# Are you a net paperclip importer or exporter?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [February 1, 2010, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303 "2010-02-01T23:32:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2010, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303/1 "2010-02-01T23:32:42Z")
By the end of the week at work, I generally end up with more paperclips than I had at the start of the week. More paperclips come to me attached to documents than I send out of my office. As a result, I’m a net paperclip importer. I never have to go searching for paperclips in the supply cupboard. 🆒
How about you?
[sub]okay, it’s a really stupid topic, but if I talked about what was the most interesting thing that really happened at work lately, it’d be kind of creepy, and only lead to questions I can’t answer.[/sub]
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### Author:  [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2010, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303/2 "2010-02-01T23:40:51Z")
I’m neutral. I have the same going out as I do coming in. Guess that makes me Sweden.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2010, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303/3 "2010-02-02T00:22:08Z")
I’m a writer and still send out paper manuscripts on occasion. Editors never return paperclips. I think it’s part of their job description.
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### Author:  [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2010, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303/4 "2010-02-02T01:18:33Z")
Net loss. I’m not sure where all these paperclips are going, but they don’t last long on my desk.
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### Author:  [@Karen\_Lingel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karen_Lingel)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2010, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303/5 "2010-02-02T01:39:10Z")
Paper!?!?! At work??? I’m in the technology industry! I go weeks and weeks without using, seeing, or thinking about paper clips.
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### Author:  [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2010, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303/6 "2010-02-02T02:18:57Z")
I get materials that don’t need to be bound in any way that are paper clipped and often, worse, stapled. I am forever getting paper clips I do not want. I’ve got a bowl of them that I will never ever use and I don’t know what to do with them. Can they be recycled?
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### Author:  [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2010, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303/7 "2010-02-02T02:27:50Z")
You are obviously unaware of the role the paperclip plays in the life cycle of the hanger.
Paperclips are the larval forms. Safety pins are the eggs. Since the eggs hatch quickly, you can’t a safety pin when you need one, but there are always tons of paperclips. The larval phase is quite long and conditions have to be perfect for them to metamorph back to the adult wire hanger.
So, next time you look into the closet and see the tangle of mating hangers, remember, soon you’ll hear that patter of little paperclips.
😃
\*I’m the “other”
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2010, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303/8 "2010-02-02T02:35:36Z")
I have one paper clip which is used when my CD drive won’t open.
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### Author:  [@Not\_a\_Platypus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_a_Platypus)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2010, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303/9 "2010-02-02T02:42:30Z")
It’s absurd how many paperclips I accumulate at work. There’s a gal at work who separates out checks and approvals between the two of us, and she likes to give me checks paperclipped to nothing; just a single check with a paperclip on it. I’ve tried giving them away with some of my paperwork, but they come back ☹
I don’t want anymore! Please, please stop giving me paperclips!
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### Author:  [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2010, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303/10 "2010-02-02T03:01:32Z")
So THAT’S where all my paperclips went@!!
I export more than China.:mad:
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### Author:  [@Mame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mame)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2010, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303/11 "2010-02-02T03:07:41Z")
See, what you all really need is [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsQ-Z7aqif4) gizmo 🙂
Down with bent metal tyranny! Liberate the paper!!
(OK, it doesn’t work too well for more than 4 sheets of paper, but people are fascinated by it the first few times.)
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### Author:  [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2010, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303/12 "2010-02-02T03:21:58Z")
Other.
I never see paperclips in the course of my work.
However, there is a paperclip holder in the conference room, and I tend to amuse myself during long conference calls by making chains and bending them into wire sculptures.
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### Author:  [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2010, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303/13 "2010-02-02T03:40:34Z")
I’m an exporter, except they don’t get sent to other people. They get sent to the file cabinet.
I admit it felt pretty weird to order a dozen boxes of paper clips. Usually I have more hanging around than I know what to do with.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2010, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303/14 "2010-02-02T03:56:33Z")
My accountant sends me paperclips and I end up sending most of them back. The ones that don’t get sent back end up being used as “tools” or toys. I pretty much break even.
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### Author:  [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2010, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303/15 "2010-02-02T04:46:13Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> I’m a writer and still send out paper manuscripts on occasion. Editors never return paperclips. I think it’s part of their job description.
Editors probably use then to file their teeth.
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### Author:  [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2010, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303/16 "2010-02-02T04:54:04Z")
> [@Mame](#):
>
> See, what you all really need is [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsQ-Z7aqif4) gizmo 🙂
>
> Down with bent metal tyranny! Liberate the paper!!
>
> (OK, it doesn’t work too well for more than 4 sheets of paper, but people are fascinated by it the first few times.)
:eek:
I _so_ need that for work!!!
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### Author:  [@Ann\_Onimous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Onimous)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2010, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303/17 "2010-02-02T13:36:12Z")
Importer. When we have meetings, and everyone brings paperwork, I’m given the paperwork to shred later. So I get all the paper clips. I haven’t had to buy paper clips in, oh, five years.
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### Author:  [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2010, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303/18 "2010-02-02T13:45:39Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#):
>
> [sub]okay, it’s a really stupid topic, but if I talked about what was the most interesting thing that really happened at work lately, it’d be kind of creepy, and only lead to questions I can’t answer.[/sub]
I would like to hear about this. Your stories terrify and fascinate us.
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2010, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303/19 "2010-02-02T13:54:24Z")
I’m another “Sweden” - my office doesn’t operate on the movement of paper. Yes, we’re pretty close to that Utopian paperless office.
We don’t receive paper and we don’t send paper out. I probably don’t hit “print” more than three times a month, and there’s rumors of a copier existing down the hall.
Heck, we hardly even staple things - in ten years, I think I might have used one and a half strips of staples.
However… the previous occupant of this cube was a clip hoarder. I have a drawer filled with various implements for holding paper together. Three boxes of _Trombones Geants_, the pencil tray is filled with both sizes of clips plus a bonus clump of dried-out rubber bands, and there’s several handfuls of the big bat-wing binder clips. Plus, two boxes of staples, which at my historical rate of consumption, will probably rust away to dust before I have a chance to use half of them.
I’m tempted to pour clips into inter-office envelopes and send them off to random buildings with no return address. Just to get rid of them and hopefully get them to a good home. I know they’re cheap, but it seems terrible to just throw away perfectly good clips, so they languish in the dark.
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-net-paperclip-importer-or-exporter/527303/20 "2010-02-02T14:52:37Z")
I have to refill my clip holder every couple of weeks, I run out that fast.
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