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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."
Wouldn't he have accomplished his goal quicker if he started with a red stapler? ...or would have have had to burn the house down when he finally got it?
So what?
He has a farmhouse in the town of Kipling, Sask.? So...? Why stop now? If he could trade that for two red paperclips, doubling his original investment, I'd be impressed.
I'll probably be modded down for this...
It would be ironic if he died of a paper cut that could have been prevented by a paperclip.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
Announcer: Kyle MacDonald - come on down! You've been selected to be the latest contestant on...
Audience: Gimmicky Human Interest Story! [Wild Applause]
Announcer: That's right! You've managed to amuse us with your heartwarming tale of despiration. You managed to stumble into a kindly corporate sponsor for your story of using ebay, and gotten that radio station to softball you into a whole lot of pain advertisement! And now, latching onto the story, everyone and their brother are selling the hype to eachother that a paper clip can buy a house!
Audience: Paper clip! Paper clip! [Wild Applause]
Announcer: It's a great day for you, and a wonderful day to sell shiney new hopes in pretty packaging! That's right folks - the system works - you too can become mega-rich if you're just clever enough to get a radio station to give you prizes!
Audience: Rich! Rich! Rich! [Wild Applause]
you've heard all the stories about guys in the military during WWII trading whiskey for bullets or other such things, well, my buddy and i came upon a huge spool of single mode fiber optic cable - Like, dining room table sized. Anyhow, our plan was to trade up the spool of fiber to an F-15 that we could share since we were in the Air Force.
we got as far as finding a guy that would take the spool from us after we used all the fiber... oh well.
Best laid plans and all....
guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
This story, more than anything else I've seen, shows the amazing powers of the internet. Simply by connecting so many people in almost-real-time, stuff like this has become a possibility. Admittedly, I'm sure many of the trades only came about via the publicity and novelty of the idea, but before we had the world literally at our fingertips, such ideas wouldn't have been even remotely possible.
I applaud this guy simply for trying something new and having it work out for him nicely.
I think he should keep on trading up. I'm sure someone somewhere would be willing to trade this house for something better. There seems to be no limit now...
News from the future:
"This just in. We have learned today that Mr. Kyle MacDonald has just acquired the entirety of the United States of America."
"I, for one, welcome our barter-trading overlord."
Because it's an opportunity for people to write Funny +5 comments.
Apparently, on Slashdot, that is reason enough...
Houses in Saskatchewan are only worth one paperclip? I'm going down to Office Depot to get a case of red paperclips and then I'm buying the whole province.
Because it's quirky, and appeals to geek culture.
Sorry for spamming up your Slashdot, I know all of these stories can be hard to follow all the time.
"Quoting yourself is stupid." -Me
I've watched both the videos on the site a number of times and I still have to say Canadian accents are impossible to understand. I can only barely pick out the names, the rest might as well be in french for all I could make of it.
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
He traded the KISS Snowglobe for a role in a movie. He then traded the role in the movie for the farmhouse. Nowhere in the article, in his bio, or anywhere else you could have yanked it did it say he was a filmmaker.
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jonathan barket
Considering you can get a 48 acre farm complete with structures and a home for $140,000 out there, I guess a ratty old farm house isn't too much to part with. Although, I doubt they will sign over the land underneath it, and will essentially let him live there rent free, at least until the novelty wears out.
-R
Saskatchewan is one of those places where you can watch your dog run away for a couple of weeks. This is not so with cats or hamsters (too disorganized and buffalo food respectively). Fish still refuse to live in the province.
It clearly encapsulates how utterly powerful the internet as a medium for interaction on a world-wide scale has become over the last few decades. From such humble DARPA beginnings to an entity capable of brokering amazingly complicated details (hundreds of thousands of times a day, for that matter), the internet is THE technological advancement of our lifetime.
How isn't that news for nerds / stuff that matters?
I just Goog...uh, searched [Kyle MacDonald paper clip cbc] because I knew that CBC had covered this before. Google replied: "Did you mean: Kyle MacDonald paper clip abc".
