... with one weird old trick. Just wait 2 hours!

The game generates the sequence of wire prices by adding a number between -6 and +6 to wireBasePrice, then rounding up. wireBasePrice obviously goes up as you buy more wire. It can also go down by 0.1% if you do not buy wire for 25 seconds (so long as it is >$15). If you load up the game and wait for 288 * 25 seconds = 2 hours (exactly), wireBasePrice will fall to $14.993. Waiting longer doesn't hurt, but also doesn't help.

This is sort of a hack on the speedrun rules, which say, "Timing starts when first paperclip is made." It meets the letter of the rules, but arguably undercuts the spirit.

If you want to playtest this scenario without waiting 2 hours, you can open the developer's console and run "wireBasePrice = 20 * (0.999**288)".

I'm not a quick enough clicker to beat anyone's record, even with an edge like this. I wish there was a TAS category for this game. Please use this trick with my blessing.

Next up: How to start generating Ops when you hit 1,000 paperclips!

Although the rules does say that time start with first paperclip the relevant time is IGT which start when you load the game so it doesn't help.

If you stick to the letter of the rules, wouldn't you subtract IGT for the first paperclip from IGT for victory to get your final result?

The game doesn't display your IGT for the first paperclip, first time message is at 500 clips and 5 funds. So there is no way to measure IGT that way.

The letter of the rules also state that your IGT is what is displayed at the end so it is a contradiction if you will.