History Main / ChainOfDeals

* NeilGaiman and DaveMcKean[='=]s children's book ''The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish'' has the protagonist trade his father for two goldfish, then have to unravel the ChainOfDeals that resulted afterwards to get his dad back.

* In the StarWarsExpandedUniverse, this is the [[PlanetOfHats species hat]] of the Squibs. The more complex and outrageous the deal, the more prestigious it is.

* ''CabinPressure'': Douglas runs his smuggling operation this way. He started with a cheese sandwich and within months has traded his way up to goods worth 500 euros.

* The ''Series/LawAndOrder'' episode "Kid Pro Quo": A rich pornographer wanted his kid in a prestigious private school, but was bumped out by a minority candidate with better scores. The pornographer contacts a friend of his in the cement business, who gives a big price break on cement to a building developer who basically gives the headmaster of the school his apartment (which was going Co-Op, but the headmaster didn't have the money to exercise his legal right to first refusal) for free, who in turn [[OneJudgeToRuleThemAll bumps the minority child for the porno guy's kid]]. The school's Head of Admissions notices this and threatens to raise a public fuss if the decision isn't reversed, leading to her becoming the VictimOfTheWeek.

* In the first series of ''DotHack'', one of the least favorite side-quests was to help someone with their trading service, which quickly [[GoneHorriblyWrong went horribly wrong]] because nobody can do an even trade, and one more item had to be fetched in order to even start the chain of deals. Everyone {{lampshades}} how irritating this is.

* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': Sophie has to run one of these in Congress to get a vote for a bill, using a series of different aliases and regional accents.

* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': In "The Gimme A K Street Job", Sophie has to orchestrate a chain of deals through a series of congressmen in order to ensure a particular piece of legislation gets passed. Every time the story cuts back to her, the chain of deals has gotten longer and more elaborate.

** Actually, the last person in this chain wanted ''[[SubvertedTrope nothing]]'' for what Juniper was requesting - but at this point, Juniper was so frustrated from travelling all around to find people who had things for the ChainOfDeals that she made the guy put her in the wrestling match herself.

* ''Series/StargateSG1'' had one of these in the episode "The Ties that Bind"... which also featured Daniel Jackson as the ButtMonkey. Daniel and Vala needed to recover an item Vala stole from a former lover so he would reveal how to sever the bond left behind by the bracelets. Doing this involves a ChainOfDeals with other people Vala stole from. Predictably, even when they finally get all the items back to their rightful owners, the bracelets' owner reveals that he doesn't know how to sever the connection but he thinks it will wear off...eventually.

* In ''TheOffice'' episode "Garage Sale", Dwight attempts to trade up to "the finest item" at the warehouse GarageSale via one of these, starting with a single red thumbtack. This is a ShoutOut to the "One Red Paperclip" project (see Real Life, below).

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames'' have one in each game to get the Level-2 sword (or Level-3 sword if you already have the Level-2 sword in a linked game). Unlike Link's Awakening, this quest is totally optional.
* ''SuikodenI'' has a classic example, where recruiting a particular member of the 108 Stars of Destiny requires you to run through a long ChainOfDeals in order to get soap for a washing-woman who's run out. When you actually succeed, it turns out that she'd just discovered that she wasn't out of soap after all, but in acknowledgement of the trouble you went through to get her soap, she joins you anyway...
** There's official art of her with a fan of throwing knives between her fingers. That chick was just spoiling for a war or two, but needed to clean her commoner gowns first.

