One man's trash is another man's trade.
An Ontario man has spun a regular Black Diamond cheese string into an in-demand item after placing an ad in Yonge-Dundas Square.
"Accepting trades for one Cheesestring. Marble flavour. Still in original packaging. No lowballs. I know what I have," reads the ad.
Yonge-Dundas Square ad.Courtesy of Brianne Klenney
48-year-old Angel Domingo is a professional trader who knows the value of the item he has and won't be settling for anything less than it's worth.
"It's a pretty good cheese string. I haven't seen a cheese string in a long time, and I think, you know, it's of some value. I wanted to get rid of it," Domingo told Narcity.
"I put an ad up on Kijiji, and no one responded. I just wanted to see how far this would take me."
Wild offers rolling in
The ad went up on August 2 and will run for two weeks, but Domingo didn't let on to how much the prime adverting spot cost him – just that his wife wouldn't be happy with the amount of money he's put into "this project."
So far, he's gotten about 200 offers for the string, but he's not looking for cash. He's on the hunt for a trade, and nothing has caught his eye yet.
Memorable offers include a couple of Persian cats, an old cement truck, and even someone's girlfriend (which is definitely not legal or ethical).
But Domingo's favourite offer so far is a box of Lucky Charms.
"Somebody offered me a box of Lucky Charms. But they said they would pick through it, so it was only charms. I thought that was pretty nice, but if I had the time, I'd do that myself."
Domingo just moved into a new place, and he found the cheese string sitting in the back of the fridge.
"It was the only thing sitting there. Kind of destiny," he mused.
Where the cheese string goes from here is dependent on what offers roll in, but Domingo's heart is in it for the trade.
"It's kind of my rule of thumb is that I don't until you absolutely have to. Money's not really a problem I just like trading."
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.