Go Dutch

UPDATE: I don't know who put this on ebay, but I can assure you it's for real!

I'm starting to realize I have absolutely no scope on just how far one red paperclip has spread. Dom and I met Diana from Holland when we were in Morocco in 2003 and she just mentioned via email that a news program on RTL TV in the Netherlands is doing a series of one red paperclip trades....or is following other people who are doing trades. I can't really tell actually, it's all in Dutch. To see the video(s), go here and click on the links called "De Editie NL-ruilactie" for july 12 or 14. The news program interviews a guy named Wouter - one half of the team behind this site, which kinda raises the up-trading bar as far as I'm concerned. These two guys are having races...or had races. Once again, I can't really tell. It's all in Dutch.

Link to Dutch videos: http://www.rtl.nl/actueel/editienl

UPDATE: My mom's friend Francien is from the Netherlands and she just sent this little tidbit about the Dutch guy featured on Dutch TV who traded up to the car:

"The video shows a dutch t.v. program, who after having heard from Kyle's trades, offered a puzzle to trade. They had offers of a tool, a piece of fruit, a piano etc. etc. They decided to call on this one guy who claim to be the expert in trading. After hearing of Kyle's trade a took an apple and an egg and traded it up to a car within one month, he now want to trade it up to a better car (a Porsche is preferable). He is setting out some tips on the trading i.e. lots of publicity, tell everybody, have a goal (even is people laugh at you!)..... It then goes back to the t.v. program and they mention that the young man does not even have a driver's licence!! - Francien"

Classic. Perfect. Serves him right! If anyone has an easy-to-watch link of this video on youtube or something, please let me know!

Back in 2001 I met a sound aussie bloke named Dave Ronchi on a sheep station in Western Australia. Dave just emailed to say "your mug has been all over the tv downunder in the last couple of weeks". This is pretty sweet, it's not often that my mug gets to go downunder. But to be honest, I'm a little embarrassed with the aussie situation. I publicly stated on the aussie TV program Beyond Tomorrow (which Alanis Morissette-ironically aired July 12th) that I was going to keep trading-up until I acquired the Kerrigan's holiday home in Bonnie Doon from my favorite movie, The Castle. Turns out the house was bought by an enterprising fellow before I could make it there, I've never met you, enterprising Bonnie Doon man, but I wish you the best of luck. Give me a shout - we should collaborate on things. I think 503 Main and the holiday home should be "sister houses" or something like that. Maybe Kipling and Bonnie Doon should have a contest to see who has the most serenity. A serenity-off. One thing's for certain, the dogs'll love it.

Or maybe we should form a giant worldwide network of all the houses that are somewhat famous in pop culture for having been part of something. Yes, that should be the criteria to join the network: the house must have been part of something. Much more fun to leave the door wide open, so to speak, than to create rules or anything like that. I think this future "somewhat famous" house network would need a real snappy and clever name to take off. Like for instance, The Official Somewhat Famous House Network. Yes, I can see it now, the OSFHN! Now that we've got a snappy, clever acronym, all we need is some somewhat famous houses. I'll leave that up to you.

Anyhow, if you see anything about one red paperclip in the news or on TV, be sure to share! I'm especially interested in video from around the world. The more un-understandable languages the better, as far as I'm concerned!

It'll be kinda like our little deal: you score me news from your part of the world, and I'll score you news from my part of the world - like for instance the fact that Ricky was in Yahk last week.

c-ya - kyle