Along with all of the other items that a seasoned Prepper has, barter items are critical. You undoubtedly will need items that you forgot to stockpile during the good times. This area of prepping needs to be approached with the same meticulous logical order as all of your other prepping gear.
Your trading partner, the one with those critical items that you need to survive must be satisfied. You’ve gotta have stuff that he really needs, not just stuff that fit into the category of general prepping items. He may have no need for ammo but desperately needs antibiotics. So antibiotics are what you want to have on hand in excess…in that particular situation.
So how do you know exactly what this random stranger will be wanting? The answer is, you don’t. So you must diversify in your acquisition of trade items. Obviously, having cartridges, salt, antibiotics, and gasoline is better than just one of them.
So, diversification is one key element of building your trading cache.
Secondly, consider the cost. Right now, gold and silver are sky high. But ammo is relatively cheap as is salt, medicine, tools, and knives. In fact, it could be said that right now these items are available at bargain basement prices. Just walk into Walmart and fill your basket with ammo, nuts, jerky, knives, etc.
But even though silver is sky high, your trader may only take silver for some reason. So you gotta have at least a little of it.
So diversity is one of the very key principles of trading.
And Silver at $6 for a dime may be the good old days, someday. Certainly, ammo at today’s prices is the good old days. One day, I believe a Glock 19 with several boxes of cartridges could be traded for a like-new Cadillac.
Booze. Touted as a key trading item, it has drawbacks. Your trading person may get drunk and return for the rest of your booze or your entire hoard. And members of your tribe may get into it and either drink it all, or worse. So liquor must be locked up or hidden and not disclosed.
Tobacco. Few of the drawbacks of booze and yet people crave it. What about tobacco seeds if you live in the south? Especially good for later on in the collapse.
Medicine. Antibiotics are said to be the most valuable trading item of all. When your kid is hurt, you need them. It is life or death. But they go bad. So they will be good for the initial phases of the collapse, but not later on. Jase Medical sells an assortment for around $250. But they will expire and hence can be considered frivolous. Getting them from a pharmacy in Mexico is another alternative, but will they have fentanyl in them? Then there is Fish Mox, available at pet stores and online. Then we have animal antibiotics from the feed store, but my RN friend says that because they are sold in bulk, people show up at the Emergency Room overdosing on them. But if you have a doctor or RN around to guide you, I suppose that they might work and be available inexpensively.
Ammo. You can’t go wrong with .22 LR and 12 gauge as these guns are in many closets. The problem, is having the right caliber for the trader’s guns. It is kinda like stocking a shoe store at this point. But the bigger problem is that you may be arming a person, who once they are armed might come back and get your cache. Think long and hard about this one.
Having said that, once the dollar becomes worthless, it may be that .22 rimfire ammo becomes the new barter currency. Just as cigarettes are presently used, in prison. Society needs money of some sort even if it is seashells on some island. Pre-1965 silver coins just are not plentiful enough to work as money, but ammo is. Starting with 1965 mint dates, the U.S. Mint eliminated the silver in most U.S. coins to just silver plating over copper slugs. This is called “clad” coinage.
The problem with gold is that it is too valuable to be used as money. Say you want to buy some food, a loaf of bread. An ounce of gold worth, say $10,000 in a collapse, is too much. A silver dime would be closer. This is why I like silver dimes so much. But there is nothing like a nice silver dollar to satisfy someone. Today’s cost $75+, as of April 2026.
This circulated pre-1965 silver is called junk silver. It can look pretty darn good, but it had been carried in people’s pockets.
If you do buy gold, touch it with a magnet. I once held a gold coin that was really a steel coin that had been gold-plated. The coin dealer friend of mine showed me the magnet test. I was stunned.
The problem with silver bars, odd silver coins and such is that people do not easily recognize them. This is why I prefer the older silver dimes. I do not stockpile the ones with Roosevelt on the obverse. Most of the Roosevelt dimes look newer and this could cause confusion, since clad Roosevelt dimes are still being made. So when I go to the coin store, I ask for the older-style silver dimes. These older dimes are called Mercury dimes.
Another problem with one-ounce gold coins is that they tip your hand that you are a rich guy, with a chest full of gold coins back at your house. A way around this is to buy gold wedding rings, or silver ones. Then you can plead the case that you are trading off your beloved wedding ring for a desired item and then that’s it, you are flat broke. I see trays and trays of wedding rings in pawn shops.
When buying pre-1965 silver, I have been cheated many times. I have been charged too much, been sold worn-down coins, and even had a few non-silver clad coins slipped into my sacks of 100 silver dimes. So shop around and get to know today’s prices. Also, you may wish to spread the purchasing out over several years to avoid hitting peaks in the market due to wars, threats of war, recessions, etc.
Seeds. Non-hybrid seeds are what you want. That way, you can harvest the seeds and replant them. With hybrid ones, you can’t. Potatoes eyes can be replanted. One can buy assortments of non-hybrid seeds in a plastic ammo can for $99. Talk about great long-term trading material! Fertilizer is another trading material, but could be high for a while with the Strait of Hormuz closed.
