About

First, like most great original ideas, this one’s stolen. Credit goes to Kyle Macdonald, who parlayed a concept he stole from the kid’s game "Bigger and Better" into a house (Canadian), fame (Internet) and a book deal (currently #225,111 on Amazon.com). My goals are more lofty and at the same time refreshingly petty. More on that below.

Here’s how it works
I start with one crappy thing, in this case a 2007 Charlie Manuel baseball card, and trade it to somebody for some item, service, experience, whatever – as long as it’s worth somewhat more. Then I turn around and try to trade that new thing to somebody else, etc., etc, rinse, repeat, until eventually I’m offering to swap super valuable and interesting things for even more valuable and interesting things.

Finally, and who knows when, I’ve traded up to an item I think is worth about $50,000 cahs. Then I auction it off, with 100% of the proceeds donated to the Greater Philadelphia Chapter of the ALS Association, to help support their effort to find a cure for ALS.

The Phillies tie-in
The Phillies organization has no involvement in this project.  However, for the past couple of years I’ve been idly thinking up schemes to somehow get picked to throw out the first pitch at a Phils game. Many is the time I have sat and watched some no-name schlub get to go out there and bounce one down to the catcher, while I wondered how it could somehow possibly be me out there, setting up in the stretch, glaring over to first at the imaginary runner, and then hurling my devastating changeup past the imaginary batter (Andruw Jones), who freezes and then collapses, humiliated, because I have just won the World Series in front of a delirious home crowd by throwing 81 straight strikes. (The imaginary runner? Passed ball. I’ve been thinking about this a lot.)

So this is my scheme – to catch the Phillies’ attention by raising a huge amount of money for one of their favorite charities, and thereby get tapped to throw out the first pitch at a Phillies home game. And help find a cure for ALS.

Three ways you can help

  1. Forward this website to your friends and to social bookmarking sites like Digg and Reddit, talk about it online and in real life, and generally spread the word.
  2. Offer a trade for whatever’s currently up for swap. Be creative, think about not just merchandise but also experiences, services, and adventures you can offer, and feel free to make a really bad trade for yourself, because the difference goes to ALS.
  3. If you know anyone in the media, please tell them about this site, so I can get maximum exposure, leading to better swap offers, leading to a bigger ALS donation.