A girl on TikTok is attempting to trade a single bobby pin for a house.
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A post shared by @trademeproject on May 26, 2020 at 5:52pm PDT
With nothing particularly unique or interesting about this bobby pin, you might be asking yourself how this will be possible? Going by the username @trademeproject, the TikToker adopted the concept from Kyle MacDonald, a Canadian Blogger.
MacDonald started the website One Red Paperclip to track his journey towards achieving the same goal - of making something out of virtually nothing. If you visit his website today, there is a post that reads: “On July 12, 2005 I posted a picture of a red paperclip on my blog and in the barter section of craigslist and asked if anyone wanted to make a trade for something bigger or better.”
With that, the whole thing began to snowball as a few days later he traded the paperclip for a pen shaped like a fish which he then swapped for a doorknob. Each he time traded up, collecting something bigger or better. “Once all the dust settled, I'd made 14 trades and wound up with a house located at 503 Main Street in Kipling Saskatchewan,” he concluded.
Presently, the TikToker has already made a lot of progress towards getting her house. So far, she’s managed to barter her way up to a MacBook Pro 2011 valued at $ 400 (R 6992) which she quickly swapped for a Canon camera set with a retail value of $ 550 (R 9614).
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A post shared by @trademeproject on Jun 16, 2020 at 9:41am PDT
If you’re interested in tracking her journey, keep an eye on her social media accounts @tradewith me on TikTok and Instagram. She’s attracted a lot of attention online, amassing millions of views, likes and followers. After her first video, hundreds of other copycat accounts with the same idea have cropped up, hoping to also achieve similar success to MacDonald.