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The Trade Me Project: How a Bobby Pin Became a House
Can you turn a bobby pin into a house?
This is the question Demi Skipper set out to answer in May 2020, when she posted an ordinary bobby pin to trade on Facebook Marketplace. She had two no trading with anyone she knew, and no spending her own money on trades. Twenty months and 28 trades later, she completed the final trade and took possession of a house.
How did she do it? It wasn’t luck. Hard work, ingenuity, and a talent for negotiation were essential to executing the series of trades that led from the bobby pin to the house. Along the way she sent more than 300,000 messages, enlisted the help of strangers to drive vehicles across the country, and went deep into the world of “sneakerheads” in pursuit of the perfect trade, all while documenting her progress and amassing an audience of millions on TikTok.
From the crushing disappointments to the surprising successes, Demi shares the behind-the-scenes stories of her first successful trading project and the life lessons she’s applying as she starts the process again. It’s an engrossing story for anyone who wonders, How did she do that? Could I do it too?
This is the question Demi Skipper set out to answer in May 2020, when she posted an ordinary bobby pin to trade on Facebook Marketplace. She had two no trading with anyone she knew, and no spending her own money on trades. Twenty months and 28 trades later, she completed the final trade and took possession of a house.
How did she do it? It wasn’t luck. Hard work, ingenuity, and a talent for negotiation were essential to executing the series of trades that led from the bobby pin to the house. Along the way she sent more than 300,000 messages, enlisted the help of strangers to drive vehicles across the country, and went deep into the world of “sneakerheads” in pursuit of the perfect trade, all while documenting her progress and amassing an audience of millions on TikTok.
From the crushing disappointments to the surprising successes, Demi shares the behind-the-scenes stories of her first successful trading project and the life lessons she’s applying as she starts the process again. It’s an engrossing story for anyone who wonders, How did she do that? Could I do it too?
- GenresNonfiction
272 pages, Hardcover
Published July 25, 2023
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April 28, 2026
Oof. I picked up this book that had middle of the road reviews, but I am curious as to how nobody took the time to say anything about it on Goodreads or fable? Was this book review bombed and some taken down? Or do people just really not care enough to say anything? Has nobody read this book?? Regardless… I have things to say!
I think this book was the definition of a rush job. A possibly desperate attempt to hang onto some sort of momentum that was created by a project. Unfortunately, the project really wasn’t that interesting. Or at least the way the story was told was not that interesting.
I followed Demi‘s journey on TikTok, and I really admired how the community banded together to help her trade to get this house. I was really hoping that reading this book would deliver some of the same kind of inspiring content that came from the TikTok account. Unfortunately, this book was not that. It was basically a self-help style push towards hustle culture. Constantly Demi talked about how she had just had drive to trade for the house and she just wanted to follow her rules. There was really no heart to the story. To the point that I started to get really angry, because I felt like I could’ve done a better job writing this book. And as someone with absolutely zero writing skills… That’s saying something. It was like she would get really close to an interesting story, brush over it, and go back to some weird trading tip.
Speaking of trading tips. Oh my God! She would not stop giving all these tips! If it’s going to be a trading handbook, published a trading handbook. Oh wait… She did… At the end. After reading an entire book that told barely any story, and just talked about tips, there was on top of it another huge chunk that was a handbook on trading! I truly don’t understand how this was edited. Was it edited? I do not know. I did not care about starting a trading CAREER, I just wanted to learn her story.
I’m so glad I got this book from the library, because if I’d spent any money on it, I’d be so mad. It’s such a bummer because I felt an energy from Demi in her TikTok’s that she did care about what she was doing. And I’m really surprised that there wasn’t any heart in this book.
Huge disappointment.
I think this book was the definition of a rush job. A possibly desperate attempt to hang onto some sort of momentum that was created by a project. Unfortunately, the project really wasn’t that interesting. Or at least the way the story was told was not that interesting.
I followed Demi‘s journey on TikTok, and I really admired how the community banded together to help her trade to get this house. I was really hoping that reading this book would deliver some of the same kind of inspiring content that came from the TikTok account. Unfortunately, this book was not that. It was basically a self-help style push towards hustle culture. Constantly Demi talked about how she had just had drive to trade for the house and she just wanted to follow her rules. There was really no heart to the story. To the point that I started to get really angry, because I felt like I could’ve done a better job writing this book. And as someone with absolutely zero writing skills… That’s saying something. It was like she would get really close to an interesting story, brush over it, and go back to some weird trading tip.
Speaking of trading tips. Oh my God! She would not stop giving all these tips! If it’s going to be a trading handbook, published a trading handbook. Oh wait… She did… At the end. After reading an entire book that told barely any story, and just talked about tips, there was on top of it another huge chunk that was a handbook on trading! I truly don’t understand how this was edited. Was it edited? I do not know. I did not care about starting a trading CAREER, I just wanted to learn her story.
I’m so glad I got this book from the library, because if I’d spent any money on it, I’d be so mad. It’s such a bummer because I felt an energy from Demi in her TikTok’s that she did care about what she was doing. And I’m really surprised that there wasn’t any heart in this book.
Huge disappointment.
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