Woman Is On A Mission To Trade A Bobby Pin Until She Gets A House, And Here Are Her Trades So Far
In 2005, Canadian blogger Kyle MacDonald hit the headlines by bartering up his single red paperclip into a two-story farmhouse over the course of 14 transactions. Inspired by the successful quest, 29-year-old Demi Skipper from San Francisco has set out on a journey to repeat history.
With a single bobby pin in her account, Demi intends “to make one trade at a time, starting with a bobby pin and ending with a house.” As crazy as it sounds, she has already made a fair amount of solid transactions and is nowhere near about to slow down.
Since Demi launched her Trade Me Project account on TikTok, which follows her through what looks like the coolest project to have hit the media during the pandemic season, it has already amassed 3.8M followers and 24.7M likes. Let’s take a look at how she has been doing so far and it may well change the way we look at a lonely hair clip nestled in a sofa crack forever.
More info: TikTok | Instagram | YouTube
Demi has set out to see whether this single bobby pin can lead her to a house through a series of trading transactions
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
And here is the list of 15 trade-offs she has done so far
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Demi, who works for a restaurant reservation app and runs a wedding dress rental business, claims that she has been a natural born hustler her whole life. It was just natural for her to put her negotiating skills to the test with the Trade Me Project experiment.
But as simple as it looks, the trades often take hours of preparation before the transaction is sealed. “Everybody just sees the TikTok video and the videos are just a minute. And what they’re not seeing is hours and hours of research that’s going into this,” Demi told Good Morning America.
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Demi is as determined as ever. It’s not a question of whether she gets her house, but rather when it’s gonna happen. “I am in go-mode until I get the house,” she claims.
For everyone who thinks the 29-year-old has gone mad, Demi reminds us of Kyle MacDonald’s famous bartering quest called “The One Red Paperclip Project.” “If you think I am crazy, in 2006, someone traded a red paperclip up until they got a house, so let’s do it,” said Demi in one of her videos.
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
The bartering trick has long been known in popular culture and folklore. For example, the Japanese Buddhist legend of the “Straw Millionaire” follows the journey of a poor man who becomes wealthy through a series of successive trades, starting from just a single piece of straw.
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
Demi’s most recent transaction got her this boosted board and it’s not near the end!
Image credits: trademeproject
Image credits: trademeproject
@trademeprojectTrading a bobby pin for a house. Traded the boosted board 💪 ##fyp ##trademeproject ##letsgetthishouse♬ Renee – Sales
Image credits: trademe
Image credits: trademeproject
And people are loving the project
It really did happen in Canada in 2005. But I think a lot of the trades are from people thinking it's a fun idea and wanting to be part of it. A lot of them are clearly not good trades for the other person. e.g, IIRC the town of Kipling did it mostly for publicity - and like most small towns in Saskatchewan there are lots of houses around that nobody wants because each generation they lose some population to the cities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_red_paperclip
Load More Replies...They aren’t. Supply and demand is what inflates the price. They make a few of them and serious collectors will pay top dollar to get themselves a pair
Load More Replies...it would've been more believable if she recorded the conversations with the people she was trading with
Did she have to travel to get these or did she have to mail them? If so, I wonder how much she spent on fuel or postage.
From what I read she had biked all over her city to exchange items.
Load More Replies...In the picture with the car she is wearing the first pair of nike shoes? Mmmmm
When I read “a girl“ in the headline, I thought this would be about a child.
I can sort of see the first two trades happening, but what kind of advantage is there to trading a vacuum cleaner for four margarita glasses? Also, were the first two pairs of shoes prototypes or something? And that Dodge Caravan can't cost less than a Boosted Board, even though the board retails at $1,400. I'm guessing some teenager somewhere needed a big car really fast in order for that trade to have happened.
The first trade was the one that boggles my mind the most. There were several, but a pair of earrings, even if you don't want them, for a bobby pin?? I'd put cash down on that being a parent wanting to support their kid.
Load More Replies...How is she wearing the first pair of Nikes in the picture with the car?
Did something like this with friends when I was a child. It was called egg trade. We took one raw egg and went to some random persons house. Said we were doing the egg trade and wanted just one random item for the one egg. Got an Orange. Very very soon we had a bag full of sweets. Lol
I don't know if this is real or not but I find all the negativity and basically hateful comments here about this article astounding.
I find it astounding that we all read the same comments, but saw completely different things! You noticed any negative ones (which were a minority, tbh), I noticed all the other ones.
Load More Replies...We did a pretty similar game at my youth group in middle school! It was called "bigger or better" and we would each get into groups, receive a paper clip, and go around the neighborhood asking people if they had anything bigger or better. One time my group won with a couch!
I've played this game a lot in college, it's great fun! I'm not saying this is real or fake, but with the right salesmanship, I believe it's possible. I traded my way from a piece of paper towel and after a couple hours of asking my fellow poor college students I ended up with a speaker valued at 50$, so hey I think if you really invested your time and skills in this, you can get some cool stuff. Being attractive helps lol.
Whats even worse is this woman claims she does research and it takes many hours??,?,,,,,
Her las picture reminded me of Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun"video
It's not the first time this has been done. It was widely publicized years ago. One person did it and then a few more stories of others trying it surfaced. People went from something stupid like a pencil to a house. That's probably where she got the idea. Recycling someone else's idea from the past to be relevant today.
If it's real, then I guess the people she's trading with are just kind enough to make the trades, and are enjoying her journey. Or it's fake, and she's just posting pics of stuff she has until she's able to buy/rent a house, thus finishing her "trades".
