Singaporean influencer says he traded up 10 cents to $2,800 car - and now he wants to give it away
A local influencer claims to have traded up a 10-cent coin to a $2,800 secondhand car in the space of 42 days — and he now wants to give the vehicle away.
Full-time influencer Michael Collins, who has some 7,000 followers on YouTube, is known for stunts and challenges such as sunburning the Singapore flag onto his chest and sailing to Pulau Ubin on a bag of potato chips.
The 26-year-old's "Day XX of trading $0.10 into a car in Singapore" challenge began on Oct 17 and was completed in about two months.
Mr Collins made the final trade on Nov 28 with a man who offered a 15-year-old Forte Cerato Koup, albeit with a rapidly expiring Certificate of Entitlement (COE), valued at $2,800. He secured the deal with a drone and a PSA10-graded One Piece trading card worth a total of $2,500, which he had obtained from a previous trade.
He also agreed to return the scrap value of the car to the owner once its COE expires in about two months.
On Dec 7, Mr Collins uploaded an Instagram post captioned: "Drop me a follow and comment below why you want the car to stand a chance to win it".
His post has since garnered more than 73,000 views, 2,187 reactions and 157 comments as of press time.
The trade-up journey
Mr Collins said he started small, trading his 10 cents up for items such as tissue paper, a Hong Thai inhaler, a tennis ball, and an umbrella.
Things picked up when he swapped the umbrella for a bottle of cologne, which eventually led him to bigger items: a digital camera, a fridge, an Edifier speaker, an iPhone 17 Air, and finally a drone and the PSA10-graded One Piece trading card that enabled his final trade.
Inspired by YouTubers in the United State who often do challenges such as trading a penny into a house, Mr Collins told Stomp that he wanted to try a similar experiment in Singapore.
People were often willing to help, even if the trade meant a personal loss. "I met generous individuals who helped me out with the trades, not so much for themselves but mainly because they wanted to help me achieve my dream," he said.
As the items grew bigger, Collins relied on Carousell to liaise with dealers across Singapore. At one point, his account was suspended for messaging too many people about trades, but his efforts paid off.
His most memorable trade: an Edifier speaker for the fridge, which he had lugged from office to office in an effort to trade it. "I must have faced easily a hundred reactions when I was going around on the streets asking for trades," he added.
Describing the car as an "accumulation of goodwill" from people he met across Singapore, Mr Collins said he now wants to bless someone else with the car.
His next challenge: attempting to fly around the world with a budget of $0.
'YOU ACTUALLY DID IT': Netizen
While some questioned whether the trades were scripted, netizens were generally enthused about Mr Collins' challenge.
"I haven't checked on this in a short while, and whatever you're doing is actually working," one user commented.
Another remarked on the scale of the challenge: "COE is 100x that handbag. You're 1% there."
"Crazy work. Gonna tell my kids this guy used to bang in goals for fun on a four-game contract for SOCO FC [sic]," one user wrote, while another praised him for being in "a literal suit to meet somebody at an [sic] HDB block."
Meanwhile, some shared their reasons for wanting the car, with comments like: "I need this car [sic] I've been stuck in my 8-10 job for years bro [sic] you dont [sic] understand."
