How one red paperclip was traded up to a house

The real story

In July 2005 Kyle MacDonald, a Canadian in his mid-twenties, posted a red paperclip online and offered to trade it for something bigger. It became a fish-shaped pen, then a hand-sculpted doorknob, a camping stove, a generator, an 'instant party' kit, a snowmobile, a trip, a box truck, a recording contract and a year's rent in Phoenix.

Then it got strange. The rent became an afternoon with rock star Alice Cooper, which became a KISS snow globe, which actor Corbin Bernsen, a keen snow-globe collector, swapped for a speaking role in a film. In July 2006 the small town of Kipling, Saskatchewan, traded him a house for that role, then held auditions to choose who would get to play it.