Swapping a hairpin for something more valuable, and even getting a house, is the ambitious challenge launched by Canadian blogger Demi Skipper. The young woman publishes on the networks the objects she exchanges. The challenge had already been taken up in 2006 by one of his compatriots.
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Demi Skipper, Canadian blogger, has set herself the goal of acquiring a house by simple barter, and starting with a hairpin. His “trademe” (“swap me”) project is increasingly popular on TikTok and Instagram, attracting the interest of millions of subscribers.
On May 23, the young woman posted her first video in which she explains that she managed to exchange her hairpin, of almost insignificant value, for a pair of earrings at 10 dollars. She then exchanged them for four margarita glasses with a total value of $ 24.
A month and a few exchanges later, Demi Skipper owns a pair of Nike Off-White, valued at $ 850. Among the objects she exchanged include a snowboard (95 dollars), a headset (220 dollars), a laptop (400 dollars) and finally a Canon camera (550 dollars) which she exchanged for the pair sneakers.
If the goal is still far from being reached, the blogger redoubles her efforts, especially since her project is followed by more than three million Internet users on TikTok. She estimates that it will take approximately 30 exchanges to obtain her house, recalling that the challenge had previously been taken up.
Another Canadian did it in 2006
She admits that she was inspired by Kyle MacDonald, a 26-year-old Canadian at the time of his challenge in 2006, who had acquired a house in Kipling, a small town in Canada, a year after launching the exchange of ‘a red paperclip.
Towards the end of his journey full of encounters, the young man had been able to exchange a contract with a record company for one year of free rental in the city of Phoenix. He then obtained a meeting, the time of an afternoon, with the singer Alice Cooper. The latter gave him in return … a snow globe.
Judged to be a barter loser, Kyle MacDonald was nevertheless able to find a collector of this kind of object, actor Corbin Bernsen, who offered him a role in his next film in return. Benefiting from a great media coverage, it aroused the interest of the city of Kipling which exchanged the small role for a house, where the young man settled.
In France, Stanislas Wodzynski succeeded in obtaining the construction of a library for the benefit of a Bulgarian orphanage in 2012 by bartering a bean seed just two weeks earlier. In June of this year, a young Lille resident launched the project to exchange a beer glass for land which he would transform into a nature reserve.
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