Monday, February 5, 2007

:: Trading Up ::

With my own fantasies of new homes and paid off mortgages, and of course with a baby on the way, I found the following article quite amusing. For his sake, I hope it works out. I don't know that I would have the patience for such an endeavor, but more power to Brad Ziss for attempting the seemingly impossible (and yet, history tells us, not impossible).

From the Columbus Dispatch, January 6, 2007 : "Trading Up: Dad-to-be hopes barter system will help pay off mortgage"

(Summarized by me) Brad Ziss, a Worthington, Ohio resident, aims to pay off his $159,000 mortgage by bartering. He has converted lawn darts into a car, California Raisins into a boat and two dolls into a set of Amish furniture. His wife is pregnant and he wants to stay at home fulltime with the baby. This 2002 OSU graduate is attempting to follow in the footsteps of Kyle MacDonald of Montreal who started with a red paper clip (see his blog at http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/) and, by trading one item after another, ended up with a house. Ziss began in October "with six objects and a blog" (www.stayathomebrad.com) where he posts what he's got to trade and what he's looking to trade for next. The website also shows the progression of his trades so far.

As of January 21, 2007, he was 4% of the way to his goal. Sadly, he is now, several weeks later, only at 3.6%.