One red paperclip

"Kyle MacDonald" redirects here. For people named Kyle McDonald, see Kyle McDonald (disambiguation).
The paperclip that Kyle MacDonald traded for a house.

The website One red paperclip was created by Canadian blogger Kyle MacDonald, who bartered 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, 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.[2]

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 transactions MacDonald made:[2]

  1. On July 14, 2005, he went to Vancouver and traded the paperclip for a fish-shaped pen.
  2. He then traded the pen the same day for a hand-sculpted doorknob from Seattle, Washington.
  3. On July 25, 2005, he travelled to Amherst, Massachusetts, with a friend to trade the doorknob for a Coleman camp stove (with fuel).
  4. On September 24, 2005, he went to California, and traded the camp stove for a Honda generator.
  5. 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.
    Kyle MacDonald's house
  6. On December 8, 2005, he traded the "instant party" to Quebec comedian and radio personality Michel Barrette for one Ski-doo snowmobile.
  7. Within a week of that, he traded the snowmobile for a two-person trip to Yahk, British Columbia, in February 2006.
  8. On or about January 7, 2006, he traded the second spot on the Yahk trip for a box truck.
  9. On or about February 22, 2006, he traded the box truck for a recording contract with Metalworks in Mississauga, Ontario.
  10. On or about April 11, 2006, he traded the recording contract to Jody Gnant for a year's rent in Phoenix, Arizona.
  11. On or about April 26, 2006, he traded the one year's rent in Phoenix, Arizona, for one afternoon with Alice Cooper.
  12. On or about May 26, 2006, he traded the one afternoon with Alice Cooper for a KISS motorized snow globe.
  13. 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.[3]
  14. On or about July 5, 2006, he traded the movie role for a two-story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ "From paper-clip to house, in 14 trades – Canada – CBC News". Cbc.ca. July 7, 2006. Retrieved April 20, 2013.
  2. 1 2 "Man turns paper clip into house". BBC News. July 11, 2006.
  3. ↑ ATS #41 – The New Marketing Podcast with guest Corbin Bernsen Across the Sound (July 1, 2006)

Bibliography

  • 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. 

External links

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