Search Results for: bartering

Better Barter Preparedness, by Dan H.

…in 50 square miles, then share!  It’s just the right thing to do.  Water is more replaceable.  It can fall from the sky, food generally doesn’t. After you get your bartering supplies in order (remember, get your personal supplies in order first), then you should make a list showing what items you are willing to barter away, and how many of those items you’re willing to get rid of.  At the end of the list, you should make some notes telling why you decided what items are to be bartered and why.  If you’re not around to make the bartering decisions, the list can be a great benefit to whomever is bartering. Some great tips on how to actually barter can be found in Jim’s book, “How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It”.  Check it out. [JWR Adds: I also wrote some advice on bartering…


Medical Bartering, by Cynthia J. Koelker, MD

Medical bartering is as old as the hills, yet still alive today. Though you may not have encountered medical bartering in your own community, a quick web search will reveal that the days of paying your doctor with chickens continue into the 21st century. Of course, when the grid goes down or our currency collapses, you’ll need to find another method of payment for everything. On the other end, with store shelves empty, medical supplies may become a valuable medium of exchange. When stocking up on medical items for your family, it’s a great idea to purchase extra, currently inexpensive supplies for others who may want or need them in times of crisis. Items to consider for bartering include OTC medications and supplies, as well as medical skills. Under current law, bartering for prescription medication is not legal (unless you are a licensed medical professional). Bartering may occur person-to-person or…


What is Money When the System Collapses?, by Mac Slavo

…individual bartering level. Food In a system collapse, food will be another of the core essential items that individuals will want to acquire. Survival Blog founder James Rawles suggests storing food for 1) personal use 2) charity 3) bartering. Dry goods, canned goods, freeze dried foods can be used for bartering, but only if you have enough to feed yourself, family and friends. They should be bartered by expiration date, with those foods with the expiration dates farthest out being the last to be traded. You don’t know how long the crunch and recovery periods will last, so hold the foods with the longest expiration dates in your possession if you get to a point where you must trade. Baby formula will also be a highly valued item in a SHTF scenario, so whether you have young children or not, it may not be a bad idea to stockpile a…


Bartering for a Living, by J.J.

Just as we will need people with blue-collar skills, like farmers, carpenters, mechanics, welders, and so forth, society will also need entrepreneurs who have the inventory and negotiating skills required to open stores and to restart local economies in the event of an economic collapse. In such times, it will be mutually beneficial for a farmer to let the local trading post sell his produce as a middle man while he is working the farm rather than spending precious hours each day trying to sell that produce himself. Most preparedness articles talk about the importance of having extra items on hand for bartering when our economy collapses, but have you ever actually done any bartering? Have you ever thought about how you’re going to trade those extra goods you’ve stockpiled? There are some specific strategies you must know in order to make bartering profitable; there are strategies that will enable…


Letter Re: Some Thoughts on Bartering and Disaster Preparedness

…pay the taxes without too much pain. I believe that property tax, is going to be the focus of local governments in the near future, especially as they look for ways to close in on mounting deficits . Give them a reason to confiscate, and they surely will move in that direction in favor of revenue enhancing programs. Given that property tax is almost always adjusted up to reflect the improvements on your home, I have seen mine literally double in 4 years, and I still have two major projects left before my property is ( considered by me) a suitable, safe place to ride “it” out. I have focused on building a bartering network to offset the cost of projects.Most of my improvements have been done in the form of bartering with other trades people. Bartering has also allowed me to acquire expensive services that would otherwise set me…


Worth Reversal, by 3AD Scout

…ration stamps for the next war, considering that there will not be much to ration due to imports being cut off by hostile nations or due to interruptions in world shipping. Having manufactured goods stored for personal use will be good. Having manufactured goods saved for barter purposes will be great, but having the means to produce items that will be in high demand will be priceless. Be Conservative We should be preparing with the goal of not having to resort to bartering at all. That should be the goal, but reality will probably necessitate resorting to bartering at some point, even by the most well-stocked prepper. Our barter stockpiles, like the rest of our preps, are going to be finite. When you are done bartering them away there will not be anymore. Bartering should be done when absolutely necessary those extending your stocks of barter items. The other thing…


Silver and Gold Bartering, Now and Post-Societal Collapse, by T.R.

…your product or service in silver and gold, I am hoping he turns into an App for I-phones or Blackberry in the near future. If you notice all the conversions use US denominate coinage. Since American Eagles, both Silver and Gold, are legal US tender and pre-1964 coinage is still US approved tender. You will not be trying to “destroy the US Currency” with privately minted coins as the US District Attorney in her infinite wisdom announced about the Liberty Dollar. There can be no legal ramifications in restricting bartering especially if you are using US sanctioned coinage. And that goes to my last point in purchasing silver and that is to start procuring pre-1964 silver halves, quarters, dimes, pre-1982 pennies, and current and early nickels for use in a bartering system either now or in a post-collapse society. They will become your initial life in a post-fiat collapse society….


