When I was a little kid, my mom used to pack my school lunches for me. When it came time to dig in, my friends and I would lay all of our food items out in front of us and try to trade each other for something better. I always thought of it as a little game of "trade up." Could I sucker my friend into trading her fruit snacks for my little bag of carrots?
In 2005, Kyle MacDonald was working and had a thought. What if, as an adult, he could play a more epic version of the "trade up" game that so many people played as children.
What if he could start with a normal, everyday object and switch it out for something bigger and better until he had something truly valuable in his hands?
MacDonald started with a little red paper clip, hoping to eventually trade it for a house.
Keep scrolling to see if MacDonald was eventually able to trade a little office item for a living space. Let us know what you think of his incredible story in the comments!
[H/T: Atlas Obscura]
Kyle MacDonald had the odd, but brilliant, idea one day to trade a regular office item for something better.
He hoped to continue his trading game until he could get a house.
MacDonald began his journey by advertising his small, red paper clip on Craigslist.
He wanted to see if anyone would be willing to trade for it.
Surprisingly, someone agreed to make a small trade.
He gave away his paper clip for a small pen shaped like a fish.
On the same day, someone traded him a funny looking knob with a face on it for the pen.
Oddly enough, this is when his trade for bigger and better things really began to gain momentum.
MacDonald decided he would travel just about anywhere to keep the trades going.
A man from Massachusetts in need of a knob for his stovetop espresso maker offered to trade him a camping stove.
A few months later, MacDonald traded his camping stove for an electric generator.
It's almost unbelievable that he got this far from just a little red paper clip, but the trades kept coming!
From there, he traded the electric generator for an "instant party kit."
The kit included an empty keg, a neon sign, and an IOU for a beer fill-up.
Unbelievably, he was able to trade the party kit for a used snowmobile.
I think someone definitely got the raw end of the deal in this trade, but to each his own!
Next, he traded his used snowmobile for two tickets to the Canadian Rockies.
One, he couldn't help but use himself; the other he traded for a used box truck.
This is where the trades start to get really crazy.
MacDonald traded the used box truck for a recording contract at a studio.
He then traded the recording contract for a year's rent in Phoenix.
The year's rent was then traded for an entire afternoon with Alice Cooper.
Instead, MacDonald joined Alice Cooper on stage with a giant red paperclip and traded the afternoon meet and greet for a snow globe.
You read that right — MacDonald traded his afternoon with Alice Cooper for a KISS snow globe.
People following his project thought that he had lost his mind.
However, MacDonald had a plan.
Months before trading for the snow globe, he had been contacted by Hollywood producer Corbin Bernsen, owner of the world's largest snow globe collection.
In exchange for the KISS snow globe, Bensen gave MacDonald a contract for a speaking role in the director's upcoming film, Donna On Demand.
MacDonald traded the speaking role to the town of Kipling, Saskatchewan in exchange for a two-story house.
The town then went on to hold live auditions for the role and ended up propelling Nolan Hubbard's career.
Since becoming the official owner of the house, MacDonald has converted the small home into the Paperclip Cottage Cafe.
Can you believe someone was actually able to trade a red paperclip for a house?
Let us know what you think in the comments, and don't forget to SHARE with anyone who might appreciate this incredible story!