Load More Replies...This is a game we played growing up called bigger or better. Started with something small and went around to the neighbors trading for something bigger or better. It was pretty fun!
this would be original if i didn't know where this idea came from. There was a japanese folklore about a man who traded a single straw into something more valuable. And if you know the vintage anime, Doraemon, the main character traded a newspaper to a baseball glove. So yeah...
This might sounds original if I don't know where this idea came from. There was a japanese folklore about a man who trades a single straw into something more valuable. And if you know the vintage anime, Doraemon, there was a similar story about the main character traded a newspaper with a pair of new baseball glove
All y'all not believing this need to look up the tv on two guys doing this same dam thing. Trading up is possible and lot of work but worth it at time
A fella in my hometown did this. Started with a paper clip. Ended with a house.
Commend people for impressive feats of dedication or heroism, like when the 6 year old defended his sister against a dog...and not for tide pod challenges, fake prank videos, and recreating other people's original ideas.
How is she wearing the shoes she traded in a photo of a trade made after...?
I'm confused about the car for the skateboard. Unless the goal was to trade for a dollhouse?
Reminds me of Andersen's story of "Whatever the Old Man Does is Right" where the Danish peasant starts with a cow and brings back coins, with a dozen or so trades in-between.
Wait till tax time rolls around the guv'ment tallies up all these transactions. Thanks to the guv'ment every silver lining has a cloud.
It really did happen in Canada in 2005. But I think a lot of the trades are from people thinking it's a fun idea and wanting to be part of it. A lot of them are clearly not good trades for the other person. e.g, IIRC the town of Kipling did it mostly for publicity - and like most small towns in Saskatchewan there are lots of houses around that nobody wants because each generation they lose some population to the cities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_red_paperclip
Load More Replies...They aren’t. Supply and demand is what inflates the price. They make a few of them and serious collectors will pay top dollar to get themselves a pair
Load More Replies...it would've been more believable if she recorded the conversations with the people she was trading with
Did she have to travel to get these or did she have to mail them? If so, I wonder how much she spent on fuel or postage.
From what I read she had biked all over her city to exchange items.
Load More Replies...In the picture with the car she is wearing the first pair of nike shoes? Mmmmm
When I read “a girl“ in the headline, I thought this would be about a child.
I can sort of see the first two trades happening, but what kind of advantage is there to trading a vacuum cleaner for four margarita glasses? Also, were the first two pairs of shoes prototypes or something? And that Dodge Caravan can't cost less than a Boosted Board, even though the board retails at $1,400. I'm guessing some teenager somewhere needed a big car really fast in order for that trade to have happened.
The first trade was the one that boggles my mind the most. There were several, but a pair of earrings, even if you don't want them, for a bobby pin?? I'd put cash down on that being a parent wanting to support their kid.
Load More Replies...How is she wearing the first pair of Nikes in the picture with the car?
Did something like this with friends when I was a child. It was called egg trade. We took one raw egg and went to some random persons house. Said we were doing the egg trade and wanted just one random item for the one egg. Got an Orange. Very very soon we had a bag full of sweets. Lol
I don't know if this is real or not but I find all the negativity and basically hateful comments here about this article astounding.
I find it astounding that we all read the same comments, but saw completely different things! You noticed any negative ones (which were a minority, tbh), I noticed all the other ones.
Load More Replies...We did a pretty similar game at my youth group in middle school! It was called "bigger or better" and we would each get into groups, receive a paper clip, and go around the neighborhood asking people if they had anything bigger or better. One time my group won with a couch!
I've played this game a lot in college, it's great fun! I'm not saying this is real or fake, but with the right salesmanship, I believe it's possible. I traded my way from a piece of paper towel and after a couple hours of asking my fellow poor college students I ended up with a speaker valued at 50$, so hey I think if you really invested your time and skills in this, you can get some cool stuff. Being attractive helps lol.
Whats even worse is this woman claims she does research and it takes many hours??,?,,,,,
Her las picture reminded me of Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun"video
It's not the first time this has been done. It was widely publicized years ago. One person did it and then a few more stories of others trying it surfaced. People went from something stupid like a pencil to a house. That's probably where she got the idea. Recycling someone else's idea from the past to be relevant today.
If it's real, then I guess the people she's trading with are just kind enough to make the trades, and are enjoying her journey. Or it's fake, and she's just posting pics of stuff she has until she's able to buy/rent a house, thus finishing her "trades".
Load More Replies...This is a game we played growing up called bigger or better. Started with something small and went around to the neighbors trading for something bigger or better. It was pretty fun!
this would be original if i didn't know where this idea came from. There was a japanese folklore about a man who traded a single straw into something more valuable. And if you know the vintage anime, Doraemon, the main character traded a newspaper to a baseball glove. So yeah...
This might sounds original if I don't know where this idea came from. There was a japanese folklore about a man who trades a single straw into something more valuable. And if you know the vintage anime, Doraemon, there was a similar story about the main character traded a newspaper with a pair of new baseball glove
All y'all not believing this need to look up the tv on two guys doing this same dam thing. Trading up is possible and lot of work but worth it at time
A fella in my hometown did this. Started with a paper clip. Ended with a house.
Commend people for impressive feats of dedication or heroism, like when the 6 year old defended his sister against a dog...and not for tide pod challenges, fake prank videos, and recreating other people's original ideas.
How is she wearing the shoes she traded in a photo of a trade made after...?
I'm confused about the car for the skateboard. Unless the goal was to trade for a dollhouse?
Reminds me of Andersen's story of "Whatever the Old Man Does is Right" where the Danish peasant starts with a cow and brings back coins, with a dozen or so trades in-between.
Wait till tax time rolls around the guv'ment tallies up all these transactions. Thanks to the guv'ment every silver lining has a cloud.
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