How do you turn a paper clip into a house? Not a tiny wire house suitable for an ant, but a real one made of bricks? Tricky, but Kyle MacDonald is halfway there.
MacDonald, a 26-year-old Canadian, has harnessed the power of the Internet to his advantage.
MacDonald’s idea was to take his favourite childhood game and make it into a business. The kids’ version is a scavenger hunt, where you go from house to house exchanging your chewed-up crap for strangers’ good stuff. In MacDonald’s reworked, electronic version, he presented a paper clip on his blog, and invited readers to offer their swapsies.
From the start, he made it plain he wanted to swap his way to a house. But not straight away, that would be ridiculous. Instead, he started by taking receipt of a fish-shaped pen, from Ronnie and Corinna.
”I figured they’d used the fish pen to write out all sorts of cool stuff on paper and, being vegans, wanted very little to do with a fish. They probably needed the paper clip to clip all those papers together so it was a win-win situation.”
In exchange for the fish pen, MacDonald was offered a hand-made doorknob by a potter called Annie. For the knob, MacDonald received a barbecue. For the barbecue, a 1 000w Honda EX generator. For the generator, he accepted the offer of ”one instant party” — a neon Budweiser sign, and an IOU for a kegful of beer.
After the instant party, he made a big step up: he got a snowmobile. After claiming, on Canadian TV, that he would go anywhere on Earth to make a trade except Yahk, British Columbia, he swapped the snow-mobile for a three-day trip to Yahk. A Yahk fan, Bruno, swapped his 1995 Ford Cube Van for the holiday.
This is currently as far as MacDonald has got, although in exchange for the van, he has been offered a jobless roommate, seven video games, one month of telemarketing services, a viola, a girl called Brooke’s virginity and another red paper clip.
”I’d like to get out of the automobile realm as soon as possible,” he says. ”Too much potential paperwork and insurance.”
So, is Oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com the new eBay? ”Sure,” MacDonald says. ”Why not?” — Â