One of my survival planning assumptions is that regardless of my stored goods and planning, “Murphy” will appear with the proverbial monkey wrench in hand. At some point, my food stores will wear thin and, something will break along with its spares. Amazon and the local Acme hardware will long be a thing of the past. What is a Prepper to do? Well, like everything we do for our future survival, we ponder, plan and prepare for those contingencies.
Bartering is probably about as old as the Earth’s soil. Even with all our economic advances through the centuries, bartering is still a useful exchange of goods and services. In my opinion, bartering will be our “failsafe” for our prepping shortfalls during The End of The World As We Know It (TEOTWAWKI) events. Granted there are other options such as stealing or scavenging (just a polite word for stealing) but those methods will be risky.
As we are thrust back into a majority agrarian world, bartering will serve as a way to trade our “surplus” food for other things we need. Surplus food in the Apocalypse? Yes, surplus food. Think about having a bumper crop of zucchini (like that never happens) along with a great harvest of your other crops. You have dried, canned, or otherwise preserved more than enough food to last you and your family until the next crops come in or perhaps you have run out of canning jars. Whatever the reason, you very well may find yourself with excess fresh food during a post-SHTF harvest. The same may even happen with other foods like eggs, honey, and meat from game or livestock. Bartering or trading will be a great way of turning your surplus food into other useful things you need or want. The following are some topics to consider when stocking items for barter and setting up a system of trade.
The dollar store barterING dilemma
YouTube is full of prepper videos discussing putting items away from the dollar store for barter. Bottom line up front, I guess bad barter goods are better than no barter goods. I’m sure there are items from the dollar store that are good barter items, like sewing items and lighters, but how much are those items really going to be worth in a post-TEOTWAWKI trade situation? I think we first need to ask ourselves why those particular items are sold at dollar stores. The answer is that they are cheap, both in the sense of price and quality. Why are these items so inexpensive? Because they are plentiful. So apply the age-old law of supply and demand to dollar store goods. One could agree that in a post-TEOTWAWKI world all goods will be scarce so demand is still high. On the other hand, we can argue that in a post-TEOTWAWKI world, there will be a quick decline in population so those dollar store-type goods will have huge supply but little demand.
Next, we have to ask, who is going to survive the “apocalypse”? We have all heard the estimation that an EMP will reduce the U.S. population by 90%. So who is the 10% that survive and do you really think they are going to need a dollar store disposable lighter? Well, a good part of that surviving 10% will be you and I, Preppers. Now imagine that the remaining 10% of the population all watched those YouTube videos and stockpiled items from the dollar store for barter/trade. The remaining population all has a surplus of the same items, thus, the value of those items is substantially decreased. The other issue with stocking trade items from the dollar store is that they are low value. What if you need something “high value”, like antibiotics? Will trading a box full of made-in-China $1.25 items get you a 10-day course of amoxicillin post-SHTF? Again, I do not disagree that there are items at the dollar store that are valuable for survival, what I do question, is whether those items, if stored for post-TEOTWAWKI barter/trade, have the trading power many think they will have after TEOTWAWKI.
Old tech and old-manufactured
As society, as we know it, falls apart our modern conveniences will become inconveniences. The electric can opener, iPhone, microwave, flat screen television, Electric vehicle, and other consumer goods, that make our lives “comfortable” today, will have little use or value post-event. These modern conveniences have also robbed us of skills, that generations before used for their daily living. So what happens when the electric food processor does not work, do you or others in your area have non-electric alternatives? Many of the books, movies, and other media proclaim that after an EMP, life will revert back to that of the 1800s. I think that is a best-case scenario but the question is, what becomes valuable and needed in a post-TEOTWAWKI world? The simple answer is old technology. Specifically, technology that was around in the 1800s and/or technology that uses no electricity. Another part of the answer is technology/items that were designed and manufactured before the concept of planned obsolescence was implemented. Planned obsolescence is the act of engineers and manufacturers designing and making goods that will only last a certain period of time before they break or stop working.
Storing away older technology for barter purposes will prove to be much more fruitful than the dollar store items. Imagine what the value of a pressure canner will be in a post-TEOTWAWKI society. When we consider what items, of long ago, to put away, we need to think about what post-TEOTWAWKI life will be like. Very few of us will be heading to the “office”, wives/mothers will probably revert back to being a “traditional” stay-at-home housewife/mother. At least for the first few years following a TEOTWAWKI event, activities will primarily focus on food production, preservation and preparation. Procuring water for drinking, food preservation and preparation, sanitation, watering of plants and animals will also be a daily task. Picking up sticks for cooking fires will be a task where considerable time daily is committed. What devices (technology) will make daily life not just easier but more productive? Some of the items that I am storing for barter include:
Dough kneaders- will make the task of mixing dough easier and more efficient.
Hand mixers- good quality made in the U.S. (vintage 1950s to antiques)
Food/meat grinders and extra blades/plates- as we become our own butchers these devices will make grinding meat for sausage or ground beef an easier task.
Meat/butcher saws (extra blades)- gone will be the butcher’s electric band saw that quickly cuts through flesh and bones.
Large quantiles of cheese cloth- multiple uses.
Pressure canner/cookers- various sizes and spare seals, weights, and pressure plugs.
Squeezo – food strainers- a non-electric way to help process foods for preservation.
Cast iron cookware and accessories
Candles making supplies- specifically wicks and molds.
Coleman stove and lantern parts including mantles
Binoculars – older made in US or Japan 7×35 or better
Auger/drill bits- for braces, hand drills, Yankee drills and shoulder drills
Hand saws- cross cut, rip and 2 man saws plus sharpening tools/supplies
These are not all the items I have for barter but are items that I have what would look like “collections” due to having many of each.
(To be continued tomorrow, in art 2.)