A challenge for collectors.

Tim Galyean

Tim Galyean

Joined
Nov 5, 2004
Messages
332
Many of you may have seen on the news recently of a guy that started with a red paper clip and traded his way up to a house. He did it in 14 trades.

That got me thinking.... could someone do that in the knife arena, starting with say a Kershaw Chive and working there way up to a full on $3,000 custom? How long and how many trades do you think it would take? What would your strategy be?
 
I think it could be done very easily. It would take a little time and you would have to know a lot about the market.
 
Thats an awesome idea. Ill give you my chive, and I challenge you to give me back a kious folder in one year! GO! :)
 
I read that story, too. Very cool idea, I think I'll try it. I'll start with a Chive and try to work up to a Galyean flipper :)
 
I definattely think it could be done, I've traded $400 for $800 knives in the past, it all depends on how much someone wants the knife you have. I have never been out to screw anyone, and have openly admitted in instances like that, that I was getting the better end of the deal by far.
 
I also think it could be done but may take a long time. The circumstances need to be right. I agree with Tom, more often than not I lose money on trades and resales but I don't mind too much because I look at it as paying to play! If I get to own a knife for a few months and pass it along without taking a big hit, I don't mind paying a bit for that benefit.
Steve
 
Tim Galyean said:
Many of you may have seen on the news recently of a guy that started with a red paper clip and traded his way up to a house. He did it in 14 trades.

That got me thinking.... could someone do that in the knife arena, starting with say a Kershaw Chive and working there way up to a full on $3,000 custom? How long and how many trades do you think it would take? What would your strategy be?
Click to expand...

Hey Danbo,

What is the answer?

P
 
I think limiting the trades to knives would make it much more difficult to work your way up, and require you to know a huge amount about the market value of all sorts of knives. With all knives, I think people will tend to value them in a similar manner, as opposed to an open market where anything can be traded. Not impossible, just more time consuming.

I looked at the sequence of trades the guy made, and several of them seem like the sorts of things people would donate or throw away, meaning that they don't hold much value in them. I mean, who would trade a coleman stove and fuel for a doorknob? Also, the amount of publicity this guy got helped him quite a bit. When asked if there was anywhere he would not go, he said Yahk, BC. And then the next day he was offered a trip to Yahk for his snowmobile.

Personally, if I was just being offered this trade and not involved in the crusade that this guy was, I would keep the snowmobile.

I think that moving from a paperclip to a house in 14 trades is only something that will happen once. Like the person who made a million dollars by selling a million pixels of advertising space on his website for a dollar a piece. Its all publicity.

I'm not saying that you couldn't trade up quite high if you know what your doing, but without the publicity it would just be a lot harder and require more trades.
 
I've got a non painted paper clip here, think Integeal, that I would concider a trade for a Loveles Big Bear. Any takers? Mike
 
Yeah, the red paper clip trade story is sort of tainted because it got so much publicity that celebraties got involved in the trades because they either thought it'd be an amusing thing to do or for their own publicity.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top