Online Bartering to Make Money on the Web

I just read an article about a guy who is trading his way to owning a home. He started with a red paper clip which he bartered on Craig's List for a pen, and he has been on a roll since. Now, he has traded up to a year's lease on a house in Arizona, and he's still working on to barter for a home. The article can be found here: online bartering

As a personal observation, I wonder if bartering sites such as Craig's List can yield better returns than a site such as eBay. Selling something on eBay is typically subject to the 7-day auction time restraint (you can pay for longer auctions.) If interested bidders don't find your item within the auction timeframe, you cannot reap the true cross-bidding benefit of the auction model. If only one person bids, it's not much of an auction, is it? With so many items for sale all the time, is it possible for the auction to lose its effect? Part of the reason why people pay more for items in an auction is because they have to buy it NOW or lose it. If they know there will be another auction for the exact same thing tomorrow, buyers do not have that same impetus to bid now.

With bartering, on the other hand, you can leave an item available until you find a price or trade that you think is fair. As long as you can hold the item indefinitely and the place where you are trading gets buyers interested in your goods, you can wait for your price.

Thoughts?