Kyle MacDonald

Kyle MacDonald is a Canadian citizen (born October 3, 1979) who has made a series of lucrative trades, starting with a single paperclip and with the end goal of obtaining a house. He says that he got the idea from a childhood game called "Bigger and Better".

Original item

Mr. MacDonald announced his quest with "one red paperclip" on July 12, 2005 with a post on Craigslist. He has since said that he will stop his trades on July 12, 2006, exactly one year after he started.

Subsequent trades

• 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-scuplted 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 Canadian radio personality Michel Barrette for a Ski-doo snowmobile.
• In early February 2006, he traded the snowmobile for a two-person trip to Yahk, British Columbia.
• The second person on the trip to Yahk traded Kyle a cube van for the privilege.
• On or about February 22, 2006, MacDonald then traded the cube van for a recording contract with Club Treehouse in Toronto, Canada.
• On or about April 11, 2006, he then traded the recording contract to Jody Gnant for a year's rent in Phoenix, Arizona.

Current status

MacDonald's latest trade (on or about April 11, 2006) was for a year's rent at a downtown house in Phoenix, Arizona. While this is still his first transaction involving real estate, it does not yet satisfy his stated goal of owning a house.

Media coverage

Kyle MacDonald's trades have been recorded by CBC, CNN, Vancouver radio station 99.3 the Fox, G4techTV Canada, and other local and national media.

External links

• One Red Paperclip, MacDonald's blog which records his transactions. You can also view current offers for the item he now posesses.