Strangest trade-in ever? Man swaps meteorite for motorcycle

12 years, 8 months ago - 17 August 2011
Strangest trade-in ever? Man swaps meteorite for motorcycle
Landers Harley-Davidson has a slogan: We'll trade for just about anything. Really? Anything? One Arkansas man decided to test that motto himself when he called the dealership to see if they'd trade him a motorcycle for a meteorite.

Jim Griffey was out minding his own business, planting trees in his backyard, when his shovel hit something solid. Out came an unidentified rock and in went the tree. That rock, though, was unlike anything else Griffey had ever seen, and had some rather strange magnetic properties.

Sensing something was awry, Griffey took his find to a local expert, who concluded that this unassuming chunk was actually a meteorite that had fell from the sky and embedded itself years ago into Griffey's backyard.

Seems that our man had more use for a Harley-Davidson than he did for a rock from outer space, and, luckily for him, Landers Harley-Davidson agreed to make the trade as long as Griffey could get documentation that his trade-in really was a meteorite.

Our take? Depending on the retail price of the motorcycle in question, we're thinking Landers has made a rather shrewd move. After all, regardless of the value of the actual meteorite, they can just take the price of the bike out of their annual marketing budget... it's darn near impossible to buy this kind of publicity.