November 4-7, Phoenix, Arizona: Fill & Download for Free

If you can afford the transportation and can afford it quickly, this is technically doable.This is the story of a man named Kyle MacDonald, who, through fourteen different trades, turned a paperclip into a two-story house.Think about that. He turned this:Into this:Here were the trades that he did: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.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.[3]On or about July 5, 2006, he traded the movie role for a two-story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan.This did take him a full year, but if done properly and if the trades are managed, this can technically be done in two weeks.And the output will be hundreds of thousands of dollars, anywhere from 100–500 times what you originally wanted to turn the $1 into.So, just get your trading brain on, and go make some trades! Buy some material object with the one dollar, and, to make it even easier, find a situation where someone desperately needs the item. They will be more likely to trade it for a higher value in that situation. Then, you can keep raising the stakes, and if you keep going, end up in a situation like this.Good Luck!Source:One red paperclip - Wikipedia

The humble paperclip, up to the internet revolution, a common sight in homes and offices around the world. Invented by Gem Manufacturing Ltd in the late 1800’s (and not Johan Vaaler!), they can be bought on Ebay for:(It has already garnered a bid, despite being collection only)So when I saw a Prada paperclip going for $185 (about £1.03p) I was unnaturally bewildered as to how a bent piece of metal could be so expensive? Was it diamond encrusted and made from Vibranium? No, just silver…I mean you do get a Prada’s insignia along the edge, but for $185 you can buy 318 grams of silver at the going rate – that’s either a beast of a paperclip, some very expensive engraving or Prada thinks we’re all idiots.It got me thinking though, is it really the most expensive paperclip? Perhaps not, there is another contender. A paperclip you can’t bend, can’t engrave, can’t even touch. A paperclip so detestable, it made you want to defenestrate your computer:Clippy.As a new user, you could reap the benefits of being constantly interrupted with “Would you like some help with that?” (no Clippy), for the princely sum of $499 (about £20 back then). You also got some other stuff like Word, Excel and Powerpoint, which weren’t so annoying.To take things further still, Kyle MacDonald asked “what is a paperclip worth?” the answer is complex and inspiring, but over the course of a year he did manage to basically trade one red paperclip for a house.Here is his trading timeline courtesy of Wikipedia: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 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 bearer'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 one 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, 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 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.… And accompanying video explaining how he did it.

We have all heard that rags to riches story from somewhere or the other. But here is a guy who used something that is of far less worth than a rag and eventually ended up getting a goddamn house.What did he start out with?This.Yes you saw that right. He started with a red paper clip. Starting with a red paper clip, a bloke named Kyle Mcdonald used a series of ‘trades’ where he would ‘exchange’ a previous product for something else and before you know it, he ended up with a goddamn house. Here are the series of events: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 traveled 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 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 bearer's choice, and a neon Budweiser sign.On December 8, 2005, he traded the "instant party" to Quebec comedian and radio personality Michelle Barrette for one 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 recording contract to Jody Gnant for a year's rent in Phoenix, Arizona (It gets a bit weird after this).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 Borbin 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.-Source: WikipediaSo in less than an year, this guy completed the transition from a red paper clip to a goddamn house. Who the hell said that the barter system is dead?Takeaways:Different items have different value to different persons.Find that one sucker every step of the way who would trade for what you have so that you get something better.Here is his TEDx video if you want to watch it.