Canadian Kyle MacDonald managed to trade a paperclip for a house via a series of 14 wild swaps
A Canadian blogger came up with an ingenious solution to get a forever roof above his head.
We get it: being able to buy your own place seems a fantasy for many people amid the current cost of living crisis. Kyle MacDonald managed to secure a home for himself and his girlfriend through a game of trade back in 2006, when the market was still relatively affordable and owning a place was within the realm of possibility.
His story kicks off in 2005, when then 26-year-old Kyle became fed up with having to pay expensive rent in Montreal and decided to get his hands on his own house through an elaborate scheme.
Inspired by the game Bigger and Better, where you trade a starting object for something better and repeat the process, MacDonald intended to prove whether it was possible for him and his girlfriend to acquire a house.
Kyle MacDonald gave a TED Talk in 2015 about his wild endeavour. (YouTube/TEDx Talks)
Thanks to his multiple trades, MacDonald ended up with his very own $50,000 house starting with a single, red paperclip.
The trades occurred in over a year, with Kyle’s red paperclip being traded on a website he’d set up for the occasion.
He traded the paperclip for a fish-shaped pen, which he traded for a handmade doorknob, which he traded for a camp stove, which he traded for a 1000W Honda EX generator.
He then traded that for an ‘instant party kit’ (an empty keg and a Budweiser neon sign), which he traded for a Bombardier snowmobile, which he traded for an all-expenses paid trip to Yahk, British Columbia, which he traded for a truck.
He then traded this (almost there now) for a recording contract, which he traded for one year rent free in a duplex in Phoenix, Arizona, which he traded for an afternoon with rockstar Alice Cooper, which he traded for a snowglobe.
He then somehow traded the snowglobe for a speaking part in a movie, which he traded for a $50,000 home in the small town of Kipling.
The red paper clip house in Kipling. (Vimeo)
“I knew it was possible,” he said on BBC’s Today programme. “You can do anything if you put your mind to it”
Speaking to AFP in 2006, he said: “My girlfriend and I paid rent for an apartment in Montreal and I’d always wanted to own my own house and this is how I decided to go about it. I think I may be the first to try it online.”
However, Kyle later decided to trade the house to a restaurant owner, who turned the two-storey property into an eatery called the Paperclip Cottage Cafe, located in Kipling.
Patrons can admire a large paperclip sculpture on display, a nod to MacDonald’s wild trade mission.
Kyle detailed his own trading journey in his book One Red Paperclip: Or How an Ordinary Man Achieved His Dream with the Help of a Simple Office Supply, and in a 2015 TED talk.
Featured Image Credit: Photos by Dan Koeck/Getty Images for Susan Blond
