Teenager Uses Craigslist to Swap Cell Phone for Porsche

By John Farrier in Auto & Transportation, Blogs & Internet on Jul 20, 2010 at 10:30 am

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.

Link via Jalopnik | Photo (unrelated) by Flickr user The Car Spy used under Creative Commons license


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  1. amidala
    Jul 20th, 2010 at 10:38 am

    I think the guy at http://www.oneredpaperclip.com has got him beat.

  2. Caleb
    Jul 20th, 2010 at 11:42 am

    Paper clip story is way better

  3. Max Power
    Jul 20th, 2010 at 12:37 pm

    That’s pretty cool.

  4. Sebhitch
    Jul 20th, 2010 at 12:39 pm

    even so fair play

  5. Dewey
    Jul 20th, 2010 at 12:40 pm

    The paper clip guy got a lot of amazing trade-ups because of the story, not because he was a good bargainer. It sounds like this young man made some good choices and got the car of his dreams.

  6. MadMolecule
    Jul 20th, 2010 at 12:55 pm

    Yeah, the paper-clip guy got famous WHILE he was doing it, so that several of the trades were made because the person wanted to be part of the story. This kid is apparently just a shrewd trader. Awesome.

  7. nutbastard
    Jul 20th, 2010 at 2:59 pm

    what i’m amazed at is the fact that the Porsche is only valued at $9k. Nice Celicas of that era commonly go for $9k.

  8. ted
    Jul 20th, 2010 at 5:11 pm

    So he didn’t exactly trade the phone for the porsche.

  9. Michael0511
    Jul 20th, 2010 at 8:08 pm

    “what i’m amazed at is the fact that the Porsche is only valued at $9k.”

    My thoughts exactly. I suppose that just means I’ll have to shop in California when I’m ready buy mine, because there’s no way you could get a decent condition Boxster S of any model year for $9000 around here…

  10. marcusbacus
    Jul 20th, 2010 at 8:30 pm

    A Porsche for 9K must be as good as his original cell phone.

  11. Morgan
    Jul 21st, 2010 at 9:30 am

    Stop! Stop! this is a fake ass story!

  12. justin hunter
    Jul 21st, 2010 at 6:23 pm

    Smart Dude

  13. JoesCat
    Jul 23rd, 2010 at 11:56 am

    That’s cool. …and he started with a free phone.

  14. So and so
    Jul 26th, 2010 at 10:17 am

    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.


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