Trading Up

I wrote about The Great Minivan Trade Up last month and I was excited to learn that Dad of Divas is moving along smoothly in his goals.

He was interviewed recently by his local paper, the Herald Times Reporter. Since the current trade up includes drinks with a fellow blogger, I figured I'd have to come up with something equally exciting to offer as a trade up.

Suddenly, I'm reminded of my first day on the Stanford University campus just a few months back. I was there for the Professional Publishing Course and found myself at the bookstore just hours before checking into my dorm.

Just as I was about to head to the opening class, two young teenage boys stopped me. Or perhaps there were three. They were very shy, looked extremely nervous and a little annoyed at the person who ignored them just seconds before turning to me. I stopped to hear what they had to say.

Apparently, as part of their assignment for their summer class, they were asked to hold a similar experiment in trading up. They offered me a band-aid and asked if I had something of more value in exchange. They even suggested a pen or pencil, which I of course had on hand.

After they thanked me and walked on to the next unsuspecting bystander, I realized that I had actually gotten the better deal here. After all, pens are easy to come by these days. Companies give them away, people leave them behind or you can easily find a woman with a purse who most likely has one.

But, ask your average Joe for a band-aid and you'd be hard-pressed to find one. As a mom, I typically have one in my purse but I was pretty surprised that these young students felt that a pen was of more value. The value of certain material things is subjective.

Back to my point. The blogger, Weaselmomma, who kindly offered her company during Happy Hour along with her recipes for some pretty amazing goodies, realizes the value of these two things. Oh, and she even threw in an autographed photo of herself so you can say you knew her when she becomes famous.

Even if this mini-van trade up does not make her famous, it most certainly will provide her with some new readers. So, to my readers, I now challenge you. What would you trade this little package (approximate value $250) for?

Head on over to The Great Mini-Van Trade Up to offer up your own collection of goodies.