Demi Skipper has gotten as far as trading for a working mini-van and a diamond necklace worth $20,000 but the mini-van broke and the diamond was actually worth only $2,000. Still, the setbacks have not discouraged her and she is now closer to her goal than ever before.
The project that began in May 2020 has seen American Demi go through ups and downs. But, a bit more than a year on, things are looking promising for her bobby pin trading business as Demi is now in possession of a $40,000 trailer!
Do not be fooled by the whimsical vibe of this woman’s project. Demi has come up with strict rules-of-the-trade, as she told The Guardian:
“I can’t buy anything. I can’t use any money. And I can’t trade anyone I know,”
However, as Chesterton once said: “There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds” and, early on, Demi was forced to break her own rules as she felt obliged to pay for people’s shipping expenses. So far, she has spent over $4,000 on shipping. She said:
“It doesn’t feel right when you’re trading with someone and then you’re like, ‘Oh, can you pay for my shipping too?’”
Working up to 12-hour days as a product manager for BuzzFeed, Demi does the trading alongside her job and describes herself as a “scrappy entrepreneurial type”. Not very scrappy for a TikTok account with 5 million followers. Demi said:
“A lot of comments [about my project] are like, ‘You need to get a job’, and I’m like, Oh my gosh, if they knew I’m working like 12-hour days”.
From the bobby pin to 32 trades and a little over a year later, Demi is closer than ever to her goal, but it wasn’t always this fun.
After trading a pair of collectors sneakers for a brand new iPhone 11 Max, Demi got offered a red minivan that broke down.
She had then to trade down since the minivan was no longer working. She got an electric skateboard and, then, the latest MacBook which she traded for an electric bike food cart and, then a Mini Cooper.
Demi did not expect, however, the next swap to cost her thousands of dollars. After trading the Mini Cooper worth around $8,000 for a diamond necklace with an appraisal value of $20,000, Demi was told that an appraisal value is not the same as a resale value. She said:
“It was a soul-crushing moment. I’d just traded this really nice Mini Cooper that was probably worth like $8,000, and I pretty much cut that in a quarter.”
Taking another step back, she traded down for a Peloton exercise bike but things soon picked up with a run-down Mustang and a few better trades.
Fingers crossed that Demi will get her house soon just like Kyle McDonald whose achievement inspired her.
With thousands of other TikTok users jumping on the trading boat and tagging Demi, we can only hope that this will become a trend.
