Thoughtful Thursday - One Red Paperclip (Bartering Of Note)

Hello and welcome to Thoughtful Thursday; the day of the week where I talk about an interesting story a friend told me about, and wonder at the kind of people that take part in such a scheme.

Apparently Blogger is having a blue day... I have no idea why it's tinging this image blue, or how to fix it... Image is of http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/

If you're wondering why the header image is blue... I must point out... That I have no idea. Ignoring that, today I'm going to talk about the tale of One Red Paperclip in which Kyle MacDonald bartered an actual Paperclip for various items until he got a house. How crazy is that?

In 2005, Kyle MacDonald had the idea to do something strange. He figured that he was going set up a blog online, which can be found here, with which he would trade a single, red paperclip with various people until he got "a house, an island, or a house on an island." (And I thought I had ridiculous idea's. Of course, if it sounds stupid, but works; It's not stupid.) Impossibly, people actually decided to go along with his mad scheme, and in the series of fourteen trade's, he eventually became the owner of a house in Kipling, Saskatchewan. (That's a place in Canada that I've never heard of. Good to know though.)

Listed below, in order, from the red paperclip to the house, are the items which he traded until he reached the house. I have even taken the time to link each one individually to his blog posts about each trade, simply because they are somewhat rather humorous. (Kyle MacDonald has quite the sense of humor, going as far to start a very false, very absurd petition against a TV Show presenter to force him to go with him to Yahk.)

1. The Red Paperclip
2. Fish-shaped pen.
3. A Hand-sculpted doorknob, which he nicknamed "Knob-T".
4. Coleman camp stove (with fuel).
5. A Honda generator.
6. (After having the generator temporarily confiscated by the New York City Fire Department),
   one "instant party": an empty keg, an IOU for filling the keg with the beer of the holder's choice, and a neon Budweiser sign.
7. Ski-doo snowmobile.
8. A two-person trip to Yahk, British Columbia
9. Traded the second spot on the Yahk trip for a cube van.
10. A recording contract with Metalworks.
11. A year's rent in Phoenix, Arizona.
12. One afternoon with Alice Cooper.
13. A KISS motorized snow globe.
14. A role in the film Donna on Demand.
15. A two-story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan. (And a honorary day long mayorship.)

What I quite like about this story, apart from Mr. MacDonald's keen sense of humor and mischief, is the idea that people are so willing to go along with such a seemingly crazy scheme that they found on the internet. Quite simply, the most paying that he did in this entire endeavor was for food and travelling to the various places for this trade. Otherwise his investment was nothing more than One Red Paperclip. People are weird, as I've noted many times on this blog.(Especially with cats though.) More humorous is his open admittance to the fact that he had no idea what he was doing most of the time, nor did he have any idea how he managed to create such a massive following for these trade's online, with over 10 million visitors to his blog. Still, trading things online is a strange enough concept on it's own.

On the other hand, considering a recent Kickstarter project by a gentleman by the name of Zack Danger Brown managed to make $55000 dollars in crowdfunding... to make POTATO SALAD. Maybe trading random things online isn't as weird as one would think... (I want some of that potato salad though.)

In any case, I hope that you find the story of One Red Paperclip as interesting to read as I did, or at least just have a laugh at this man's strange antics.If you do or don't, or even have a similar story you want to tell me about, be sure to let me know in the comments below. Better yet, if you've got some friends looking for a strange story to read, perhaps consider sharing this with them so they too can be amazed at what people will give away. And of course, if you would like to see me talk about more strange things like this, make sure to like my Facebook page and/or follow me on Twitter so that you can get these articles, as I post them. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for taking the time to read this article; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again tomorrow.

Safe Travels Friends.