There once was a man who traded a red paperclip for a new house. With the Penn State Ultimate Trader Challenge, maybe you can do the same.

At the beginning of the challenge, everyone who signs up is given a simple black pen made out of recycled plastic bottles. By March 18^th, the challenge is for you to “trade up” the pen for something of a greater value, such as from a pen to a pair of headphones, and to continue trading items for the next eight weeks. The goal of this challenge is to have acquired an item with the greatest possible value at Penn State. Cash cannot be traded. Examples of successful ultimate goals would be an iPad, a cell phone, or a digital camera.

Every week, participants must post their weekly trade updates on the Facebook page and on this forum.

The trades on the forum and Facebook page will be tracked every week, and people are encouraged to put down a note on how they made the connection for the trade, and how that item will help them get to their ultimate goal or objective.

Not only do you get to keep all of your trade items, but there will also be a reward such as t-shirts and gift cards for the top two traders every week.

After the end of the eight weeks, the top five traders will be featured in the NCIIA (National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance)’s regional conference in D.C. on March 22^nd. They will also win a Grand Prize, which has not yet been determined, but the inventors of this challenge are currently working to get sponsors such as Google, so it’s bound to be fancy and worth the trading.

For more details and to sign up, email [email protected] ASAP, because TODAY is the last day to sign up. The challenge kick-off is tomorrow, January 25^th at 4:30 p.m. in 119 Osmond.

For a bit of trading information before the challenge gets underway, check out this video: