A San Francisco woman has managed to swap a single bobby pin for her own tiny house, all thanks to some very clever and tenacious trading.
Demi Skipper, 29, started the Trade Me Project on TikTok and Instagram on May 26, with the plan of making multiple trades to turn her worthless bobby pin into her own home — upgrading the bobby pin to shoes, electronics, and even cars along the way.
And in just six months, she met her goal: With just 25 trades, she’s now the proud owner of her Wildbound Tiny Cabin.
Amazing! A San Francisco woman has managed to swap a single bobby pin for her own tiny house, all thanks to some very clever and tenacious trading
Starting small: Demi Skipper, 29, started out with just a bobby pin, trading it up for bigger and bigger things since launching the Trade Me Project on TikTok and Instagram on May 26
Home sweet home! In her most recent trade, she began the proud owner of a Wildbound Tiny Cabin, which start at $9,500
Still going! Though she now has a very small house, she intends to continue trading for a larger, more permanent one
Demi explained on TikTok that she was looking for something to do during the pandemic when she was struck with the idea.
‘I’m trading a bobby pin up until I get a house,’ she said in her inaugural video.
Using platforms like Craigslist, eBay, and Facebook, Demi is offering to trade one item at a time, with the intent of trading up little by little and eventually ending up with a house — all from that single bobby pin.
Along the way, she’s owned margarita glasses, a vacuum, an Apple TV, an XBox one, limited-edition sneakers, a MacBook Pro, a diamond necklace, a Peloton, and three cars.
And on November 28, she shared some big news: She managed to trade a 2011 Jeep Patriot for a tiny cabin — technically a house — from Wildbound Cabin Co.
According to the company’s website, those tiny pull-along cabins start at $9,500.
The interior is about as big as half a shared college dorm room, with enough space for a bed and a countertop.
The beginning: She started out with baby steps, swapping that bobby pin for a pair of Marysol earrings worth $10. She traded those for a set of four margarita glasses worth $24
Inching up: She traded the glasses for a $60 Bissell vacuum cleaner. Then she managed to get someone in need of a carpet cleaning to give her a $95 snowboard for the vacuum
Getting into tech: She traded that snowboard for a $180 Apple TV 4K: ‘This trade, specifically, was one of my most valuable so far’
Moving up: She went on to trade the Apple TV for $220 Bose noise-cancelling headphones, and the headphones for an Xbox One, two games, two controllers, and a Kinect sensor bar
Demi is clearly thrilled with her latest trade, and a video showing it off has earned three million views on TikTok.
But she’s not done. Demi seems to have her mind set on a full-size house, telling followers: ‘Still on the hunt for a trade for the cabin!’
At this rate, the grand prize seems entirely possible, considering how far Demi has already come.
She started out with baby steps, swapping that bobby pin for a pair of Marysol earrings worth $10.
She traded those for a set of four margarita glasses worth $24, and those for a $60 Bissell vacuum cleaner.
Demi managed to get someone in need of a carpet cleaning to give her a $95 snowboard for the vacuum, and then traded that snowboard for a $180 Apple TV 4K.
‘This trade, specifically, was one of my most valuable so far,’ she said in a TikTok video at the time.
She went on to trade the Apple TV for $220 Bose noise-cancelling headphones, and those headphones for an Xbox One, two games, two controllers, and a Kinect sensor bar valued at $320.
Demi then found a guy who ‘really wanted the Xbox’ — so much so that he was willing to trade her a MacBook Pro 2011 valued at $400. That was swapped for a $550 Canon camera set
Sneaker land: That was followed by a $750 pair of Off White Nike Blazers in a men’s size nine
Stylish: Now swapping with sneaker lovers, she moved on to a pair of Off White Nike Hyperdunks (left) and Jordan 1 Reverse Shattered Backboards (right)
Must-have: Someone wanted the Backboards so much, he went out and bought a brand new iPhone to trade for them
Beep beep! Her next trade may not have been the biggest value, but it was certainly impressive: She swapped that iPhone for a car — specifically, a 2008 Dodge Caravan
Bit by bit: She traded the car for a $1,400 Boosted Board V3 Plus
Increased value: Most recently, she traded in for a 15” MacBook Pro 2017
Ambitious: Demi Skipper, 29, from San Francisco, is trying to trade a bobby pin for a house through a series of swaps that have thus far seen her earn a used car and then a MacBook Pro
Demi then found a guy who ‘really wanted the Xbox’ — so much so that he was willing to trade her a MacBook Pro 2011 valued at $400.
That was swapped for a $550 Canon camera set, which became the first item she had to spend any money on because she had to ship the laptop.
That was followed by a $750 pair of Off White Nike Blazers in a men’s size nine, a pair of Off White Nike Hyperdunks, and Jordan 1 Reverse Shattered Backboards.
Here, though, she was stuck in the ‘sneaker game,’ making repeated trades with sneaker fans. She wanted to get out, so when she found someone who desperately wanted those Jordan 1 Reverse Shattered Backboards, she told him what she wanted: an iPhone 11 Pro Max.
That man went out and bought the new phone, and they made the trade.
