From paperclip to free rent: Olathe man develops trading market

John Petrovic/The Olathe News

Jason Friedline, 33, who teaches marketing at National American University, has turned a single paper clip so far into a year's worth of free rent.

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A single paper clip turned into a year’s worth of free rent for Olathe resident Jason Friedline.

Friedline, 33, teaches marketing at National American University. In part to convey lessons about non-traditional marketing to his students, and in part to get a new vehicle for his growing family.

To accomplish both tasks, he embarked in August on what he calls “The Golden Paperclip Project.”

Based on a similar experiment conducted by Canadian Kyle MacDonald, who in 2006 traded up from one red paper clip to a house, Friedline went one step further and soon had possession of a rather famous paper clip - from Donald Trump.

“The idea was to get a paper clip from a celebrity,” Friedline said. “I got pictures from Neil Diamond, Johnny Depp, but no paper clips. I finally got one from Donald Trump along with an autograph.

“I wanted to start with a paper clip and work up to a car. We are expecting another baby, but I didn’t want to buy a minivan. I refused. So I thought I’d try to trade.”

Friedline set off to trade for better items on his way to a bigger family vehicle. He traveled to Columbia, Mo., Aug. 30 to pick up his first trade — an old canoe.

“I wanted to have a good time with it,” Friedline said. “The first guy said he ‘had to have’ the paper clip. I had a page with automatic trades listed, like an ice cream truck, a canoe. He offered me a goat, but I said I didn’t want one.”

Picking up the first trade turned into an impromptu guys’ weekend, and he and a friend floated 26 miles in two days. The family also made use of the canoe, Friedline said.

Friedline uses his Web site, www.goldenpaperclip.com, in addition to Craigslist and a growing e-mail list to market his project and advertise for trades.

Since August, he said he has learned that value is subjective.

“Some things are worth more to different people than to me or others,” he said. “I’ve learned to enjoy the process as much as the result. It’s fun to get trade offers. I’m constantly checking e-mail on my phone to see what I’m being offered.”

For his second trade, Friedline was offered a cow and a 5-foot boa constrictor, but settled for a mini-chopper motorcycle. He took his wife on a road trip to Wichita to secure the trade.

“We had a great time,” Friedline said. “There are trails behind my house and I actually broke the chain (on the motorcycle) because I rode it so much.

“After that, people started talking and I got some publicity, so I got a little more serious about (the project).”

Friedline has been interviewed by Channel 9 News’ Donna Pittman and Kelly Urich from Mix 93.3 radio. He now has more than 1,000 contacts on his e-mail list and sends notifications each time he makes a trade.

In October, Friedline traded the mini-chopper for a go-kart from Overland Park. The owner needed a motorcycle to “get up and down Metcalf,” Friedline said.

His go-kart adventures nearly landed him in hot water with the Olathe Police Department.

“I would put my two little kids to bed and drive around town,” Friedline said. “I was on the northwest side of Olathe, close to the high school, and was flying down a hill. All of a sudden a cop appeared and told me I couldn’t ride the go-kart anywhere in town.”

The officer let him go without a ticket, but warned that if he saw Friedline again, he would issue a citation.

“It was time to get rid of the go-kart,” Friedline said. “My kids loved it and so did my nephew. I was the best uncle for a while. Whenever he sees me, he always asks if I have the go-kart.”

The go-kart was Friedline’s last “toy,” he said — it was time to get serious about getting a car.

A Lee’s Summit, Mo., man who builds computers for a living wanted to give his kids a go-kart for Christmas, setting the stage for Friedline’s next trade: one laptop and one desktop computer. He completed the trade Nov. 7, and less than two weeks later obtained his most valuable trade to date.

A coupon good for one year’s worth of free rent in a two-bedroom apartment at Appletree Apartments in Gladstone, Mo., valued at more than $7,000.

“A girl in the office needed a laptop, the owner wanted a desktop, so it worked out perfectly for them,” Friedline said. “At first they offered me a one-bedroom, but I used my Trump negotiation skills to trade up to a two-bedroom.”

What Friedline wants to do next in the Golden Paperclip Project is give the apartment to a deserving family, such as a single mother, family of a soldier or a father who lost a job. He plans to appeal to area car dealerships for help.

“Technically, I would trade a one-year apartment lease to the dealership for a new vehicle, and the dealership and I would find a deserving family that needs a place to live and give them this gift on Christmas Eve,” Friedline said. “That would be awesome.”

Friedline spends time each week discussing the project with his marketing students, who originally did not believe he would embark on the experiment.

“I told them I was going to show how to do non-traditional marketing and I believe I have shown them with this mission,” he said.

And as for his wife, Friedline said she is “used to him coming up with crazy ideas,” but has started coming around.

Trade offers can be e-mailed to jason@goldenpaperclip.com. His trades also can be followed at goldenpaperclip.blogspot.com/.

“In creating this exercise I have done something that embodies the American spirit of hard work, intuition and creativity,” Friedline writes on his Web site. “In other words, I have taken a great Canadian idea and used it for my own.”