Teenager Uses Craigslist to Swap Cell Phone for Porsche

Steven Ortiz, a 17-year old boy, used Craigslist to trade his old cell phone for an iPod Touch. He traded that gadget for something better, which he then traded for something even better. After a total of fourteen trades, starting with a cell phone, he had a Porsche Boxster:

Steven started his lucrative journey when his friend gave him an old cell phone - the sort most people would throw away or shove into a junk drawer.

He traded that phone for a better phone, which he then traded for an i-Pod touch. He traded that for a series of dirt bikes, a MacBook Pro, and a 1987 Toyota 4Runner.

At the time, Steven was just 15 and unable to drive his new acquisition. So he quickly swapped it out for a souped-up off-road golf
cart, another more valuable dirt bike, a streetbike, then a series of cars ending with a 1975 Ford Bronco. He spent a few months enjoying each acquisition before determining he was looking for something else.

It was that Bronco that got him the Porsche. Because some older Broncos are considered collectibles, Steven estimated his was worth $15,000.

He got offered all manner of trades - including a locksmith business - for the Bronco. The Porsche, worth about $9,000, was actually a trade down.

http://www.whittierdailynews.com/ci_15535695 via Jalopnik | Photo (unrelated) by Flickr user The Car Spy used under Creative Commons license

Newest 5

Newest 5 Comments

For a youth activity, we did something like that, but just in our neighborhood. We were in groups, competing against each other, and each group started with a small office supply, like a pencil or box of staples or a paperclip or something, then we traded until we had a couple of computers, a table, a giant rug, some chairs, etc. We just went through the neighborhood looking for people who had something to trade. After we were done, because we didn't want to keep all that stuff, we gave it to some families in the area who weren't doing so well financially at the time. It was really fun.