Medical. Finding the My Medic company was a turning point for me. Not ordinary first aid kids with some band-aids, a little tube of antibiotic cream and a few Tylenol. My Medic has the industrial-strength items and big kits going up to $1,800. I’m sure that other companies have the good stuff as well. Happy Hunting. Oh, and tourniquets. Guys from the war have said that you need a couple of them. Yikes. What if you get shot in both legs?
Water purification tablets and Life Straws are great trading items, as is food. The big deal with MREs is the expiration dates. But recent fate-of-pack ones are available. Water purification tablets don’t kill everything, but boiling does. But boiling does not take out harmful things like heavy metals. So filters should be used in addition to boiling, if available. A Life Straw is nice and small for a backpack and relatively inexpensive.
Boots. They wear out and have gotta be sought after several years into a collapse.
Money. I suppose that it is possible that Federal Reserve Note dollars could still be valuable in a collapse…I guess. With the current national debt, it is hard to fathom them holding up, but they are greenbacks of the USA. Some people may hang on to the idea that they are a good thing. I guess, but I sure would not count on it. I once traded for a Russian ushanka hat from a fishing boat in an Alaskan port and they would only take US dollars, nothing else. Then again, the collapse could happen before the money becomes worthless and the dollar could be king. Something like a pandemic or EMP.
Knives. There is a place in Kansas City, Ambrosia Brothers that leases knives to the meat departments in supermarkets. When the knives get dull, they sharpen them and rotate them back into the mix to keep the butchers in sharp knives. But when they get too far ground down, they sell them off for $1 each. Talk about a good barter item. For $50 you have 50 good big, heavy, and sharp butcher knives to trade off one by one to a guy who has no knife. A butcher knife is a full-tang big weapon that could save your life. Granted, I would not want to go up against a guy with one. And they will individually wrap them for you. They make perfect Christmas gifts. Just sayin’.
Salt: Needed for preserving meat and seasoning it as well. It is now cheap as cheap comes. And even in 50-pound blocks for cows. And you need iodine to live and that is fomulated in some salts.
Potassium Iodide Pills. These keep your thyroid gland from dying in a nuclear event. Available at Canadian Prepper.
Used military gear. Boots, coats, ammo cans. One hiking outdoorsman said that military gear is the best ever for camping. It is designed and tested to be the best for our fighting men. It’s rugged and it’s cheap when discarded by the military. Find yourself a good military surplus store and have at it.
Bic Lighters. Get them 100 at a time from Sam’s Club. What better barter item in the world at such a great price.
Rope/Bankline/paracord. Blackie Thomas has a video on the guy who makes the best by coating it well.
Hand-warmers, on sale at Walmart after the winter.
Socks, shoes, old clothes.
Canned goods. I keep a dozen cases of soup and beans in my house. To a hungry man, a can of beans is to die for.
P38 can openers.
I could go on and on listing prepping supplies, but you get the idea.
Finally, one prepping book pointed out that the trader talking to you may actually have nothing at all to trade and just wants to find out what you have for later midnight visits. Make sure they actually have the stuff to trade to you.
If you have flown in the last decade, you will remember the Karrass negotiating class advertisements in the airline magazine. It costs $1,000. And I took it. I saved $1,000 on my roofing job the next week. Chester Karrass was a purchasing agent for Hughes Aircraft. Hughes sent him back to school to study negotiation. This is a really good course. Karrass teaches you the dynamics of negotiating. There is a lot going on that you never even thought about in a negotiation.
Karrass gives the example of a company approaching a supplier. The company has been unable to find the needed item for their manufacturing line anywhere. But the supplier is about to be foreclosed upon and this sale will save them from going under. So each side was in dire straits and the other side did not know it.
I knew part of it, but not all. I knew that some people were very good at dickering. I knew that people that constantly bid jobs for their little business got good at it. Some traders got good at it. I learned to be wary of these sharks. But there was much more. At least read Karrass’s books.
Books. Medical books, survival books, knot tying cards.
Hand tools. I recently learned that hand leather awls were simply not available in Kansas City, or at least I could not find them. I had to go online to get them. Hand tools can be picked up at garage sales all day long for cheap.
Animals. Chickens, goats, cows, horses, Harness.
Skills. Especially medical skills. Anyone even remotely sounding like a nurse will be golden. Take first aid classes, read first aid wilderness books, study online. Watch videos. Talk to nurses. Learn how to sew up a wound, use a ham for practice. Learn how to clean guns, blacksmith, shoot, cook, butcher, trap, fish. If captured, plead that you have medical skills. Read “how to” old-time books. Go to living history fairs and join those groups. Learn all you can.
Okay, I am getting redundant here. All of your go-bag items are good trading items. Just use your head, keep accumulating, and be ready. Also, it is far, far better to get the stuff that you will need than to try and trade for it in the midst of a collapse. That would be the worst time to find yourself short.
In fact, the main lesson for this bartering article is to be ready so you will not have to barter. Have all your needs lined out and covered in depth. I have half a dozen go bags. I have depth in my supplies. But I’m sure that there will be something I forgot.