Woman Trades Hairpin for a Minivan, Plans to Get a House Next

We've all heard the story: one smart guy, specifically Canadian blogger Kyle McDonald, had managed to barter up a paperclip into a two-story farmhouse with 14 transactions back in 2005. Following his footsteps, Demi Skipper, a 29-year-old San Francisco woman, is on a very simple and similar mission: trading a bobby pin for a house. 

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She hopes to trade until her bobby pin not-so magically turns into a house, and while it sounds crazy, she has come a long way since she launched her @TradeMeProject account on TikTok and Instagram on May 18.

Let's take a look at her journey with one item at a time. 

With 3.8 million followers and 24.7 million likes as of this writing, her project has seen enormous support and attention from the media.

As of now, she has made 15 swaps, going from the bobby pin to earings at first.

Then four cocktail glasses, a vacuum cleaner, snowboard, a 4K Apple TV, Bose noise-canceling wireless headphones, Xbox One, Macbook Pro, Canon camera, Nike Blazers worth $800, Nike Off-White x Hyperdunks, Nike Jordan 1 Shattered Backboards, and iPhone 11 Pro Max has followed.

She stated that she does get people contacting her directly from time to time about possible swaps.

However, she most generally uses Facebook swap groups and undisclosed websites.

She never adds money to the exchanges and the only rule is that she cannot trade with people she knows.

She has upgraded and cleaned some of the items before swapping them, most notable examples being the vacuum and snowboard. 

It is crazy how she was able to find such bargains in most of the cases, one of the most notable being the trade of a Macbook Pro for a whole Canon set.

After one point, it had turned into a game of swapping sneakers. 

Her success with swapping the items has gone viral; however, that is not to say that she hasn't had her fair share of rejections.

She said that most people she wrote to said she was crazy for suggesting such things; however, she never gave up.

She swapped the iPhone 11 Pro Max for a 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan at one point. After getting the house, she might want to start swapping a spoon for a Tesla car.

However, she hit a bump in the road with the car since it broke down shortly after it was delivered.

She has most recently swapped the car to a brand new Boosted Board. She is slowly but surely moving towards her goal. Skipper says that once she gets the house, she doesn’t have any plans yet, but is open to options.

“I’ve talked about moving into [the house], but also renovating it or furnishing it and donating it. There are so many people that would want a house and I think it would be really cool, too, to find somebody that needs the house. I’m really excited to see where it goes.”