Barbecue TV

Alrighty then. Inspired by this wonderful blog, not to mention "The Great Brain", I've decided to set up this additional blog to catalog my wonderful adventures through wacky hijinks to turn one bottle of Open Pit Chile Lime BBQ sauce into a big screen HDTV.

To start off, some initial thoughts / rationale.

• Ending trade: I did not want to rip off Kyle's (from one red paperclip) idea of ending from a house. He's doing a house, so more power to him. Plus, I already have a house. Not that I would turn down a better house, should I be able to get one, but I thought I'd try something else. I eventually settled on a big-screen HDTV. I don't know anything about what makes a good TV, so when I get closer to that, I'll have to find someone who is knowledgable about these things.
• Beginning item: I wanted something trivial, yet something that might have *some* trade value. Plus, it being in my house to begin with was a huge positive. I settled on Open Pit BBQ sauce. Point #1 - I have about 200 bottles in the basement that I've gotten for free (see here for an example). Point #2 it's something cheap / trivial. Point #3, It at least has some trade value (Retail price: $1.79). Point #4: I have now punctuated my 4 points in 4 different ways (hyphen space comma colon) and until you just read this sentence you didn't even notice. I also thought about taking the worst gift received at next week's Christmas Gift Exchange and starting with that but decided not to. I may do a separate one with that at some point.
  
• Pity trades: I don't want no steenkin pity trades. By pity trades I mean someone that trades with me just to help me out or trades me something worth much more than my gift. For example, someone offered a Star Wars original trilogy VHS set for my barbecue sauce. I turned him down for being a pity trade. Plus he may have been kidding. But if I can turn my BBQ sauce into something a step or two up, I may revisit the trilogy tapes.
• Taxes: As a seasonal tax associate, this came to mind. I'm not a tax expert, but it would seem to me that something like this might run afoul of the IRS. I would imagine that regular trades would not have tax consequences, but if someone gave you a house for a paperclip, I feel 99% certain that the IRS would treat that as a gift and require you to pay income taxes on it. But I'm not sure about the trading multiple times. You could argue that a paperclip and a fish pen have equal value (hence the trade), and therefore no income needs be declared. But then could you also say that a fish pen has equal value with a doorknob? And a doorknob a Coleman stove? This is where I'm not so sure. In any case, because you can give somebody up to $11,000 tax-free each year, I'm going to say that I am going to be okay, since my TV will not cost that much. I may ask someone at one of my next classes. But you can be sure that if I do, I will ask before or after class, and not waste class time with something so off-the-wall because ARRRRRGGGGH IT IS SO FRUSTRATING THE STUPID TIME-WASTING QUESTIONS THAT PEOPLE ASK! Not that I just spent 3 hours last night having people ask these types of stupid questions. "Yeah, so what if someone came in, and they said that they got this house and they paid for it with a paperclip? Would they have to pay taxes on it?"

So, I will keep you updated. Right now - up for trade - one bottle of BBQ sauce!