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."

Comments

Re:Kyle MacDonald!

[wbren]

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.

It's not the trade, it's the publicity

[MrNougat]

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.