News Flash: First Trade Complete!!
It's official! OneRobotDog.com is now a full step down the road to achieving its purpose.
After sorting through the offers, weighing my options, and otherwise dilly-dallying, I have
accepted an offer from Rick Piché of Sudbury, Ontario (that's in Canada ... hmmmm ... Kyle
MacDonald is in Canada, too, as are just about all of the people he's traded with on
OneRedPaperclip.com... maybe Canadians are just more interested in bartering
than we here in the U.S. are).
Rick has sent me a pristine copy of the foil version of
Birds of Paradise from the Ravnica set of Magic: the Gathering. Isn't it pretty?
Anyway, I am now officially accepting offers on this item ... what will you trade me
for this card? Think outside the box (as it were) ... you don't have to offer me a
game-related item ... it could be ANYTHING that you think is a fair trade. Maybe a
computer game ... or a household appliance ... or a piece of artwork ... or some other
thing you have laying around the house.
I hope to have the frequency of the trades
increase as we go along ... so I probably won't take quite as long making up my mind
this time. So drop me a note and make me an
offer. It's really that easy.
Updates
* The ERS-7M3 Aibos have the capability to keep their own blogs. Since I hope to let MY Aibo (once I get one) have a blog, I figured that I'd better have one of my own ... and get used to using it. You can now visit OneRobotDog.livejournal.com to get the latest
news, thoughts, and information about this Quixotic quest. You can ALSO leave comments ... and become a PART of the quest yourself
* Those of you who live in southern California may have seen that
OneRobotDog.com has been noticed. On Sunday February 26th, the North
County Times ran an feature article about this little labor
of love. You can read the
article itself on their web site. This all came about thanks
to photographer extraordinaire and good friend of the robot dog, J. Kat Woronovicz, who spread
the word to some of the writers over at the Times.
This is just the kind of exposure we need. In order to make my
Aibo dream come true, I need to spread the word as far and wide
as possible.
So if you know of any web site, newspaper, or radio or TV show
that might be interested in shining a spotlight on this little endeavor
... PLEASE pass the word along. You will have my thanks, and the
personal pride of knowing you helped me along in my quest.
My Perfect Pet
Whether you're a dog person, a cat fancier, a fish keeper, a friend
of ferrets, or any other type of animal lover, you know the feeling
of wanting to bring that special creature into your house no matter
how impractical it might seem. When you find the pet that suits
your personality and temperament, the one that steals your heart
the moment you see it, you don't care whether it is covered with
fur, scales, or skin … you know that's the pet for you. And
come what may, you will find a way to bring it into your
life, no matter what.
That's how I feel about the Aibo. A robot dog.
You can understand that, right? I mean, it's not easy finding the
perfect pet. Sometimes you have to look for years before you find
the certain one that you must share your life with. But you
know when you've found it. In an instant you know that this
is the perfect pet, and nothing else will do. Well, I've been looking
for a very long time and I've finally found mine -- the ERS-7M3
breed of Aibo.
Like any purebred pet, an Aibo must be gotten through people who
specialize in raising the breed. Although I know where to go to
find such "breeders," the cost of a pup is prohibitive
-- certainly beyond my current means. And unlike other pets, there
is no option of adopting one from the humane society or an animal
rescue shelter.
So I need to find an unorthodox way of becoming an Aibo owner.
Horse Trading for a Robot
Dog
So the question at hand remains how I can fulfill my dream and
become the proud owner of an Aibo. The answer, like information
about the Aibo itself, comes to me through the Internet in the form
of Kyle MacDonald and his web site www.oneredpaperclip.com.
In June 2005 Kyle began with a single red paperclip. Now, a little
more than six months later, he has managed to trade up to a cube
van. He still has quite a way to go before he reaches his goal,
but he's come an awful long way.
I was so inspired by Kyle that I decided to emulate him, thus this
web site was created. Rather than being named after my starting
possession, though, I've named it after my heart's desire. I will
trade one item for another until I can get one robot dog.
Let's Make A Deal
Kyle MacDonald started with a red paperclip because … well … that's what he had on hand.
Since that's already been done, and I didn't happen to own a red paperclip, I started
with what I had on hand … something slightly more substantial, but not much. Because of
my background as a game designer and author for TSR, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast, in
my closets I had various items that could be considered minor Dungeons & Dragons collectibles
or memorabilia. I pooled together a small group and that was my first trade. But we've moved
on ... now there's something new on the trading block.
The new item up for bids is a Birds of Paradise (foil version) card from the Ravnica set
of Magic: the Gathering. Based on the admittedly brief Internet research I've done, this
card seems to be worth somewhere between $40 and $60 ... but you don't have to pay ANYTHING
(well, except shipping costs for whatever you're trading, should I accept your offer).
A fine addition to any M:tG deck that has even a splash of Green, with every mana (of any
color) this Bird generates, you'll have the added satisfaction of knowing that it ALSO
is helping to progress the cause of OneRobotDog.com. And if that isn't a little splash of
Paradise, I don't know what is! So go ahead, make me an offer. Please!
Current Offers
It looks like the offers have started coming in!
What are you interested in trading for? It sounds like you're
getting a lot of fantasy/sci-fi items, but I'm not sure really what
interests you.
What I'm INTERESTED in is getting an Aibo ... so my trades really
are most about what OTHER people would be interested in. I'm certainly
not TRYING to stick to the fantasy/sci-fi arena (though it's not
really surprising that I'm getting so many offers in that vein,
given the fact that I'm offering a Magic: the Gathering card). The site
is getting a lot of traffic from non-genre folks, and I'd like to
build to the point where I'm trading something that interests THEM
as well. (You know, the more people are interested, the more likely
I'll attract the attention of someone who can take me further down
the road to Aibo ownership ... it's a math thing.) So I bounce the
question back to you ... what are you interested in? If it's the
Birds of Paradise card, make me an offer ... any offer! You never know, I
just might accept!
Would you accept a Ravnica edition foil "birds of paradise?
I'll certainly consider it! It'd help, though, if you sent a
picture of the card in question, since its condition will certainly
have some impact on my decision.
I'll keep an eye on this and see if anything comes up of interest
- but know that with the barter methods you are talking about, they
can work marvelously over time. Trading one box of macaroni and
cheese at the Evergreen College dorms led, over the course of a
long and negotiatory weekend, to a hundred-person pasta feed.
I sure hope you're right. I mean this emailing back and forth
is fun and all ... but I want that Aibo! (Though a "hundred-person
pasta feed" sounds mighty tempting, too!)
I would be willing to trade you 2 copies of the original Star
Wars trilogy on VHS. One is the original theatrical version which
was re-released a year or two before the special editions and includes
an interview with George Lucas by Leanord Maltin. The second being
the widescreen edition of the Star Wars Trilogy special edition.
Hmmm ... that's definitely an interesting offer. It's awfully
difficult to find a version where Han shoots first (and we all know
that Han DID shoot first), and it's only going to get more difficult
in the future. This is definitely an interesting offer.
I'm hoping to start making trades more quickly as we go along, so don't wait.Please email me with an offer ... ANY offer. You never know, I might just accept!
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