It Began With a Bobby Pin. Now She Has a New Home

A few months into the coronavirus pandemic, Demi Skipper offered up a bobby pin for trade. She's been trading up ever since, acquiring an Xbox, a diamond necklace, and several cars. But the 30-year-old San Francisco resident, who amassed 5 million followers while documenting her trades with strangers on TikTok, is done trading after her 28th deal. As NBC News reports, Skipper last month handed over a $40,000 solar-powered trailer in exchange for a house near Nashville, Tenn. "It's been so surreal," Skipper tells NBC. "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?'"

Skipper was aiming for a house from the beginning. She'd modeled her quest on that of Canadian blogger Kyle MacDonald, who described his 2006 trading journey from a red paper clip to a house in a 2015 TED Talk. "Given all the time we have in quarantine, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try," Skipper told Insider in February, by which time she'd acquired a $9,500 tiny house. She'd traded the bobby pin for a $10 pair of earrings, then acquired a $24 set of margarita glasses, a $60 vacuum, a $95 snowboard, a $180 Apple TV, a $220 set of headphones, a $320 Xbox, an old MacBook valued at $400, and a $550 camera set. After trading in pricey sneakers, she acquired an iPhone and traded that for a 2008 Dodge minivan, valued at $2,200.

The vehicle soon broke down, but she traded it for a $1,200 electric skateboard, that for an $1,800 MacBook, that for a $3,800 bike food cart, and that for a $5,000 Mini Cooper. She then acquired a diamond necklace she thought was worth $20,000 but was appraised at less than $2,000. She kept going, eventually acquiring a $6,000 Jeep, which she traded for the tiny house. She took a lot of flak for moving on to a Chipotle celebrity card, but "Chipotle's biggest fan" turned up offering a trailer worth $40,000, Skipper tells NBC. And late last month, a house flipper in Tennessee offered to take it in exchange for a house. Skipper and her husband plan to move in in January—and try to do it again, this time with the goal of donating the eventual house to someone in need.