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A House For One Red Paperclip
Tim_F writes to mention the news that Kyle MacDonald (the guy trying to trade a red paperclip for a house) has succeeded in his quest. His recently traded a KISS Snowglobe in exchange for one afternoon with Alice Cooper. He in turn traded the snowglobe to an enthusiastic snowglobe collector, for a role in a movie. From the article: "Now, the town of Kipling, Sask., located about two hours east of Regina with a population of 1,100, has offered MacDonald a farmhouse in exchange for the role in the movie. MacDonald and his girlfriend will fly to the town next Wednesday. 'We are going to show them the house, give them the keys to the house and give them the key to the town and just have some fun,' said Pat Jackson, mayor of Kipling."
I think you hit the nail on the head. This story belongs with the Million Dollar Home Page and other stupid ideas that people went along with because it was getting a lot of publicity. This story doesn't prove that bartering is still alive. It doesn't prove that you can start with nothing and end up with something. All it proves is that people are willing to jump on just about any bandwagon. I mean come on, some town no one has ever heard of just happens to give the guy a house for a small movie roll? Hooray for bartering.
-William Brendel
So yeah, one might have been able to trade up a single red paperclip into a house without publicity, but it would have taken longer and been a much more impressive feat.
Just to make sure everyone knows, this man's (still impressive) accomplishment was fueled not by being able to make smart trades, but by the publicity of the stunt. Clearly, the people trading with him were giving him items of far greater value than what he was providing. The balance of the transaction can be measured in publicity.
Web 2.0 == Giant Blogspam Circle Jerk
...the only one who has never heard of any of this before now?
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
Granted no one would describe life as "fast-paced" and everyone would know details of your life. The joke about no one uses their signal lights because everyone knows where you are going is true. Short distance to Moose Mountain Provincial Park this is not bald prairie but a nice place to live. No I don't live near their. Dan Hunt St. Brieux SK
Very true. I'm originally from a town not far away. 10 years ago my grandparents died and we inherited their house. Built turn of the century with bricks (beautiful old thing), living room addition, beautiful huge yard with hedges and lawns (plural) and flower gardens (I mean 30 x 30 foot flower garden with paths and everything, another set of flower beds surrounding a path circling the house behind hedges), 2 sheds, 2 stories, 4 bedrooms, ancient beautiful hardwood floor dining room (not huge). Lot must have been 100 x 100 feet or larger. My Grandmother spent a huge amount of her time just gardening and keeping the yard up.
It was on the market for 2 years. We were happy to finally unload it for $3000 CDN. Yes, I said $3000. And we were glad to get a buyer.
Thing about small towns is their populations are decreasing, so there are a ton of houses of various ages and sizes that are selling for $2000-$15,000. In fact every single year the town siezes and demolishes a couple houses that were abandoned for 5-15 years (and were in bad shape for 10 years before that) and had taxes owing.
I know retiring farmers who moved to town and bought an empty 100 foot lot (costs like $50) and build $200,000 houses (small town with plumbers and builders working for $20 CDN per hour or less - so these are nice f'ing houses), and these people buy the two old decrepid houses on either side of their lot for a few thou each and demolish them, just so they don't have to look at eyesores when they look out their windows. Seriously, brand new house, two empty lots on either side of them.**
Fuck Toronto and it's $500,000 1200sq foot shitty looking two story duplexes (so you get a 2500 sq foot house that's been split in half internally by a wall, with your half spread over two stories - and you pay $500,000 CDN ($400,000 USD) for it.
I'm retiring to Saskatchewan*, and I'll be doing it 15 years earlier than I otherwise would be able to afford.
(*) or maybe some similar small town in Alberta or BC (if I can find something similar there, might not be, what with the mountains and oil and all).
(**) Don't get the impression that it's a town full of decrepid houses. Most are well kept by owners. But here and there sprinkled throught town are ones for sale or held for rental (a lot of them empty, used to be a good idea). My hometown has had fully paved/curbed roads for nigh 20 years now, beautiful place. Not a single unpaved road in it.