Economics & Investing For Preppers

13 Comments

1. October 2019 sure feels like October 2007…tick tock suckers!

   When you’re on the beach and you see all the water getting sucked out to sea…don’t fixate on the pretty seashells, head for the hills. Only fools dawdle in danger.

   1. BFG ,,,,the water started going out a year ago ,a major company I’m involved with (food stores) started cutting back inventory the first of the year to build cash reserve ,

2. BGF, Well said!

3. This is the last day to purchase Baofeng dual-band radios per the FCC ban.

   A friend wonders whether they will continue to be offered on Amazon by scofflaw Chinese companies, and whether Amazon will continue to allow their sale. Who knows what might occur, but why take that risk if you believe that you might ever need them?

   1. Just know that there’s a reason these radios go for around $25.00. I’m not knocking the Baofeng as an excellent starter radio for new hams, but they, without a doubt, have their issues. I picked up a “5-pack” of these things at a yard sale. The seller was frustrated with them, and the $15.00 for the lot price was too much for me to resist. Two of them would receive but wouldn’t transmit audio; just carrier. One of them didn’t work outright. The last two had bad antennas. Oh; and THREE of the chargers were bad. In the end, $15.00 got me two working radios, two chargers, and five good batteries, so I didn’t exactly lose on this deal.

      I’m not being a radio snob here. I WISH these radios were available when I was a newly licensed teenage (cash-poor) ham. That being said, If you’re looking to outfit yourself with radios that will work post TEOTWAWKI, without the availability of replacement parts… or replacement radios,… and can afford it, look a little higher on the price scale.

      1. Or just buy 10 instead of 2 or 5. I look at ’em like the kid who recently wrote that he wanted to have something in his bag rather than nothing while he saved up for the “best”. I’m not going to cry if a $30 Baofeng gets soaked, but I would if my only radio, a $300 Yaesu did. I sure can’t afford to outfit a retreat group with $300 radios. Something is better than nothing, and if I have a handful of capable radios among my baker’s dozen Chi-cr*p ones I am ok with that return on my investment.

         1. Indeed. They’re surely better than nothing, but you hit the nail on the head; they’re DISPOSABLE. People need to know this going in.

            1. I know little about the issues here, being new to ham radio operation. What I have been told by an extraordinarily experienced ham operator who sells radios at gun shows is that the Baofeng was sold around the world in Third World countries where no license was required. It was even sold in toy stores in China. The quality control was very poor until a few years ago. Things have changed since then.

               The UV82 series was made to a much higher standard because it was intended for use in the US. Higher standards applied than in Third World countries. The entire line has improved in the last few years.

               Rather than bother with programming my own units, I had 9 UV-5Rs and four UV82’s programmed by this same fellow because I didn’t want to fool with it, and because he would run tests on mike and earphones and tuning. Zero defects. All worked as intended.

            2. BTW, I noticed by late morning today that the 6-pack of Baofeng UV-5Rs that JWR recommended was out of stock.

4. Japanese swords seem to be a esoteric subject with a near complete loss post-shtf. On the other hand on a recent visit to a Renaissance fair the weapons on offer were from junk to theatrical(unsharpened but sturdy) to real combat(sharp and almost indestructible with lifetime guarantees) weapons with costs of several hundreds of dollars but a value compared to a antique. A wide variety of weapons(not just swords) were available:maces,flails,war hammers,pole arms etc. so even in a jurisdiction that forbids sharp weapons(UK) a mace or hammer is vastly superior weapon to knives or clubs and is easily camouflaged as “wall hangers”.

   1. LOL! Getting pummeled by a mace or a flail “wall hanger” would be a really bad thing! Talk about going medieval on someone!

5. At Zero Hedge: The Collapse In Germany Is Real… And Accelerating

   Nice, can they give any Sources and reasons for this articles conclusions.

   Eliminate cash in Germany? In what victorian fairy tale does he live?

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ26TbhZW8k

6. I bought my multi pack of these guys last year when JWR said “get em while you can!”

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