Her next trade may not have been the biggest value, but it was certainly the most impressive at that point: She swapped that iPhone for a car — specifically, a 2008 Dodge Caravan.
She then traded the car for a $1,400 Boosted Board V3 Plus, and that for a 15” MacBook Pro 2017.
Beep beep! Next up, she swapped the computer for an electric bike food truck, valued at anywhere from $1,800 to $4,000.
On the road: That got her back to cars, when she traded the bike for a Mini Cooper convertible
Bling: She traded the car for a diamond and sapphire necklace with a retail value of $2,500
Fitness fan: She traded that for a brand-new Peloton, which costs nearly $2,000
Car club: The Peloton workout bike was traded for a Mustang
Bigger: She found someone to take the Mustang and give her a 2011 Jeep Patriot with 145,000 miles on it
She’s doing it! Finally, that Jeep was traded in for this cabin, which is big enough to sleep in
‘Can you believe this MacBook Pro was once a BOBBY PIN?! I still have to pinch myself,’ she wrote on Instagram, showing off her newest item, which came still in the box.
Next up, she swapped the computer for an electric bike food truck, valued at anywhere from $1,800 to $4,000.
That got her back to cars, when she traded the bike for a Mini Cooper convertible.
But after she traded the car for a diamond and sapphire necklace appraised at $19,500, she suffered a setback: She learned that despite the appraisal value, the retail value of the necklace was just $2,500.
Impressive: Demi said she was inspired by entrepreneur Kyle MacDonald, who managed to trade a red paperclip for a two-story farmhouse in 14 steps in 2006
Still, she kept trading, swapping that necklace for a brand new Peloton workout bike, worth $1,895.
That Peloton was traded for a Mustang, which was traded for a 2011 Jeep Patriot with 145,000 miles on it, which was finally traded for her cabin.
Demi’s journey has certainly proven popular, and she has amassed 4.6 million followers on TikTok and 285,000 on Instagram.
Demi said she was inspired by entrepreneur Kyle MacDonald, who managed to trade a red paperclip for a two-story farmhouse in 14 steps in 2006.
MacDonald spent just a year on the 14 trades, going from the paperclip to a fish pen, a door knob, a coleman stove, a red generator, an ‘instant party kit,’ a Bombardier Mach 1 snowmobile, a holiday to Yahk, a cube van, a recording contract, a year’s free rental in Arizona, an afternoon with Alice Cooper, a Kiss snow globe, and a part in the movie Donna on Demand.
After one year of internet bartering, Kyle — who was 26 at the time — completed the deal and moved into a two-story, three-bedroom farmhouse in Kipling, Canada.
‘I’m really pleased. I’ve never been to Kipling, but I’ve seen pictures of the house, and it looks great. It looks perfect,’ he said at the time.
The inspiration for the project was a children’s game called ‘Bigger and Better.’ Growing up in the suburbs of Vancouver, he watched children go door to door trying to trade their toys for something more valuable.
Another guy: An anonymous software engineer, 28, from Northern Ireland, is determined to swap an old pencil (pictured) for an item worth one million dollars
Progress: He has already managed to trade the worthless object for a box of 12 DavidOff Nicaragua Diademas Cigars worth $230 (pictured)
Step by step: The first item that was traded for the pencil was a single King Edwards cigar worth around $6.00
‘I didn’t know how I was going to get to my goal of house, or how long it would take me, or where the house would be, but I figured that if I kept at it, I would get there in the end,’ he said.
The town of Kipling decided to make the offer for the publicity, Mayor Pat Jackson said.
‘We are a small community, just over 1,100 people. We are trying to promote tourism. And who knows, maybe someone out there will think, “This sounds like an interesting town,” and decide to move here. That would be just wonderful,’ he said.
MacDonald has inspired several other people to make massive trades as well.
An anonymous software engineer from Northern Ireland began trading with an old pencil and now has a handcrafted table worth hundreds of dollars.
The 28-year-old is on a mission to help people in need by bartering his way to a million dollars online and donating the proceeds to charity, and is documenting his journey on Instagram.
Working his way up: Next was a signed copy of a children’s book, donated by it’s author Mikael Lindnord, worth an estimated $25
It’s all a game! A set of three Rubik’s cubes worth $29.99 and some stickers was donated as the third item
The project began in October, after the man discovered the old pencil at the bottom of his bag.
He traded it first for a single King Edwards cigar worth $6.00, then swapped that for a signed children’s book donated by author Mikael Lindnord worth an estimated $25, and then traded that for a set of Rubik’s cubes worth $29.99.
The anonymous man continues to trade, getting a box of 12 DavidOff Nicaragua Diademas Cigars priced at $230; a rare, out-of-print hardback copy of Buffy Season 9, Volume 3; and a Skinny Dip London gift card for $325.
His last update was in April, when he traded that gift card for aLive Edge Walnut side table that was handcrafted from a single piece in Ohio.
The anonymous trader believes that getting to a million dollars will take around ten years, and he has already been offered some bizarre items, such as sex toys and guns.
Speaking to Metro, he said: ‘I have to be really careful when deciding what to trade, I am always after something that appeals to a wide range of people. I am in negotiations right now.’