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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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"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.
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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.
Topics: Money, World News, Weird
Stefania Sarrubba