From paper-clip to house

A Canadian with a dream of home ownership says he has turned a red paper clip into a three-bedroom house through a series of shrewd Internet trades over the past year.

Montreal man Kyle MacDonald, 26, started with a simple online offer on July 12, 2005, to trade the paper clip which sat on his desk next to his computer, for something a little bigger and better.

Fourteen online trades later, he will this week become the proud owner of an unfurnished two-storey house in the tiny agricultural town of Kipling in the western Canadian province of Saskatchewan.

The deal closes tomorrow when he travels to meet the town's mayor, who has sold him the house.

"The idea was based on a child's game called 'Bigger and Better'," Mr MacDonald said."You start with something small and trade around the neighbourhood, knocking on doors.I think I may be the first to try it online.My girlfriend and I paid rent for an apartment in Montreal and I'd always wanted to own my own house and this is how I decided to go about it."

Two women from Vancouver were the first to buy into his scheme, trading a wooden fish pen one of them had found while on a camping trip for the paper clip.

This was quickly snapped up by a US sculptor in Seattle, who offered Mr MacDonald a hand-made ceramic doorknob with a peculiar face on it in exchange.

The doorknob was in turn traded for an outdoor camping stove and soon, a US marine sergeant in California offered Mr MacDonald a 1,000-watt portable electric generator for the stove.

By this time, his quest had become a full-time obsession.

"Something is only worth what you put into it," Mr MacDonald said. "It started as a hobby but I realised I would have to put in more time if I was going to succeed."

But the dream was nearly scuttled when Mr MacDonald travelled to New York to make his next trade.

There, firefighters confiscated the gas-powered generator from his motel room after other guests complained of a suspicious odour.

They were merciful and he got the generator back in time to make a deal with a New Yorker for a neon beer sign and a keg.

Thereafter, he traded these for a snowmobile, then a ski vacation, a van, a recording contract, a Phoenix apartment for one year, an afternoon with rock star Alice Cooper and then surprisingly, a snow globe that featured the band, KISS.

The snow globe deal immediately sparked an outcry.

Fans of Mr MacDonald, who keeps a blog, were "stunned" and deemed it "crazy" and "the worst trade that I have ever heard of, bar none", according to his website.

"I think a little piece of me just died inside," one fan wrote.

"I've been following this for the past couple months.

"I was very impressed with everything you've done up to this point... Is this some kind of April fool's joke in May?"

But Mr MacDonald would soon captivate the fans again.

He traded the snow globe for a role in Hollywood director Corbin Bernsen's next movie, Donna on Demand, which will begin filming in September.

Mr Macdonald says the director happens to be "one of the biggest snow globe collectors on the planet", owning 6,500 of them.

He says the town of Kipling finally offered to trade a 1920s renovated house and a "key to the city" for the movie role, which it plans to auction off to promote the municipality.

Mr MacDonald says he and his girlfriend will move in next month and hold "the biggest house party ever" on the first weekend in September, to which everyone is invited.