One red paperclip

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The correct title of this article is one red paperclip. The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.

The website one red paperclip was created by Kyle MacDonald, a Canadian blogger who bartered his way from a single paperclip to a house in a series of trades spanning almost exactly one year.

1 History
2 Trading timeline
3 Background on MacDonald
4 See also
5 External links
6 Spin offs

[edit] History

The first trade, of the paperclip for a pen, was on July 14, 2005. MacDonald announced July 5, 2006 that he had traded a movie role for a two-story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan. On July 7, 2006 — almost exactly one year after MacDonald began his experiment — the deed to the house was signed. In the following September, at the housewarming party where 12 of the 14 traders were present, he proposed to his girlfriend and she accepted. The wedding ring was made from the original red paperclip he got back from the first woman to have agreed to trade with him.^[1]

MacDonald got the idea for one red paperclip from a childhood game called "Bigger and Better", and announced his quest on July 12, 2005 with a post on Craigslist.^[2]

The website was followed online by nearly a thousand people, according to bookmarking data provided by del.icio.us^[3] Several of the trades were covered by news channels like CNN, ABC News^[4], and the BBC^[5], among others.

The Hour on CBC Newsworld in particular followed the trading with some interest, especially when MacDonald remarked that he would not go to Yahk, British Columbia for a trade. The village protested and MacDonald said that The Hour would have to broadcast a show there before he makes a trade. In February 2006, the show took the challenge and had a special episode shot there which covered MacDonald's latest trade.^[6]

[edit] Trading timeline

Timeline, based on the website and as summarized by the BBC^[5]:

On July 14, 2005, he went to Vancouver and traded the paperclip for a fish-shaped pen.
He then traded the pen the same day for a hand-sculpted doorknob from Seattle, Washington, which he nicknamed "Knob-T".
On July 25, 2005, he traveled to Amherst, Massachusetts, with a friend to trade the Knob-T for a Coleman camp stove (with fuel).
On September 24, 2005, he went to San Clemente, California, and traded the camp stove for a Honda generator, from a U.S. Marine.
On November 16, 2005, he made a second (and successful) attempt (after having the generator confiscated by the New York City Fire Department) in Maspeth, Queens, to trade the generator for 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.
On December 8, 2005, he traded the "instant party" to Quebec comedian and radio personality Michel Barrette for a Ski-doo snowmobile.
Within a week of that, he traded the snowmobile for a two-person trip to Yahk, British Columbia, in February 2006.
On or about January 7, 2006, the second person on the trip to Yahk traded Kyle a cube van for the privilege.
On or about February 22, 2006, he traded the cube van for a recording contract with Metal Works in Toronto, Canada.
On or about April 11, 2006, he traded the recording contract to Jody Gnant for a year's rent in Phoenix, Arizona.
On or about April 26, 2006, he traded the one year's rent in Phoenix, Arizona, for one afternoon with Alice Cooper
On or about May 26, 2006, he traded the one afternoon with Alice Cooper for a KISS motorized snow globe
On or about June 2, 2006, he traded the KISS motorized snow globe to Corbin Bernsen for a role in the film Donna on Demand.^[7]
On or about July 5, 2006, he traded the movie role for a two-story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan.

[edit] Background on MacDonald

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MacDonald (born October 3, 1979) is a Canadian citizen from Belcarra, British Columbia. He has a bachelor's degree in Geography from the University of British Columbia.

MacDonald has travelled to over 40 countries, on every continent but Antarctica. Some of his travel adventures include delivering pizza by scooter in Sydney, Australia; sheep herding by dirt bike in Western Australia; modelling as an Italian soccer player in Bangkok, Thailand; firing rounds of ammo from a machine gun in Cambodia; delivering several hundred post cards at one time to the Galapagos, Ecuador^[8]; and moving to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, for three days just so he could get NWT polar-bear-shaped license plates for his car.