One Paperclip

I had an assignment for one of my classes a couple of weeks ago that was called One Paperclip. The idea was that you would take one paperclip and trade it up until you got to something much more valuable. It was taken from a Canadian that decided he wanted to trade a red paperclip for a house. You can see his progression here. I wasn't sure how to go about getting something much more expensive in the three weeks that we had for the assignment because this guy set a goal of getting a house within one year.
I finally took the paperclip to work and asked a few people to trade me for something more valuable. The first couple of people looked at me like I was crazy and tried to give me company office supplies in exchange for the paperclip. I didn't want that kind of thing because I could have just gone to the supplies and taken supplies if I wanted to use them at work, and I didn't want the next traders to think I had just raided the supplies to get something cooler. Finally the secretary (who has access to all the paperclips she could possibly need) took pity on me and traded me two packets of spiced apple cider for the paperclip.
As I walked out of her office, I saw the salesman trying to hand out cutting boards that our company made for Christmas gifts to our contacts last year. He had a few extras and was taking the time to be fair and give one to everyone. I could tell that he was in a hurry, though, and was a little stressed by doing that at the time. I asked him if he liked spiced apple cider. He said, "Yeah, I love it. Why?" I then offered him the two packets for the rest of the cutting boards. I ended up with 5 cutting boards that were probably worth about $5 each. I decided I was going to keep one of them and trade the other four for something cool. I also knew that the people in the shop that worked on the cutting boards the year before were jealous that they didn't get any, meaning I had a hot commodity on my hands.
The first person I talked to is usually pretty vocal when he feels he is being treated unfairly, so I knew for sure that he would want a cutting board. I told him I had four of them that I was willing to trade individually for something much nicer. After he thought about it for a bit, he remembered that his parents were cleaning out their basement and had some baby items that they used for their youngest grandson who is now 17 years old. He traded me a very nice playpen, and an older stroller for two of the cutting boards. The playpen folds up nicely for portability and is in really good condition. I gave the stroller to Heather because she told me her stroller smelled like wet dog and they were going to get rid of it.


At the time, my company was going through a housecleaning of sorts and had a ton of stuff they were just getting rid of. I was working on a bid and had a fast-approaching deadline, so I didn't have time to go pick something cool out. I talked to one of my friends from the shop floor and showed him a cutting board. I told him to get me something cool, and I would give him a cutting board. He came away with a nice, little, antique-look nightstand and some stain for it. He also gave me some additional hardware he pulled out. So in one day I had gone from a paperclip to a nightstand, stroller, and playpen (Michelle had been looking for a playpen online, and they were about $50), and I still had one cutting board I was planning on trading.


I didn't do anything for quite a while, but I mentioned to some classmates how I had done so far. A couple of days before the assignment was due, I got a call from one of my friends in the same class offering to trade me a cordless drill with a faulty battery charger for one of the cutting boards. I took both cutting boards because I wasn't sure which one he would prefer. Later that night he called me again and offered me a DVD player/VCR combo for the other cutting board. I decided that was better than keeping one for us (since we actually got one last year when my company made them), and I agreed to the trade. Apparently his wife saw the cutting boards and wanted one for herself.
I took the drill back to work the next day and looked up the battery chargers and the price of the drill. The drill was worth $60 originally and a new battery charger would be $20. I knew that one of the employees sold Mona Vie that retails for about $45 per bottle (which is a ridiculous price, by the way), but he gets them for about $30 per bottle. I should have realized it was a bad trade when he was so eager to trade for it, because now I'm being recruited to be one of the "distributors" with him and another guy at work in the multi-level marketing "team." I'll just tell them I'm more interested in the corporate side of things and hope they leave me alone.
Anyway, within 5 trades I went from a paperclip to an estimated $255 worth of stuff. Unfortunately I never got to see how far I could go because everything I got for the cutting boards was something I wanted to keep. You have to admit, though, I did get some pretty cool stuff.