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gwern comments on Money pumping: the axiomatic approach - Less Wrong
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If neither freecycling nor a bad trade like a pen for a paperclip seem bizarre to you, then why do you object to Buffet giving $500 away on the Internet? If you do not personally object, and are merely describing how you think other people would react, then what would you find bizarre?
So far we've established that you don't find:
Which would seem to suggest you find no voluntary exchange bizarre, and so I don't think you're in a mental position to have any opinion one way or the other about the red paperclip scheme.
(As for actually giving away $500 online: happens all the time. I'm sure you read webcomics or blogs that are funded in part by readers donating. Not to mention little things like Wikipedia or all the online microlending sites like Kiva.)
I find no paradigmatic voluntary exchange bizarre. There are sometimes factors that bizarre-ify exchanges of any of the three types you divide up. I don't think that these factors were at work in the red paperclip "scheme", but could be mistaken - I haven't done extensive red paperclip related research.
I know people sometimes give away substantial amounts to content producers they want to support, which looks like a hybrid of gift and either fair or unfair trade (depending on the content). I don't find it bizarre. I'm sure many people would, but I'm willing to be proven wrong.