Good trade items for SHTF

[Iskander]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I came up with a better idea (for a long term plan assuming you have everything you need, a place to call home, etc.) set up a distiller and make moonshine! That will always be a hot commodity.

[hunter63]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I came up with a better idea (for a long term plan assuming you have everything you need, a place to call home, etc.) set up a distiller and make moonshine! That will always be a hot commodity.

Now that, my friend is the best idea yet......

[TXyakr]

I just take these Girl Scout cookies out of the boxes, vacuum seal them in heavy duty mylar every February with oxygen obsorbers then put them in UV resistant drums and hide where my Wife and Daughters cannot find them. If the SHTF I can barter for what I need with them. If not my wife and daughters will be on their best behavior and not force me to watch "female drama trash" on the TV with them in December - next GS cookie season if I let them have some. The best of both worlds, something that I want to watch on TV and GS cookies as SHTF barter items preserved.

GScookies.jpg

On second though a world with no more Girl Scout cookies? What The Heck, Just Beam me up Scotty, I'm done. LOL

[Iskander]

Nice lol I wonder if there's a worldwide epidemic/whatever and we're forced into long term survival of the fittest, would people still be interested in tobacco? I guess in that situation you'd be better off growing weed than tobacco as far as trade goes. Or just grow what you need alternatively and not worry about barter. I guess if it comes down to it you can trade your essentials for others...really my mind is just going back to precious metals, assuming people are willing to accept them for trade. You don't have to worry about it perishing, can be buried, doesn't take up much room.

[TXyakr]

If you lived near this chemical plant in the Barcelona, Spain area where the SHTF for real, you would be glad your Girl Scout cookies were carefully sealed in mylar, LOL.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0LG1LS20150212

So don't forget to pack a MSA/CBRN Gas Mask in your kit so you don't have to barter away a pound of silver for one.

I read they told 60,000 people to stay indoors and not take pretty pictures of the orange cloud outdoors, especially without a properly certified Gas Mask and suit. But you know those Spaniards and what they will do to have something cool on their social media pages.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...al-blast-spain

"would people still be interested in tobacco?" well if it made pretty orange smoke they might.

[Tokwan]

I do store some, but prefer to be able to know how to make items from the natural resources....I only store what does not expire but still rotate the usage (use and replace)...but I make sure the tools that I store are able to make me make things from the natural resources for the comfort and most importantly, allow my family to survive.
Identifying medicines from natural resources, and learning and practicing to notice and confirm them the moment you lay your eyes on them, being able to find and process water and food quickly, being able to identify the best and safest (also in natural surrounding protection) to make a base camp.
I always believe that stocking supplies makes you a target when others have none...but being able to produce your own quickly, is not.

[MrFixIt]

*IF* I was going to stockpile anything for use as a trade item for SHTF, it would be liquor and cigarettes.

[Rick]

If it's a true EOTWAWKI then.....smoke 'em if you got 'em.

[LowKey]

Without an outpost-like setup and a home grown, 24-7 security perimeter in place you'd be hard pressed to keep your barter stash safe in any SHTF situation.
We've talked on here before about how noise and cooking food smell can draw in two-legged predators in a breakdown situation.
Heck, even in just an ice storm, it didn't stop thieves from stealing generators in several towns here when owners foolishly left them running while not at home. My next door neighbor went to work leaving his generator running to keep his furnace going but asked me to keep an eye out for him.
Even the early Native American villages posted scouts to give advanced warning of unfriendly raids.

Bullets as a trade good have a bad habit of being returned. In a most unfriendly fashion.

Like Winnie pointed out, look to history for high-value, non-perishable goods. Fabric, sewing supplies, heavy duty gardening tools, nails, sheet metals of various sorts, shoes and boots, rope of all kinds, sheets of glass, grain grinders or the metal screw parts for fruit/cheese presses, arrowheads, knives. Don't be using valuable space for things that can be made easily.

