12/19/2023
DID YOU KNOW?
There is a house in Canada that, through a long line of trades, was traded for what started as a red paperclip?
The 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom farmhouse is located at 503 Main Street in Kipling Saskatchewan, Canada. It received worldwide fame from 2005 through 2006 when 26 year old Vancouver/Montreal area native Kyle MacDonald began with a red paperclip and traded his way to ownership of the home.
Does anyone know of the childhood game called “Bigger and Better” where kids would trade different possessions or trinkets with the goal of obtaining something new and better? Kids usually traded items like small toys, but MacDonald decided to see just how big he could get it, and needed but could not afford a place to live.
He listed a red paperclip on Craigslist in 2005, and located someone in Vancouver willing to trade a fish-shaped pen for it. The pen was later traded for a hand-sculpted door k**b in Seattle, Washington. The k**b was later traded in Amherst, Massachusetts for a Coleman camp stove with fuel.
After a couple more months, the stove was traded in California for a Honda generator. A few months later, the generator was traded in Maspeth, Queens for an “instant party” which included an empty keg and a neon Budweiser sign. Shortly thereafter, the “instant party” was traded to a Quebec comedian and radio personality for a Ski-Doo Snowmobile. By that time, MacDonald had become an internet sensation with this escapade, enticing various media personalities to try to get involved.
The snowmobile was traded for a two-person trip to Yahk, British Columbia, scheduled for February 2006. MacDonald used one ticket for himself, but traded the other for a box truck. The box truck was traded for a recording contract with Metalworks in Mississauga, Ontario. A couple months later, the contract was traded to a musician for a year’s rent in Phoenix, Arizona. By this time, MacDonald had stirred up quite a bit of publicity and the endeavor had a huge online following, becoming a worldwide sensation.
The year’s rent was traded for an afternoon with singer/musician Alice Cooper. Within a couple more months, the afternoon with Alice Cooper was traded for a motorized KISS snow globe. MacDonald received a lot of negative response by making that trade, with many thinking he should not have done so.
Later, the snow globe was traded to Corbin Bernsen, a Hollywood director and avid snow globe collector (having over 6,500 in his collection), for a role in his upcoming film “Donna on Demand”. The movie role was traded in July of 2006 for a two story farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan. The town offered the empty farmhouse as trade, had a giant celebration for the event, and held live auditions for the movie role, which ultimately went to a young man named Nolan Hubbard.
The string of 14 trades, aided by major media coverage and public interest, lasted from July 2006 to July 2006, and brought MacDonald from a red paperclip to home ownership.
MacDonald lived in the house for only a couple years, then (you guessed it!) traded it. It was acquired by an entrepreneurial mother/daughter team who converted the house into a cafe. The house is now Paperclip Cottage Cafe which sells coffee, homemade food and pastries to the 1,140 residents of Kipling.
Some of the specs on the house:
Two floors, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, refinished hardwood floors, electricity (which at the time was not always available in the small town of very antique architecture), gas hot water tank, gas furnace, back yard and front yard (which has since become an outdoor patio for the cafe). The front yard still displays a sculpture of the world’s largest red paper clip, commemorating where the string of trades began.
