How To: Trade a Cellphone for a Porsche

It’s a five-letter word. Stockbrokers live and die by it, economies thrive on it, and children utilize it in all sorts of games and modes of collection. It’s one of the oldest economic inventions and is the reason why I can purchase Malaysian curry paste in my local grocery store. Trade. While our ancestors may have known it as “bartering“, today we call it differently and utilize the method to exchange goods and services across thousands of industries and between continents. Though it may seem trivial, it’s staggering to step-back and think about a world without it.

It’s a safe bet to conclude that there isn’t a whole lot of innovation flowing from the age-old notion of bartering these days. Or at least that’s what everyone thought. Steven Ortiz, a seventeen-year-old resident of Glendora, California has seemingly reinvented the word.

Back about two years ago, Steven had an old cell phone he decided he wanted to trade for another. He discovered the “barter” section of Craigslist.org and after a bit of searching, found a fellow Craigslister willing to trade the cellphone he wanted for the cellphone he had. Though content with his new phone, Steven saw an opportunity, he saw the potential of trade in the marketplace.

Over a period of just two years, Steven traded his janky old cellphone for a series of better cellphones, an iPod touch, dirt bikes, a MacBook Pro, a 1987 Toyota 4Runner, an off-road golf cart, another dirt bike, a street bike, and finally a string of cars that landed him a Porsche Boxster (pictured above). That’s correct, a life-sized Porsche, not a die-cast model! At just seventeen, Steven is most likely the only student at Charter Oak High School pulling-up in a Porsche convertible.

While Steven’s series of trades are most impressive, the practical skills of negotiation, coordination, and communication that he’s attained are invaluable. Though what’s most fascinating to me, is the fact that in the midst of an economic meltdown, Steven seemingly found a way to create wealth instead of losing it. This is the type of drive, motivation, and spirit that Payoff lives to see discovered by people in the midst of despair and hardship.

Steven’s story is no doubt an inspiration to people who in today’s economic climate, have to make much of nothing. Interestingly enough, Steven isn’t the first to have turned a buck into ten-thousand. Kyle MacDonald of Canada bartered his way from a single red paperclip to a house! In fact, he documented his journey on a blog he calls OneRedPaperclip. His story became so famous, he actually wrote a book about his accomplishment.

So. What. Now. Are we all supposed to become Craigslist fiends and scour the marketplace for irresistible trades? Some of us should. You may not trade your way to a house or a Porsche Boxster but you may find that someone out there needs what you have and has something you need. In tough economic times, this may be the key to “getting by”. Wait. Wait just one New York minute. No. You know what? We should be thinking like Steven and Kyle 24/7, 365 days a year. We should be thinking like this in good times and in bad. Why? Because frugal is the new cool. Frugality is smart and smart puts you one step ahead of your competition, which for many is the rearing head of their monstrous debt.