How to Barter and Why
2012
One of the financial newsletters I get had a some interesting
ideas about bartering. This particular author writes from a bit
of a doom-and-gloom perspective, so he approached the subject
from the perspective of survival when the currency has collapsed.
Though I hope this will not be in our future, it is interesting
to think about what you'll need to have to trade for necessities,
so I'll start with that. Then we'll move on to how to barter
using bartering websites, and the financial advantages (now)
of doing this.
What items can you stash, then, to be prepared for the chaos
of a cashless society? In general you need things that will be
in high demand, are easily moved, and have a long shelf-life.
This includes the following...
Tobacco
Addictions do not end just because of bad economic times,
so you can be sure that people will still be smoking. However,
cigarettes do not stay fresh for long, so you can't easily store
some "just in case," without replacing them often,
and this can be expensive. Instead buy the raw prepared tobacco
and a cigarette-rolling kit. This is a cheap way to have something
to trade for food or whatever else you need. Give the tobacco
to a friend as a gift when it nears expiration time, and buy
another.
Medicines
In a true economic collapse, things will stop moving and production
will slow or cease, so medicines will be used up quickly. You
should have enough on hand for yourself, but for bartering purposes
you can stock up on the biggest inexpensive bottles of store-brand
or generic aspirin you can find. In an emergency nobody will
be worried about what brand you have.
Alcohol
People will always want to drink and so will offer you all
sorts of necessities if you have alcohol for them. But beer goes
bad quickly and even most wines have a limited shelf life. The
best barter items in this category are small bottles of liquor.
Again, in a truly tough situation nobody will be looking at brand
names, so buy the cheapest ones.
Candy
Although it may not be the item most sought after, hard candy
is cheap and can be stored for many years if you put it in airtight
containers. Enough people will want something sweet that you'll
be able to trade your candy for other things easily. Also, having
small items like this makes many small trades easier. After all,
how do you trade a bicycle for an orange and get change?
Basic Hygiene Supplies
Items like toothbrushes can be stored forever. Buy them in
the multi-packs at a dollar store for barter purposes. Toilet
paper lasts forever too, although it takes a lot of space to
store. If you stay at hotels very often, save all of those little
bars of soap and bottles of shampoo for your barter stash.
Coffee and Tea
Now will people crave something other than water to drink
if commercial supply lines are interrupted, but they will also
need to satisfy their addiction to caffeine. Generic tea bags
bought in large packages can cost you as little as two-cents
each, so this is another cheap way to be prepared. Instant coffee
is a good for bartering as well. Buy store brands or generics,
and check the expiration date for the furthest-out.
Other Small Items
Some of the other small things you can collect to barter with
include disposable lighters, matches, small hand tools you pick
up at garage sales, pocket knives, and manual can openers.
How to Use Barter Websites
There are websites where you can trade things and services.
These provide an opportunity to practice your bartering and negotiation
skills in case you need them later, but they also give you financial
opportunities right now. For example, I know a carpet cleaner
who traded his service to a radio station for $2,000 worth of
advertising. The station conserved its cash in this way, and
the cleaner naturally charged full rates for the work he did.
Let's loo at this example a bit closer. The radio station
presumably needs its carpets cleaned, and would pay for that
in any case. But would this cleaner have bought $2,000 in advertising?
Perhaps not. So the station effectively generated guaranteed
revenue, since $2,000 not spent on cleaning is the same as $2,000
paid directly for the advertising. And although both sides are
legally required to report the transaction as though the income
was received, the cleaner probably didn't do this, and so saved
quite a bit on income taxes.
By the way I'm not recommending tax evasion, but it probably
is one of the reasons people like bartering. The formal barter
exchanges track everything to keep members in compliance with
the tax laws, but otherwise I'm sure there is a lot of cheating.
Keep in mind though, that without this tax-evasion motivation
there is still a clear advantage to trading goods and services.
In the example the radio station effectively got more advertising
revenue than it would have, and the cleaner was able to get that
advertising relatively cheap, since his cost to provide the service
was certainly less than $2,000.
On a smaller scale, suppose you have an old bicycle you no
longer use and you need a wheel barrow for gardening. If you
sell the bike you might get $40, and then you'll have to pay
$80 for the wheel barrow. A straight trade of the one for the
other would save you $40, not to mention the sales tax savings
(yet another tax that is evaded by many barterers).
Here are a couple of the websites where you can go to barter
your things or services:
http://www.barterquest.com/
http://www.thebartercompany.com/
http://www.craigslist.org
On Craigslist just find your community or the one listed that
is closest to you and click on that. Then enter "barter"
in the search box there. I just did this for Collier County here
in Florida and found over 500 listings. Be careful about some
items though. I have heard that thieves look at these postings
for targets who have expensive jewelry or watches. Trade your
small expensive items in person at collectibles shops.
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