17-year-old from California was given an old iPhone for free and used it to do 14 trades on Craigslist that ended with him getting a Porsche

Published on May 29, 2026 at 5:40 PM (UTC+4)
by Ben Thompson

Last updated on May 29, 2026 at 5:40 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by Mason Jones

17-year-old from California was given an old iPhone for free and used it to do 14 trades on Craigslist that ended with him getting a Porsche

When this 17-year-old was given an old iPhone, he couldn’t have possibly imagined it would end with him getting a Porsche from Craigslist.

When Steven Ortiz, from Glendora, California, was given an old iPhone by a friend, he wasted no time in getting to work on a trade.

Over the next two years, he would conduct 14 trades through Craigslist.

At the end of all that was a car – a Porsche Boxster, to be exact.

Here’s how this teenager traded his way from an iPhone to a Porsche Boxster

It all started with a old phone given to him for free by a friend.

From there, he traded it in for a better cell phone, which got swapped out for an iPod Touch in turn.

At this point, he made the jump from electronics to vehicles as he went through several dirt bikes.

After the dirt bikes, he moved onto a MacBook Pro.

That MacBook Pro was traded in for a Toyota 4Runner, which then became a off-road golf kart.

Keeping up, still?

A golf kart would then go onto become a dirt bike, which became a street bike, and then a series of cars.

By the time he’d arrived at a 1975 Ford Bronco, you’d assume this would be the point at which he called it quits.

But that wasn’t the case – he traded in for a 2000 Porsche Boxster S.

In some ways, this would be seen as a downgrade.

For a start, there’s a lot of expenses that came with the car – an oil change would cost $150, and a routine check-up would set him back around $1,000.

So it’s no wonder that the Whittier Daily News reported he was considering his next trade, eying up a Cadillac Escalade.

And this was back in 2010 – it’s anyone’s guess what car he’s landed himself with all these years later.

But earning himself a reputation as a ‘bartering king’ is enough of a flex.

Craigslist’s incredible car deals

While this was a pretty exceptional case, this isn’t the first time someone has netted themselves a car from Craigslist.

There was this 1971 Corvette which went up for a very affordable price of $3,500, and the 1999 Porsche 911 which went for $6,000.

You never know what you’ll find when you go onto Craigslist.

Following stints at LadBible, The Sun, The New York Post, and the Daily Mail, Ben joined the team full-time in February 2025. In his role as Senior Content Writer, his sparkling copy, the ability to sniff out a good story at 100 paces, and a GSOH quickly led to him becoming an integral and invaluable member of the writing staff.