Oh man... That was a thing. He and I exchanged emails during the camp stove/generator phase. He was nowhere near me geographically, and I couldn't figure out anything I had to lure him any closer.like One Red Paperclip which just evolved as it went on, it was "emergent" from the web culture at the time.
It probably sounds more interesting than it is... I don't remember how I came across his experiment - probably slashdot, maybe Digg. Anyhow - I loved the idea, so I emailed him, told him where I was living and some ideas about what I could offer in trade. He responded saying he was pretty far from where I was, but maybe I had something nicer than might sweeten the deal. We traded a few more emails, but in the end, whatever I was willing to part with wasn't enough to make him drive over a thousand miles to trade. I think his next trade up was the generator.