From 2005, CBC News, unformatted for your reading pleasure:
Montreal man trading paper-clip for house Last Updated Thu, 08 Dec 2005 18:50:27 EST CBC News A Montreal man is grabbing international attention for his increasingly successful quest to barter a single red paper-clip for a house. Five months ago, Kyle MacDonald looked at a red paper-clip on his desk and decided to trade it on an internet website. He got a response almost immediately - from a pair of young women in Vancouver who offered to trade him a pen. "It was a fish-shaped pen. And I got it from a pair of vegans. So it was a great exchange. They didn't want anything to do with fish," he said. MacDonald, 25, then bartered the fish pen for a handmade doorknob from a potter in Seattle. "It was a ceramic doorknob that had been hand-shaped by, I believe the person I traded with, her son, and she had been trying to get rid of it for quite some time," said MacDonald. Annie Robbins, the Seattle potter who now owns the fish pen, says she loves the idea. "I think the whole concept really flips the idea of consumerism around. How we value things, and what things are really worth," she said. In Massachusetts, MacDonald traded the doorknob for a camp stove. He traded the stove to a U.S. marine sergeant in California for a 100-watt generator. In Queens, N.Y., he exchanged the generator for the "instant party kit" - an empty keg of beer and an illuminated Budweiser beer sign. On Thursday, MacDonald traded the keg and sign for a Bombardier snowmobile, courtesy of a Montreal radio host. "If I get up to larger items, I'm going to need a larger base of people to pick from. There is someone out there with a surplus house. I just have to find them," said MacDonald.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyle_MacDonald
Oh, a "red" paperclip, is it?
Do I detect a not-so-subtle anticapitalist polemic at work here??
[Two guys on the porch of a rickety farmhouse]
Knock Knock Knock. "I don't think he's answering." KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
Creak, crack, stomp stomp stomp, squeeeeeeeeek, "Oh, hello guys! What can I do for you?"
Well, Old MacDonald, it's about your farm. We're from the Canadian Revenue Agency and we have a few questions to ask you regarding the taxes you did or did not pay on the transactions you made from paperclip to farm house. Would you please put these handcuffs on so we can converse in a calm environment?"
E Proelio Veritas.
nice house.... but did the paperclip run Linux?
And here's a complete map of Kipling.
Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
I've never Kippled. What's it like?
Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
Kyle MacDonald: "One Red Paperclip" - NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE!
See! the hit comic action adventure drama, starring Will Smith as Kyle MacDonald, Uma Thurman as his long suffering girlfriend, and Lindsay Lohan as the paperclip.
Hear! Will Smith's amusing remarks as he trades pieces of junk for larger, more profitable junk!
Cry! when Will Smith unwittingly trades a van for a piece of paper, almos losing long-time girlfriend Uma Thurman.
Laugh! when it turns out the piece of paper was a recording contract!
Based on a true life story! (Some liberties taken; various items replaced by famous celebrities and the internet replaced by word-of-mouth of the quirky inhabitants of Will Smith's home town in Northern California).
Sample the from riveting novelization:
"CHAPTER 1. It started with this paperclip. Then he trades it in for a pen. Then, like, he trades it in again, but for a doorknob... Then he goes and trades it for a coleman stove. Then he trades the stove for James Woods. 'Hey, buddy.' Says James Woods, 'I'm James Woods.' 'Beleeve dat,' says Will Smith - his catchphrase for the film."
Red Paperclip --> Fish Pen
Fish Pen --> Doorknob
Doorknob --> Coleman Stove
Coleman Stove --> Generator
Generator --> "Instant Party" (Beer Keg, Neon Sign, I.O.U. for Keg's worth of Beer)
"Instant Party" --> Skidoo
Skidoo --> Trip to Yahk
Trip to Yahk --> Cube Van (Box Truck)
Cube Van --> Recording Contract
Recording Contract --> Year in Phoenix (Airfare to Phoenix and use of house rent free for one year)
Year in Phoenix --> Afternoon with Alice Cooper
Afternoon with Alice Cooper --> KISS Snowglobe
KISS Snowglobe --> Movie Role
Movie Role --> House
Dammit! I've been out-obscured.
* And remember, it's spelled N-e-t-s-c-a-p-e, but it's pronounced "Mozilla."
If this guy was flying from Montreal to Vancouver to Seattle and so forth, staying in hotels, paying for internet access, and eating food, for a whole year, how much money did he start out with?! I mean, is it not reasonable to assume that if he actually worked he could have easily bought a house on the Canadian countryside withing a year?
Sendou Wave Kick!!
Hey, I have a Jenna Jameson doll which I intend to trade up to the real thing.