Barter items ???

[birdman6660]

OK OK this is sort of a spin off from my FOOD STASH thread but I'm curious .. does anyone or is anyone on this forum collecting barterable items .. anything of value that you might use in a wicked economic crash to help yourself through for things you may need ? ANY ITEMS AT ALL ?

I PERSONALLY HAVE COLLECTED EXCESS ITEMS IN :
HARDWARE IE: NAILS HINGES FASTENERS OF ALL SORTS
LATCHES AND NAIL ( HUNDREDS)
screws and screw bits ( thousands)
300 EXTRA BALES OF HAY THAT IS ROTATED CONSTANTLY
EXTRA LIVESTOCK .. CHICKENS TURKEYS ETC
30 12 VOLT SHUR FLO WATER PUMPS + PARTS
LUBRICANTS .. OIL .. GREASE .. NOT PERSONAL LOL
EXCESS COFFEE
EXCESS ASPIRIN ETC
MEDICATIONS
INJECTABLE PENICILLIN AND SUPPLIES
MANY HUNDREDS OF SEED PACKETS
23 .. 5 gallon pails of cooking oil
with many small jars to break it into tradeable sizes

WHAT IF ANYTHING HAVE YOU GOT WHEN CASH IS NO LONGER KING ?

WHAT ELSE IS IN DEMAND THAT PEOPLE MITE WANT TO TRADE FOR ?

[hunter63]

Liquor, tobacco, chocolate are always valuable...people will always want their vices.

Build a still, and your are good to go.....LOL

[birdman6660]

Liquor, tobacco, chocolate are always valuable...people will always want their vices.

Build a still, and your are good to go.....LOL

I never thought of building a still I didn't think of getting chocolate either I do have lots of candy I do have I maybe 45 small bottle of alcohol I also have several cartons of cigarettes although I don't smoke I do however grow tobacco so I don't know if that will work for them or not but if there's nothing else I'm sure it'll do

[hunter63]

Brass and lead are always good as well......you know precious metals?

[GreatUsername]

Ammo, guns, tools, liquor, tobacco, marijuana if it's legal in your jurisdiction, basically anything ATF would be interested in, are all good for trade. Just be cautious: if you stash too much good stuff and someone unscrupulous found out about it post-crash, you'd be in for some rude inquiries.

[kyratshooter]

115 gallons of cooking oil?

You do realize that stuff goes rancid?

Do you know the difference between a Yankee and a southerner?

A Yankee will charge his neighbor

For the same Item

a southerner will give to a total stranger

And in turn, putting out word you have stuff to trade would be a direct violation of any opsec that a total collapse of the economy would necessitate!

All those folk that claim you can not defend a static position containing your goods and all.

It just seems like you would live longer if no one knew you had anything at all, and that is not real good advertising for a mercantile effort.


All my excess preps are for equipping family and friends.

My plan is to load the washer, dryer and generator up on the little trailer and haul them down to the lake and set up a laundry service! Clean clothes for whatever you got, make me a deal.

[Solar Geek]

115 gallons of cooking oil?

You do realize that stuff goes rancid?

And in turn, putting out word you have stuff to trade would be a direct violation of any opsec that a total collapse of the economy would necessitate!

All those folk that claim you can not defend a static position containing your goods and all.

It just seems like you would live longer if no one knew you had anything at all, and that is not real good advertising for a mercantile effort.

+1 what he said.
BUT you can freeze the cooking oil in deep freeze and it keeps fine.

[hunter63]

What preps....wassat?.....all you need is a credit card and a bunch of apps on your phone.....

[Rick]

Never barter with a gun, ammo or knives. Never anything they can use to take what you have.

"Whatcha got to barter?"
"I got a nice .38 here and some ammo. I got some beer and food too."
"Great. here's some toilet paper and Preparation H for your .38 and ammo."
Exchange is made
(finishes loading weapon) "Now, I'll take that beer and food too."

[hunter63]

+1 what he said.
BUT you can freeze the cooking oil in deep freeze and it keeps fine.

I would not count on a freezer being operational in most any kind of disaster, weather or man made....Power is the first thing that goes down.

Otherwise , yes oil keeps frozen.....

[welderguy]

I thought about barter items, but I figure I can use that money for more preps and use my skills as barter items and have no assets sitting around for someone to take.