If you are going to think barter, think about the bigger picture.
The most important part of being a bartering tradesman is actually having the knowledge and wherewithal to set up a trading network. Everyone looks ahead one year, or maybe at most 5 years, but a true world changing event may require living as though it were the early 1800s for quite some time.
What do you know how to do - and how much of that can you teach others?
Do you keep chickens?
Do you have goats?
Do you have alpacas (or sheep, but alpacas are more predator-proof)?
How about spinning and weaving?
Can you build a working loom.
Can you knit?
Can you butcher an animal?
Can you tan a hide?
Can you build a fish weir or manage a stock pond?
Can you make soap from collected ashes and animal fat?
Is there land nearby to plant corn, wheat and silage? Even if the plow has to be man-pulled for lack of draft animals...
Do you have a large herb garden?
Can you ID plants native to your area?
Do you know how to save seed?
Can you build a wood fired hearth?
Can you bake course breads?
Can you forge scavenged metals?
Do you have neighbors that do any of this?

Survival may depend on establishing and using cottage industry to keep a community viable. Everyone contributes one small part to the whole. The whole "I got this for ME" may have to be set aside.

Likely as not though, it will be every man for himself, at least for about a decade while the Great Sorting takes place.
I have so little faith in humankind these days.

[LowKey]

TP is not a bartering item. I'm keeping my private supply to put off the use of corn husks and leaves as long as possible.

[Rick]

I'm not sure where the "every man for himself" concept comes from. We have no history, regardless of peril, that's supports that. Indeed, the very opposite, of neighbor helping neighbor, is the norm. While there will always be individuals that will take advantage of any situation on the whole that has never proven to be the case.

The very fact that mankind will always seek his comfort level along with greed or the desire to not give up wealth (however you choose to measure it) will always return us to buoyancy. Simply put, we don't want to live as if it were the early 1800s so we will strive to return to today's standards. That's why we rebuild after something is torn down. The World Trade Center, New Orleans and the greater Gulf Coast, town after town ravaged by tornadoes, etc.

[hunter63]

Rick, ...movies, the movies......it's the movies.

[Rick]

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[LowKey]

You cannot appeal to a man's better nature if he has none. That probably would have been a better post without the last sentence paragraph though.

I have no doubt that mankind would claw its way out of any hole it digs for itself. It really just depends on how deep a hole that is and how long it takes to dig out. I always see these type of forum threads with their hypothetical TEOTWAWKI that don't think beyond a 5-year plan. If that far even. On the more childish forums it seems to be the mindset of the BOB-and-blackrifle crowd to take what they want should they end up "out there."

My philosophy is to plan for what I expect to happen (snow, ice, tornado, hurricane and earthquake) to the best of my ability and hope for the best on the rest.

[Roel]

I think it's like other's said, be a farmer, be a blacksmith, be a carpenter, be a wine maker, be a whateveryoucanimagine... and you might survive a shtf sutiation... may be...
But there is no promise, no way to make sure you will survive.
There is only the possibility to make it a litle bit more likely that you may survive the first stroke.... sorry, that's all there is.
But is it not like life always is...?

[hunter63]

Alright, which one of y'all is gonna stock high blood pressure meds......?

[richbat]

I'm in the "store what you use" school of thought.

You run into problems with storage, transportation, and simply things going bad from age and non-use.

I also do not intend to carry a "store" for barter or sale......that just makes you a target.

Absolutely right there on making you a target.Your best bet in my opinion would be to take things from your stash secretly and privately and only what you need to take to the bartering table for your own needs.

[xjosh40x]

Another idea is to invest in a torch and welder, with a supply of steel. If someone wants to barter and they have what you want. Build them the item that would suit them. I believe in helping friendly people. But my family comes first and I'll let your family perish long before I would mine. I hate to sound cold hearted but that's how it'll have to be. Medical supplies and food are two things I really over stock for barter if needed. And I can hunt my own food. Weapons and ammo are also ranked high in numbers but that'll only be traded after there pried from my dead fingers

[LowKey]

Weapons and ammo are also ranked high in numbers but that'll only be traded after there pried from my dead fingers

Don't tempt fate.

Rick, I certainly hope you are right regarding the every man for himself thing.

When it comes to bartering, what happens when you run out of stuff to barter. My solution offered earlier keeps the goods flowing through YOUR establishment. Perhaps also with the object of being a resource protected by others too.
Though I certainly never hope to "live 1800s" any time in my lifetime. At least not 100% of the time.

[Rick]

If I have to live any part of my life in the 1800s I just hope it's as John D. Rockefeller. With my luck it will be more like Ernest T. Bass.