CHELSY’S CHALLENGE A TRADING BOAST
SYDNEY’S Chelsy Chew has taken a single hairpin she was using on a date in 2021 and traded up all the way to a car.
Ms Chew was inspired by Kyle MacDonald, a Canadian blogger who traded his way from a red paperclip to a house in 2005, and hopes to have similar results.
Her journey started after discussing MacDonald’s success on a date last year. She was told she couldn’t do it in Australia due to her gender and race.
“He laughed at me and said I can’t pull this off because I’m not white and I’m a woman,” Ms Chew said.
“Well, challenge accepted. I was about to start (the experiment) with nothing but thought why not start with the pin I wore to the date.”
Since then she has traded a ceramic pot, GPS, wireless keyboard and mouse, surfboard, kayak and a boat.
Incredibly, she’s traded all the way from the pin to an automatic hatchback.
Similarly to MacDonald, Ms Chew will continue her trading spree until she has the keys to a house.
“I’m trading a pin until I get to a house so I can prove (my date) wrong,” she said.
The second coronavirus wave that ravaged through Sydney last year hurt Ms Chew’s ability to travel, communicate and ultimately trade, but the bargain hunter made light of the situation.
“Dealing with Covid was interesting and very entertaining because everyone was obviously locked in their houses,” Ms Chew said.
“It was fantastic in a way because it gave me more time to look for trades.”
A year later and Ms Chew is now the proud owner of a 2007 Kia Rio. She will continue to trade until she is a homeowner and vowed to invite her sceptical date from 2021 to come to the housewarming.
“I will 100 per cent approach him once I reach this goal, I still have his phone number,” she said.
“I’ll even invite him to the house-warming, I’m not sure if he’ll come though.”