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Canadian puts farmhouse up for trade on Kijiji Taiwan site

Canadian blogger Kyle MacDonald yesterday offered to trade his two-story farmhouse — for which he traded a famous red paper clip one year ago — in Taipei by putting an ad on a local eBay-affiliated classified ad site operated by Kijiji Taiwan (奇集集).

The 28-year-old told the company’s media briefing yesterday he wants to trade the house, whose value he said he was uncertain of, for an “unprecedented” and “new” experience — “Or maybe Taipei 101,” he jested.

In a room packed with Kijiji members, MacDonald described how his previous 14 trades had gone, culminating in the fulfillment of his dream to own a house. He said a “pure” exchange was very challenging, as certain things only have value to certain people.

”You can’t put a price on an experience or an opportunity,” he said.

MacDonald became a household name after bartering his way from a single red paper clip in March 2005 to trading a movie role for a farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan, in a series of trades spanning a little more than a year.

Kijiji Taiwan’s country manager, Celine Chiang (蔣馨誼), said yesterday that MacDonald was an inspiration to members of her Web site, where new postings for trades have grown 72 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year.

She said most members were hoping to trades objects they no longer needed for daily necessities such as shampoo or tissues as a way to fight inflation. Female members often traded used handbags or clothes, while men mostly gave away used electronic gadgets.

Miss Chung, a Kijiji member, agreed, saying that trading was a good way to give away items she no longer needed to someone who may need them.

She said she had once traded an object worth only NT$300 for one five times its value.

The Web site operator used MacDonald’s speech in Taipei as a charity benefit to collect 100 school bags from people attending.

The school bags will be donated to financially disadvantaged school children in southern Taiwan, Chiang said.
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