* The MMORPG ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' has an infuriating quest of this type called ''[[BlatantLies One Small Favour]]''. By the time your character is halfway through building the very long chain of trades, he/she starts [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] the ridiculousness of the whole thing. In the end, the original quest-giver doesn't seem to think getting him the original favor was such a big deal as to warrant a ''reward'' until your character goes off on him.
** Somewhat worthwhile though, a new recipe for a potion and 20000 free exp. Nothing to scoff at to an extent.
*** And a keyring, which is far more useful than it sounds.
** To clarify: this quest involves trading favours through twenty steps, culminating in fixing a gnome's runway lights after basically trekking in a complete path around from Port Sarim through almost every other area on the map and ending up on the other side of the world, and then going ''back''. Then the ungrateful bastard who gave you the quest doesn't even give you a reward until you explain what you had to go through for some ''goddamn logs''.
** There's also one part of the Fremmenik Trials quest. You end up talking to basically everyone in the entire village until you talk to someone who just wants 5000 gold.
*** Which, while irritating, is still better in that you never have to leave the village.

* ''VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndHisDesktopAdventures'', using randomly generated puzzles, often ends up setting up several {{Fetch Quest}}s in a row. Bring a Demon Mask to the amateur archaeologist so that he will give you the Obsidian Knife, which you'll give to a native who'll give you a Headdress, which you'll give to a tourist in exchange for a Jaguar Statue, which you'll give to another native in exchange for a rope, which--finally--will be used in an environmental puzzle instead. Whew!

* ''RomancingSaGa'' involved a large trade quest kicked off when Strom (Water Elemental Lord) demands the "Raincloud Armlet" in exchange for a captive princess. It's in the possession of Adyllis (Earth Elemental Lord), who will only give it up if you give him the Cyclone Shoes, which you can only get by trading the Ignigarde Helmet to Avi (Wind Elemental Lord) by acquiring the Ice Sword for Pyrix (Fire Elemental Lord) in which you must plunk down 20,000 gold or by killing a recruitable character. At any point in the chain, you can decide to brute-force the whole thing and just beat the crap out of the dragon, though and you get an awesome shield as a [[RandomlyDrops Item Drop]]. However that does have some repercussions, by killing Strom you cannot get the optimal amount of jewels for doing the quest normally, are unable to do his Ecology Quest and also getting the chance to fight his Corrupted Form; Slask ([[RandomlyDrops Item Drop]] is the Chaosbringer; A powerful 2 Handed Axe that gives an Intellect boost). [[spoiler: This also bars you from exploring his temple later, meaning that you can't get the items inside -- including the Water Spirit, which is required for ''another'' quest with ''fantastic'' rewards.]] Also there is a trading ability for you to use in which you can trade items with monsters; so a mini ChainOfDeals is possible; SidetrackedByTheGoldSaucer indeed...
** Actually if you trade with monsters enough, they become "Crowned" which means they are stronger but give better [[RandomlyDrops Item Drops]]. Also trading with monsters can net in quite a bit of jewels or cash if you trade correctly.

* Wondering about the page picture? As documented on [[http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/ One Red Paperclip]], in the course of one year (July 2005 to July 2006) Kyle [=MacDonald=] negotiated a ChainOfDeals that started with a single red paperclip and ended up with a house -- in only ''fourteen'' trades! And now he's putting the house up for trade. Someone get this man the InfinityPlusOneSword.
** Incidentally, he borrowed the paperclip back. To [[CrowningMomentOfFunny bend into an engagement ring to propose to his wife]].
*** She can hardly complain- [[FridgeBrilliance it's worth the same as a house]]!

* ''Series/{{Stargate SG-1}}'' had one of these in the episode "The Ties that Bind"... which also featured Daniel Jackson as the ButtMonkey. Daniel and Vala needed to recover an item Vala stole from a former lover so he would reveal how to sever the bond left behind by the bracelets. Doing this involves a ChainOfDeals with other people Vala stole from. Predictably, even when they finally get all the items back to their rightful owners, the bracelets' owner reveals that he doesn't know how to sever the connection but he thinks it will wear off...eventually.

* John tries such a chain in ''Me and My Little Brain'' after talking to a man who could start with a fifty-cent pocketknife and trade up to a twenty-dollar cow. He manages about nine or ten trades easily, but the chain collapses because he never considered what ''he'' would want out of the whole deal. He accepts a piglet as payment in the final trade, but since he can't keep it at home or afford to board it elsewhere, the other boy offers to take it back.