[BENESSE]

As somebody somewhere said...I stock up guns and ammo, the rest I can get for free.
Probably not far from the truth.

[welderguy]

As somebody somewhere said...I stock up guns and ammo, the rest I can get for free.
Probably not far from the truth.

Thats most likely 100 percent truth!

[Eastree]

It depends on what and how, but basically I'd end up moving to a small community system. Within the system, people without goods will need to provide labor, and the better that becomes with skills. There will be an excess of food production, which may be bartered to other groups. There's also the issue of skills, such as abilities to make items that can be carried away from a trade (especially with strangers) or help in another local community (for those we know are trustworthy). Except for the lack of actual cash, and probably availability of some supplies, it would be largely similar to life before the Industrial Revolution.

That is, of course, excluding encounters with the unfriendly, who will likely flood out of cities and suburbs in hopes of just finding abandoned plots of fruitful no-maintenance mini-Eden land in the country ... and then try to take what they want.

[welderguy]

Now if I was to stock anything as a barter Item It would be, booze, toiletries, and comfort items.

[welderguy]

As a side Question, what In your opinions would be the top rated Barter items. excluding guns and ammo.

[crashdive123]

There are many, many lists available on the net suggesting "the best" barter items following x (pick your disaster). While interesting, it seems that many of these lists generated and posted on blogs and other places are the result of very active imaginations. Sure, there are some good items listed but think about what you use (which may be different from what I use) every day.

Personally I don't subscribe to the scenarios that tend to follow Hollywood scripts, but rather things that are "most likely" to occur. Near the top of my list are weather related events. Usually these cause disruption for a limited period of time. Of course, if you talk to some of the people in New Jersey that went through Sandy they might disagree. As such, my supplies aren't really barter items but rather designed to get us through a rough patch. If I can help others get through as well then I just view that as being a good neighbor.

As far as storing barter items - like others - I would not barter with items that could come back to haunt (or hunt) me. I would also only store items that I use. As an example of that - while cigarettes might be a big hit - I don't smoke and if the societal collapse that some envision never occurs then I'd have invested a lot of money into a useless item (for me). Consumables and equipment that I use would be on the list.

[Winnie]

+1 on what Crash said.
I have always believed this TEOTWAWKI nonsense to be the product of an over-imaginitive mind. So to answer op, no I don't store items for barter. I did think about it very briefly, but let the thought go.
Also, If you're storing things to barter, you already know what will be in short supply, so who will have something you want to barter, as you already have it to barter with. Just sayin'

[kyratshooter]

The very size of our nation discounts TEOTWAWKI in most of its forms. Our "huge disasters" are weather related or natural in origin. As widespred as they are they are temproary and regional.

Even our "civil disturbances" are localized. Detroit may be burning but Louisville is fine, Toledo may be looted to a shell but no one has broken a window in Denver.

So what did they really do in the Katrina debacle? They really did give warnings that removed MOST of the population days before the event. Afterward the shipped huge numbers out of the city, not to FEMA concentration camps, but to places like Cincinnati, Nashville, Houston and LA.

Guess what? Many of them stayed in their new locations!

All over the world people are facing their own individual "end of the world" experiences. In some cases they stay where they are and beg for UNISEF to save them. In other cases they "bug out". They go to Great Britian, Germany, France, Japan or the united States and start jobs, new lives and often a better existance.

The only wilderness they see is the one they cross traveling to the city to hook up with their family.

Same for SHTF in almost every situation here in the U.S. The most important item in the BOB is the credit card that gets you inside the Holiday Inn.

We cycle through this same thread about once a month or every 6 months as newbies arrive with their depression and occupational burnout longng for a return to the status of "Natural Man".

It is the escapist in all of us.

Why do you think the book Robertson Cursoe and the Leatherstocking series were best sellers when there was still a wilderness that really needed taming?

Now it is "where do I go to find a place where no one will bother me?", or "what items do I need to rebuild civilization?"

My favorites are the ones that want to know where to go to survive, but not until April and they have to be home in two weeks to get back to work!

[Wildthang]

Yeah it is funny that some people want to go somewhere to survive when most of them have never even went camping, hiking, or even spent a minutes time in the woods. Those people should all have to spend a week alone in the woods with basic camping gear before they join a bushcraft forum and begin to ask fruitcake questing like that!