However the reality of what I get for each trade and the hypothetical things I could trade for varies dramatically. For fun I have made this chart by plugging in price ranges into Toronto's Craigslist to see what it comes up with.
NOTE: The hypothetical list is real items I found for sale or trade on Craigslist. Most of them were for sale, but you never know... the owners might be willing to trade.
Trade Number + Value Estimate | Hypothetical Trade | What I actually Traded for |
1st Trade - $4 | Laptop DDR2 Memory | Mastercraft Digital Multimeter Kit ($49.99 at Canadian Tire) |
2nd Trade - $8 | Inflatable Pool | Retro Red Raleigh Mixte Bicycle (approx. value $150) |
3rd Trade - $16 | CSI Crime Scene Investigation The Board Game | |
4th Trade - $32 | A Youth Archery Kit with 2 arrows | |
5th Trade - $64 | An Used Table or Chair | |
6th Trade - $128 | A Bicycle (Evidently I got this level sooner than expected.) | |
7th Trade - $256 | American Idol tickets | |
8th Trade - $512 | Vintage Ibanez Axstar Guitar | |
9th Trade - $1,024 | 1995 Honda Civic DX-SE | |
10th Trade - $2,048 | Antique 4-Piece Bedroom Set | |
11th Trade - $4,096 | 16 Ft. Princecraft Pontoon Boat | |
12th Trade - $8,192 | Porsche 924S | |
13th Trade - $16,384 | 2 bedroom trailer in Sunderland in the Kawarthas | |
14th Trade - $32,768 | 2008 Moomba Outback boat with 325 HP engine | |
15th Trade - $65,536 | MAZDA RX7 Tokyo Drift Car | |
16th Trade - $131,072 | 2004 Beneteau 373 Sailboat | |
17th Trade - $262,144 | 2 Bedroom Condo for Sale at 265 Enfield Place (priced at $239,000) |
The problem is that when the trades reach the bigger numbers it is probably going to slow down as per the % of increase in the value. I don't actually expect it to take 17 trades. It might take 20 to 30 trades to do it because the value might only jump up in smaller percentages in the final stages. (But for now I am 4 trades ahead of schedule in terms of value.)
ie. Lets assume it only goes up an average of 50% after reaching the $8,000 mark (trade #12).
Trade #13 - $12,000
Trade #14 - $18,000
Trade #15 - $27,000
Trade #16 - $40,500
Trade #17 - $60,750
Trade #18 - $91,125
Trade #19 - $136,688
Trade #20 - $205,031
Trade #21 - $307,546
So 21 trades is still pretty fast.
At 25% jumps after the $8000 mark it reaches $227,374 by trade #27. At 20% it reaches $212,987 by trade #30.
But lets not get ahead of ourselves here. I am still working on trade #3.