* ''If You Give a Mouse a Cookie'' is about the chain of deals that will result if you do what the title says.

* An ''Important Things With Demetri Martin'' sketch portrays a particularly long and redundant chain of deals when a woman goes into labour on a plane.

* Dr. Doom does this behind the scenes in ''Marvel: Ultimate Alliance'', and you spend the entire game trying to catch up.

* Featured in [[http://www.goldcoincomics.com/?id=89 Gold Coin Comics, starting here]], where it begins with a crappy belated birthday card.

* One of the many, many gadgets {{Doraemon}} has is a straw that enables a Chain of Deals to give the wielder what they want.

* In VideoGame/TeamFortress2 this is a legitimate way to trade up to Unusual-hat-caliber heights.

* ''Secret of Evermore'''s greek market blatantly uses this, though it's entirely optional. It's even pretty complex, with multiple traders giving the same item for different exchanges, but the rewards you can get through it are items that permanently boost your abilities, so it's worth your time and resources.

* The trickiest puzzle in the original ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyI'' is basically a chain of deals, the difference being that not all the trades are deliberate[[hottip:*:You need to escape the inland sea with your boat. A dwarf can make a canal, but needs TNT. There's TNT in Corneria, but the room it's stored in is locked by the Mystic Key. The Elf Prince has the Key, but he's been cursed into an eternal slumber. Matoya can cure the eternal slumber curse, but can't see anything without her crystal. The king in the Northwest Castle as the crystal, but wants the legendary Crown from the Marsh Cave. The trick here is that the king is actually the dark elf Astos, who will try to kill you when you bring back the Crown, but the rest of the chain plays out normally]]. This sequence is necessary to advance in the game; in fact, it all takes place before the first fiend.

* This is how the Deveels in Aspirin's ''MythAdventures'' series make their fortunes. The graphic novel even contains a visual representation of a chain of deals that begins with a coat hanger and concludes with a giant ruby.

* Occurs in a couple of CarlBarks comics, in particular when DonaldDuck's nephews are involved, who seem to be quite good at this. ''Maharajah Donald'' starts out as the nephews start with a used-up piece of pencil, they end up with a holiday for them and Donald to India or a country of the sorts. In the end, Donald is captured and will be thrown into a tiger pit. The nephews find a paperclip, exclaiming they've found the thing that can save their uncle. cut to "sometime later", when they trade something very valuable for a truckload of raw meat. They throw it over the wall of the tiger pit, feeding the tigers, thus making them not hungry anymore when Donald gets thrown in.

* A quest in ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'' has you getting caught in one of these while trying to get some stolen comic books back for the Gnomish Gnomads. Not only is the quest optional, the reward is rather underwhelming. It also refers to the RealLife example above: the only item you actually retrieve yourself is the [[spoiler: big red paperclip in the Haiku Dungeon]].

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* Daisy chain for kidney donors. Someone in need with of a kidney may have a friend willing to donate to him, but who isn't compatible. So the healthy friend signs up to donate a kidney to anyone that needs it if his sick friend receives a kidney. The result can be a complicated Chain of Deals (all thankfully arranged by sophisticated computer algorithms) in which multiple pairs of friends (recipient and incompatible donor) trade kidneys with other pairs until everyone receives a healthy kidney. The longest such daisy chain of such chain involved 11 people receiving kidneys, all from one [[BadassPacifist non-directed donor offering his kidney to whoever needed it starting the chain]]. In case anyone is interested they can sign up to be start their own chain of kidney deals (and officially become badass) here: http://www.kidney.org/transplantation/livingdonors/anonymousdonation.cfm

*** She can hardly complain- it's worth the same as a house!

* In VideoGame/TeamFortress2 this is a legitimate way to trade up to Unusual-hat-caliber heights. This troper managed to trade his way up from a single weapon to a refined metal in about 8 trades.