What started with a bobby pin quickly turned into millions of views, an online series, and one TikToker getting a platform and a new home.
When Demi Skipper offered a trade for a hair accessory in May 2020, she had her mind set on a house, not knowing the route it would take. Then the trades kept getting bigger, and Skipper's "Trade Me Project" took off.
After trading items for more than a year, Skipper saw swaps for shoes, headphones, an Xbox, and a vacuum, but now the series has reached its peak.
Skipper made her 28th and final trade at the end of November, swapping a solar-powered trailer for a house near Nashville, Tennessee.
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The TikToker lives in San Francisco and has gained close to 5 million followers on her account, @trademeproject, while documenting her swaps.
The idea for the project came from Kyle MacDonald, who in 2006 traded a red paperclip all the way to a house, and now Skipper's mission is accomplished.
"It's been so surreal," Skipper said to NBC News. "Working towards something every day for more than a year and a half, and now I wake up and think: 'Is this actually real? Is this actually my house?'"
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The “Trade Me Project” came with its ups and downs as Skipper received criticism for some of her decisions. For example, the 30-year-old decided to trade three tractors for a Chipotle celebrity card in her second to last trade, much to the dismay of her followers.
"People really have doubted me, and I certainly did at times during the journey, too," she said to NBC News. "But I learned a lot about myself in the process, and I was really amazed by my ability to stick with it."
However, this ended up paying off when a woman from Canada traded her off-the-grid trailer, worth about $40,000, for the burrito card.
After Skipper got the trailer to the U.S., a task that was troublesome at the border, she was able to make her final swap for her new house.
"Oh, my God," Skipper said in her final video. "I can't believe this. A year and a half of trading a single bobby pin until I get a house, and I've done it.
"And look at it, this just shows you — it's possible!"
In the new year, Skipper said she plans on moving to Tennessee with her husband to renovate their new home. But that won't be the end as she plans on trading for another home soon.
"I want to donate the next house I trade to a person who needs it, no mortgage, no rental," Skipper said. "There's been a couple of people who have done this once, but no one's crazy enough to do it twice."
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