lol
Yup, new to TWW. I'm on Campus Blender. The bf introduced me to TWW.
Nice droping of the bf line btw. Yes I do have one. I prefer my men irl not on the internet.

7/11/2006 12:24:36 AM

I did NOT introduce you to this cesspool

Or maybe... unintentionally...

7/11/2006 12:36:11 AM

Bryan...this is like turning her on to heroin, man. You dirty bastard.

On the other hand, LiveInAutoPi...you need to ditch this loser and hang with the likes of me. Or at least hook a nigga up!

Of course, this is all in jest...as it always is.

7/11/2006 12:40:50 AM

riiiight.
But Bryan, you ALWAYS speak so fondly of the people on TWW

7/11/2006 12:47:18 AM

You just need to axt your man. Stalker, me?

BTW, he's a right smart motherfucker.

7/11/2006 12:49:31 AM

agreed

7/11/2006 12:53:32 AM

interesting

7/11/2006 1:22:35 AM