[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

See I am getting into the barter thing this year. I can make sandals and do other leather work, I knit, sew, etc and have a line on a whole bunch of hides that would otherwise go in the garbage. These are small saleable things.

I figure if I find someone to barter for rabbit roasts with I'd fix a price of say $8. Up here right now its common to find a med-small chicken for 20$ (no that is not a joke). I only buy chicken when its on a screaming deal and can get two birds for that price, but its still expensive.

Wool for my knitting costs $8 for a whole fleece. but I am getting silk worms to spin in. and will knit everything except socks (which I save for my family and are labour intensive). I ahve someone I buy eggs from for $3 a dozen and he is going to buy/barter some rabbits, I am trading rabbits and other finished goods for wool.

But if you depend or start bartering more with people, some of whom I wouldn't see often (as in a farmers market) how could you set up a bartering process with them? Could IOU's work? or would you need something more?

[wisconsin_cur]

Too bad you live so far, I would make that trade!

[Ayoob]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('uNkNowN ElEmEnt', 'S')ee I am getting into the barter thing this year. I can make sandals and do other leather work, I knit, sew, etc and have a line on a whole bunch of hides that would otherwise go in the garbage. These are small saleable things.

I figure if I find someone to barter for rabbit roasts with I'd fix a price of say $8. Up here right now its common to find a med-small chicken for 20$ (no that is not a joke). I only buy chicken when its on a screaming deal and can get two birds for that price, but its still expensive.

Wool for my knitting costs $8 for a whole fleece. but I am getting silk worms to spin in. and will knit everything except socks (which I save for my family and are labour intensive). I ahve someone I buy eggs from for $3 a dozen and he is going to buy/barter some rabbits, I am trading rabbits and other finished goods for wool.

But if you depend or start bartering more with people, some of whom I wouldn't see often (as in a farmers market) how could you set up a bartering process with them? Could IOU's work? or would you need something more?

[Nefarious]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ayoob', '
')You know what would really help? A method of standardization that fixes the value of barter across many different trades. If there was a way to standardize the values of things and use IOUs to facilitate trade... Gee, I dunno how that would work. How could you standardize the values of things, and then make a liquid market for consumers and producers?

[oxj]

I wouldn't attempt to fix the price of anything. I kind of believe that the art of bartering means that the prices are negotiable. For example, if I sold one of my chickens I certainly wouldn't ask $8 for it; they're not meat birds, they're barred rock. Some are less than a year old, others could be as old as two years. Could the buyer tell the difference?

Ideally, the act of trade should be an intimate exchange between the two parties, who value each other's goods according to their own value system. This seems to be one of the problems with money. Its use encourages standardized pricing, which makes buyers complacent about what they are getting ("gosh, if everyone else is paying $300 for a Nintendo, it must be worth that.") "Standardized pricing" encourages taxation and middleman trade. "Standardized pricing" negates each party's critical assessment of the trade's value, permitting the rhetoric of advertisement to drive the trade, so it encourages the bourgeoning advertising industry. Removing critical assessment also ignores the admonition, "caveat emptor," and litigation blossoms.

So much friction on trade inflates the standardized price, which is no longer a standard. Admittedly, nothing is "black and white," so there should be some standardized pricing to permit the sale of products which are difficult to manufacture, such as chemotherapy agents.

[BlueGhostNo2]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Nefarious', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ayoob', '
')You know what would really help? A method of standardization that fixes the value of barter across many different trades. If there was a way to standardize the values of things and use IOUs to facilitate trade... Gee, I dunno how that would work. How could you standardize the values of things, and then make a liquid market for consumers and producers?

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BlueGhostNo2', '
')In America you could probably use irony??

[vtsnowedin]

One standard that gets used a lot in barter deals is a days labor. Of course even that varies with the skills and abilitys of those doing the labor. Around 1900 a days labor at farm work was often valued at a dollar plus board and room. My father worked for such wages when he was young. If the farmers wife was a good cook you got ahead if not you would look for other work or a raise in the rate. A weeks work would get you your meals for the week, your clothes washed once with some light mending if needed and six silver dollars to take home with you. Of course when the GD hit Vermont they didn't think it was such a big deal as things had been that bad right along pretty much.

[jdmartin]

I love the idea of bartering, and I've done some myself. One of the problems is that people always relate the items being bartered back to actual money, not to the value of what they need versus what they want. Example: you have an old car that you want to get $1000 for, and you plan on using the $1000 to buy a rototiller. You find someone willing to swap a rototiller for an old car, and when you see the rototiller you think "man that thing's only worth $500", or the guy that sees the car thinks the same thing. The deal doesn't get done because each person's trying to get the better end of the deal rather than a fair swap for something needed.

In a way that's where runaway inflation helps out - it distorts the value of the money fast enough that people begin to ignore the relationship back to money of the items. In the US Civil War, by the end most Southerners were bartering for everything or using Union money to buy what they needed, since there was no faith in the value of Confederate money anymore.

[JJ]

mosquito netting

[anador]

A good tip we learned awhile ago is too look for any supermarkets going out of business in your area.

We got a few aisles of grocery store shelving for free and reassembled it in our basement larder.

The shelves hold vast amounts of things rather space efficiently, not to mention neatly. It was a very positive organizational choice.

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('anador', 'W')e got a few aisles of grocery store shelving for free and reassembled it in our basement larder.

[JimG]

" coffee, booze, chocolate, and shampoo. "

Here's my problem with stockpiling...I use these items up right now!
Especially the coffee and booze part.

Maybe Ill get a bunker built...stockpiled with just chocolate.
Bring on the apocalypse, I HAVE GODIVA!

[ki11ercane]

Wow did someone leave the archives door open?

Please make sure to shut the light off when you're done.

[TheDude]

WP

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')ne person in England recently traded several old cellphones for a secondhand motorcycle, while others have traded gardening for babysitting. They are swapping skills from physical therapy to French lessons, to a woman offering services as a "secretary/stripper." It is up to the swappers to determine what is a fair trade and how to mail or exchange the goods and services. Paul Kay, co-founder of http://swapz.co.uk, said the "absolutely enormous" increase in his business also reflects a desire for transactions that are less about commerce and more about connections between people. "This is a new community spirit I've seen within the last three months as things get tighter economically," Kay said. With unemployment in the United States and Britain climbing, some people said bartering is the only way to make ends meet.

"I'm using barter Web sites just to see what we can do to survive," said Zedd Epstein, 25, who owned a business restoring historic houses in Iowa until May, when he was forced to close it as the economy soured. Epstein, in a telephone interview, said he has not been able to find work since, and he and his wife moved to California in search of jobs. Epstein said he has had several bartering jobs he found on Craigslist. He drywalled a room in exchange for some tools, he poured a concrete shed floor in return for having a new starter motor installed in his car, and he helped someone set up their TV and stereo system in return for a hot meal. "Right now, this is what people are doing to get along," said Epstein, who is studying for an electrical engineering degree.

[3aidlillahi]

How long until there's a government initiative to tax bartering? 3..2..1...

[MarkJ]

Bartering with professional services online is a good way of avoiding taxation, licensing, insurance, permits, inspections, codes, regulations, travel time, gas, diesel, paperwork etc.

[Windmills]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MarkJ', 'J')ust quoting to see if it let's me post...

[Aaron]

Television for non-perishable foods

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '-')I will accept a load of NON-Perishable food items instead of cash. Most of which will be put away for a while because I am on massive diet anyway but I do believe in stocking up big time.

[TheDude]

Did a double take, envisioning a box of Triscuits watching Married With Children reruns.

work for pooltable

Limousine for massage