Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters

Take your next trip with Atlas Obscura!

Our small-group adventures are inspired by our Atlas of the world's most fascinating places, the stories behind them, and the people who bring them to life.

Visit Adventures
Trips Highlight
Borneo orangutan
Malaysia • 12 days, 11 nights
Wild Borneo: Secrets of an Ancient Rainforest
from
Pastel de nata
Portugal • 8 days, 7 nights
Portugal: A Culinary Adventure from Porto to Lisbon
from
View all trips
Top Destinations
Latest Places
Most Popular Places Random Place Lists Itineraries
Add a Place
Download the App
Top Destinations
View All Destinations »

Countries

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan

Cities

  • Amsterdam
  • Barcelona
  • Beijing
  • Berlin
  • Boston
  • Budapest
  • Chicago
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico City
  • Montreal
  • Moscow
  • New Orleans
  • New York City
  • Paris
  • Philadelphia
  • Rome
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Stockholm
  • Tokyo
  • Toronto
  • Vienna
  • Washington, D.C.
Latest Places
View All Places »
Ana de Mendoza y de la Cerda, Princess of Éboli, was imprisoned for six months in the tower.
Torreón de Pinto (Tower of Pinto)
Rococo staircase to the musicians’s gallery.
Biscari Palace
Statues of Qin Hui and Lady Wang.
Qin Hui Statue at Yue Fei Temple
The Salt Canyon.
Salt Canyon
Latest Places to Eat & Drink
View All Places to Eat »
The sign declares this the number-one gumbo shop in town.
Gumbo Hut Shioya
The pavlova comes crowned with jewel-like fruit.
Central Park Boathouse
The Village Tavern of Long Grove - exterior.
The Village Tavern
Hunter House Hamburgers
L’Escamoteur
Recent Stories
All Stories Video Podcast
Most Recent Stories
View All Stories »
 Fenway Park at night
How Was Your First Trip With Your Significant Other?
about 6 hours ago
Ivan the Terra Bus
The Bus, the Myth, the Legend: Ivan the Terra Bus
1 day ago
Pigeons were included in a series of 1891 illustrations entitled “Household Pets.”
What Makes a Pest a Pest?
2 days ago
Burros Alfa and Beto, seen here with Luis Soriano in 2008, have been helping the teacher deliver books for more than 20 years.
How One Man and His ‘Biblioburro’ Spreads Literacy in Rural Colombia
4 days ago

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All Canada Saskatchewan Kipling Paperclip Cottage Cafe
Gastro Obscura

Paperclip Cottage Cafe

A cozy cafe tells the remarkable story of how one man started with a little red paperclip and wound up with an entire house.

Kipling, Saskatchewan

Added By
Lew Blank
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
Paperclip replica in Kipling   purecanucks / Some Rights Reserved
Paperclip replica in Kipling   purecanucks / Some Rights Reserved
MacDonald’s house under construction   OisinisiO / CC BY-SA 3.0
The Red Paperclip Cafe with “World Record” sign   Map Data © 2016 Google
The original red paperclip   Kyle MacDonald / Some Rights Reserved
Fish pen   Kyle MacDonald / Some Rights Reserved
Doorknob with a face   Kyle MacDonald / Some Rights Reserved
Camp stove   Kyle MacDonald / Some Rights Reserved
Electric generator   Kyle MacDonald / Some Rights Reserved
MacDonald with the doorknob in front of the Space Needle   Kyle MacDonald / Some Rights Reserved
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

In 2005, Kyle MacDonald was working at his desk when he saw a little red paperclip. He was reminded of a game he played as a child called “bigger and better,” where each player starts with a small object and tries to trade it up for something bigger and better, without spending any money. Whoever has the most valuable object at the end wins.

Typically, the end result will be something on the level of a toy car. But this time, MacDonald wanted to go further: He wanted to trade a paperclip all the way up to an entire house, no matter how long or how far away it would take him.

So, he put the paperclip on Craigslist to see if someone would trade for it, and days later, exchanged the object for a pen shaped like a fish. That same day, he traded the pen for a doorknob with a face on it.

From there, he travelled all the way from the West Coast to Massachusetts, where he found a man who needed a knob for his stovetop espresso maker. In exchange, MacDonald received a camping stove. Months later, he traded the camping stove for an electric generator, and the generator for an “instant party” kit, complete with a neon sign, an empty keg, and an IOU to fill it up with beer.