What’s a Dime Worth? Bartering with Junk Silver, by H. North

…will be tough to find enough “change” to purchase a loaf of bread with even a 1/10th-ounce gold Eagle, which would be valued at about $120 in this example. Keep in mind that when bartering at an open-air market, there will be no banks or exchanges to break down denominations—unless someone has a sufficient supply of coinage and chooses to open their own booth for just such a purpose, for a small fee of course. So, for all of us who have ever collected junk silver coins and wondered, “How will I use these? What are they worth?”, now we hopefully have a better idea of comparative values and a foundation to start from. This way, you’ll know when someone is trying to sell you a loaf of bread for a one-ounce silver coin that it may be an opportunity to practice your haggling skills! Good luck and happy bartering!…


Coping With Inflation–Some Strategies for Investing, Bartering, Dickering, and Survival

…service. As I’ve written previously in SurvivalBlog on several occasions, I do advocate stocking up on extra items for barter. However, it is with the proviso that you do not embark on buying goods dedicated for barter until after you have your family’s essential beans, bullets and band-aids squared away, following a well-balanced logistics plan. Here in The Un-named Western State (TUWS), there is a lot of bartering that goes on, quite informally. I see it all the time: Cartridge Reloading for Snow Plowing, Eggs for Honey, Firewood for Horse Training, and Zucchini for just a smile and a thank-you. To be useful in barter, choose items that have most or all of the following seven attributes 1.) Have appeal/usefulness to the majority of the citizenry. 2.) Be immediately recognizable. 3.) Have longevity. 4.) Be easily divisible. 5.) Be relatively compact and transportable at reasonable cost. 6.) Have consistent quality….


The Savvy Barterer–References, Skills, and Tools for TEOTWAWKI Barter

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…protect yourself from fraud. I recommend that you practice bartering on a very small scale at first, to sharpen your eye for value and your ability to dicker in a manner that will result in a fair trade. (Mutually agreeable and mutually beneficial.) The occasional transaction where you end up slighted is hardly cause for concern. But unless you develop the proper bartering skills, you’ll end up on the weaker side of bargains again and again, and thus fritter away your tangible working capital. The attributes that will put you in a superior bartering position include specific knowledge about what is being traded, knowledge about who’s sitting on the the other side of the table, and good old-fashioned “horse trading sense”. Knowledge and References The more you know about the goods being exchanged the better you’ll be able to dicker. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll be able to honestly, yet…


When Will It Happen? What Will It Be?, by Son Of Texas

…  Before we get too far into the discussion about what may happen in the economy, it is necessary to understand the nature of money and bartering.  Money is fundamentally a way to facilitate bartering among a large group of people.  When one person, lets call him George, needs something that a second person, lets call him Peter, can provide, George may try to offer something he owns in exchange for what he wants.  This may become difficult if the George does not have anything that the Peter wants.  The George is then left wanting unless he can arrange a series of trades or exchanges with other people until the George finally obtains something that Peter wants.  Another advantage of money is if George has something that Peter finds desirable, but there is a wide disparity between the values of the two objects being considered for trade.  For example let’s…


Bartering Via Craigslist, by George H.

Building up a skill set can easily be argued the most critical survival ability available. One skill set often overlooked is bartering. Trading a good or service for another. Looking at tangible items, one recent item everyone has noticed is the new price for ammo and certain rifles. The adage “buy low sell high” still applies if you can do so and still maintain your own needed stock. About four and a half years ago AR-15s were roughly the same inflated cost as today (after BHO was elected), there was a massive panic and parts were scarce. It took four months to get a muzzle brake that I ordered two month prior to the election! At the time I had what I wanted, but no extras. I stayed out of the buying panic and saved. Fast forward six months later, and AR lowers and uppers had dropped to $60 per…


Learning Prepper and Barter Skills at Your Local Dump, by Neil J.

…or alcohol. I have found snow blowers and traded them to a friend for cash. A great example of bartering was when I would find coupons and barter them to a friend for scrap metal. Bartering is an everyday occurrence at the recycle center. I have seen people trade different items they have picked often. Maybe one party throws in some dollars or another item to sweeten the deal. Often sometimes it could just be items that one party wants to trade for something that will be more useful to them. There are many more examples of bartering, but you need to get down to our own recycle center and practice. I believe the dump is one of the closest things you can get to a cash limited society. There are all different types of ways you can practice and learn skills for a survival scenario. One of the best…


Learning Prepper and Barter Skills at Your Local Dump, by N.J.

…types of snacks. I learned never to be afraid to ask someone a question. The worst thing someone can say to you after you ask them a question is “no.” There is an old saying: “The only stupid question is the one you don’t ask.” The dump is a great place to meet like-minded individuals within your community and to practice your communication skills. After practicing and perfecting your people skills, the next thing to work on is bartering. I would often collect lawn mowers and barter them to my supervisor for cash or alcohol. I have found snow blowers and traded them to a friend for cash. A great example of bartering was when I would find coupons and barter them to a friend for scrap metal. Bartering is an everyday occurrence at the recycle center. I have seen people trade different items they have picked up often. Maybe…


Four Letters Re: Coping With Inflation–Some Strategies for Investing, Bartering, Dickering, and Survival

Jim: Great article. You say you have a stock of spices you bought in the 1980s, and this saves you money. As someone who gets a lot of pleasure from good food, I would caution that most spices lose much of their flavor in a short time, certainly within a few years, especially for typical herbs and powdered spices stored in jars as bought in supermarkets. Yours may be specially packed or stored, or selected long-life types. But for most people, as advised in the “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, buying in moderate bulk makes more sense. A mail-order house like penzeys.com (they are pleasant but leftists, and there are surely others out there) will have spices that are superior to supermarket prices at vastly lower prices, if bought not in jars but in zip-lock envelopes of about 4 ounces each. Fill a spice jar halfway for normal use,…