Back in 2005, Kyle MacDonald, a Canadian blogger, traded his way from a single red paperclip (over the course of about a year) all the way to a two story house.

Here is the list of his trades:

  • a fish-shaped pen
  • a hand-sculpted doorknob
  • a Coleman camp stove (with fuel)
  • a Honda generator
  • an “instant party”: an empty keg, an IOU for filling the keg with the beer of the holder’s choice, and a neon Budweiser sign
  • Ski-doo snowmobile
  • a two-person trip to Yahk, British Columbia
  • a cube van
  • a recording contract with Metal Works in Toronto, Canada
  • a year’s rent in Phoenix, Arizona
  • one afternoon with Alice Cooper
  • a KISS motorized snow globe
  • a role in the film Donna on Demand
  • a two-story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan

His original post: “This might not surprise you, but below is a picture of a paperclip. It is red. This red paperclip is currently sitting on my desk next to my computer. I want to trade this paperclip with you for something bigger or better, maybe a pen, a spoon, or perhaps a boot.“

Tonight in my MBA class, we were each given a paperclip. My paperclip is green. Our assignment is to mimic Kyle’s great trading experiment. The student with the most valuable thing at the end of three weeks gets two movie tickets! The game is on!

Who will trade me something for my paperclip? Please use the Ryan Byrd dot net comment form to email me with your proposition. I’m open to all sorts of trades; both objects and written promises of services (a car wash, etc.) I will be carrying around a digital camera and will take a picture of each item I trade. I’ll post them all here on this site. Just think– you can be famous!

NOW LIVE! A cool site: http://greenpaperclip.ryanbyrd.net to track this adventure.

I know, I know, I promised I’d talk about MLMs. I will. Tomorrow.

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