He traded the party kit for a used snowmobile, the snowmobile for two tickets to the Canadian Rockies, and one of the tickets (he used the other for himself) for a used box truck. He traded the box truck for a recording contract, the recording contract for a year’s rent in Phoenix, and the year’s rent for an afternoon with Alice Cooper. That afternoon, he went onstage with Cooper, holding a giant, 10-foot red paperclip above his head.

A week later, he made the controversial decision to trade an afternoon with Alice Cooper for a KISS snow globe. The online community exploded: “This is probably the dumbest decision I have ever seen anyone make... ever. Except for the people on Jerry Springer.”

What they didn't know is that MacDonald had been contacted two months earlier by Hollywood producer Corbin Bernsen, who owns the world’s largest snow globe collection —over 6,500 globes — and needed a new addition. MacDonald gave his KISS snow globe to Bernsen in exchange for a contract for a speaking role in the director's upcoming film, Donna On Demand.

At last, nearly a year after making his first trade, MacDonald traded the speaking role to the small Canadian town of Kipling, Saskatchewan, in exchange for a two-story house. The small town had a giant celebration of MacDonald’s feat, and there were live auditions for the movie role, which ultimately went to Nolan Hubbard, propelling his career from minimum-wage worker to Hollywood star.

And that's how Kyle MacDonald traded a paperclip for a house.

Since acquiring the house in 2006, MacDonald has traded it (not sold, of course) to a restaurant owner, who has converted the house into the Paperclip Cottage Cafe, which to this day sells coffee and pastries to the 1,140 residents of Kipling. Next to the cafe lies a sign claiming the world record for trades, and in the center of town sits a giant, red paperclip.

Related Tags

Objects Of Intrigue Houses Restaurants Homes

Community Contributors

Added By

lewblank

Edited By

ashleyavd

  • ashleyavd

Published

June 6, 2016

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Sources
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kipling,_Saskatchewan
  • http://www.howdoyouplay.net/active-games/how-to-play-bigger-and-better.html
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s3bdVxuFBs
  • http://www.icebreakers.ws/medium-group/bigger-and-better.html
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_red_paperclip
  • http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/2008/06/were-trading-house.html
Paperclip Cottage Cafe
503 Main St
Kipling, Saskatchewan, S0G 2S0
Canada
50.10185, -102.630141
Get Directions

Nearby Places

Eiffel Tower of Montmartre

Montmartre, Saskatchewan

miles away

The Indian Head Statue

Indian Head, Saskatchewan

miles away

Soo Line Historical Museum

Weyburn, Saskatchewan

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Canada

Places 28
Stories 2

Nearby Places

Eiffel Tower of Montmartre

Montmartre, Saskatchewan

miles away

The Indian Head Statue

Indian Head, Saskatchewan

miles away

Soo Line Historical Museum

Weyburn, Saskatchewan

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Canada

Places 28
Stories 2

Related Places

  • Berggasthaus Aescher Wildkirchli

    Wasserauen, Switzerland

    Berggasthaus Aescher Wildkirchli

    This 170-year-old Swiss guesthouse built into the side of a mountain is best accessed by a cable car.

  • As seen from Šeher-Ćehaja Bridge

    Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

    Sarajevo Spite House

    Inat Kuća, or "House of Spite," is more than just an oddly named restaurant.

  • Paris, France

    House of Nicolas Flamel

    The oldest stone house in Paris was built by its most famous alchemist.

  • Michigan City, Indiana

    Century of Progress Homes

    These five houses were built for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair.

  • This house was transported piece-by-piece from the Huizhou region of China.

    Salem, Massachusetts

    Yin Yu Tang: A Chinese Home

    A rare 16-bedroom Qing Dynasty house re-erected on the campus of the Peabody Essex Museum. 

  • View from Above; a more recent concrete construction can be seen nearby

    Green Island, Taiwan

    Youzihu

    The ruins of a prehistoric village hide on a remote Taiwanese island.

  • This space has hosted spies and seances.

    Stony Brook, New York

    The Country House Restaurant

    Once the site of seances, this restaurant is said to be haunted by several ghosts.

  • A stone tower with brown pointed roof surveys a mountainous valley

    Vaduz, Liechtenstein

    Schloss Vaduz

    Liechtenstein's royal family calls this medieval alpine castle home.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.