feh, a mere piker, look up the guy that traded traded a paperclip for a house...
Posted on 07/22/2010 4:46:19 PM PDT by BfloGuy
Starting with an old cell phone a friend gave him, 17-year-old Steven Ortiz of Glendora, CA, used Craigslist to trade up 14 times over two years and eventually end up with a Porsche Boxster. Here's how he did it.
Although Oritz's story isn't the first time we've seen Craigslist-swapping writ large, it's the first one we've seen that doesn't include any outside help. You may remember Kyle MacDonald, who famously created a website to document his attempt to trade one red paperclip for a house. It worked. But MacDonald also had a built-in fanbase and publicity from his website.
Ortiz, a 17-year-old high-schooler, had no such help. Instead, he spent the better part of two years tied to his iPhone, skimming Craigslist and carefully picking out trades he knew he could benefit from.
Starting with an old cell phone that was given to him for free by a friend, Steven used the "barter" section of Craigslist to move up to a better phone. He then traded the phone for an iPod Touch, the iPod Touch for a dirtbike — which was turned around several times for other, better dirtbikes — and then a MacBook Pro arrived, which opened the door to vehicles.
The MacBook Pro was traded for a Toyota 4Runner, which was then bartered for a custom off-road golf cart. Keep in mind that Steven was only 15 at the time, so even if he'd kept that 4Runner, he couldn't drive it anywhere.
The golf cart was then traded for a much more expensive dirt bike, the dirt bike was traded for a street bike, and then Steven traded that for a series of boring cars, ending up with a sweet 1975 Ford Bronco.
Had we been Steven, we'd probably have stopped there, as it doesn't get much better than an old Ford Bronco. However, by the time he acquired the Bronco he was of driving age. After enjoying it for a while, he decided to mix things up and go for a Porsche.
It was actually a trade down, one that we can't really fault him for — everyone needs to own a Porsche at least once in their life. The Bronco was probably worth more than the $9000 asking price on the 2000 Boxster, but it'll probably pay dividends in the halls of his high school.
The total number of trade transactions between old cell phone and Porsche Boxster? Fourteen. Reality is setting in, however, and the obnoxious maintenance costs that go along with owning a Porsche are making the car hard to live with. Naturally, Steven is turning his eye is toward a new car. He's thinking about a Cadillac Escalade.
Otherwise they wouldn't have traded.
It's why I can't get upset when people whine about all the money we're sending to China in exchange for "cheap" goods. The stuff we buy there is worth more to us than the dollars we send them or we wouldn't buy it.
Free trade - ain’t it great? LOL!!!
Terrific thread;)
Bump for a great story, and example.
Now that he has published his story the IRS will probably be along.
Because people also exchange money for cocaine, thinking that cocaine will make them happier than the money.
And it probably will, in the short run. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t a bad decision in the long run.
I don’t think our addiction to cheap foreign goods will be good for us in the long run.
Quite ingenious! Though I would guess a LOT of patience is required to turn things around over the course of two yrs.
LOL,
feh, a mere piker, look up the guy that traded traded a paperclip for a house...
He should now start bartering for a college education, this kid is going places!
Ohhhh Yeah..... I am guessing he owes about $3K in short term capital gains.
He did not realize he had a silent partner all along.
Wait till he finds out how much parts and maintenence for Porsches are.
However, a conservative doesn’t believe that what someone buys (be it cheap Chinese crap or cocaine) is anyone else’s business.
I wasn’t suggesting that we ban cheap Chinese goods, however, I will continue to warn people against buying them, just as I would warn people against consuming narcotics.
OK FRiend, I’m with you.... Heck, I do that too.
ping
A thread hijack in 5! Does that beat trading from a cell phone to a Porshe in 14?
What the hell does any of this have to do with cocaine or Chinese made stuff?
Incidently, people steal other people’s money and trade it for drugs. Perhaps they think having the drugs will make them happier than they would be if the other person kept their money. Damn, just trying to follow your line of thought is freaking painful!
They share a lot of parts with Volkswagens. I owned a Porshe in Germany. It needed a some work so I crawled around in the USAEUR Strip Yards and salvaged a few bits and pieces from VW Golfs.
I was tempted to bring it back when I PCS'd but I would have needed to do a helluva lot more work before I could ship it.
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