Items of Barter... What do you store to trade later?

[Doctorr Fabulous]

Cigarettes are a waste. I smoke. Here is why 'stocking up' on cigarettes is a waste: They dry out and are then worthless. Smoking old cigarettes is a horrible experience. I highly recommend not starting, and even more so: not smoking old cigarettes.

Dipping tobacco is also a bad idea for the same reason. Look at the bottom of a can of Cope and you will see a date. That stuff has an even shorter shelf life than smoking tobacco.

Soap. Good stuff.

I agree on the soap, but as one who has gone a few motnhs without a smoek before, if shit hits the fan, I'll take a three-year old smoke over nothing. Growing tobacco, though, might be wise. It has medicinal properties, and I believe that it can be grown untaxed for personal use. great insecticide too.

I once smoked a cigarette the deployed with me to Iraq in 2009. I found it in my pocket in Afghanistan...this year.

[Tank Woman]

I'm a roll my own gal. I don't know for sure, but my gut feeling is that cans of tobacco would last much longer than cartons of cigs. They are sturdy cardboard, with a foil-like interior, and vacuum sealed with a foil top, then a plastic lid.

Edited to add: I don't plan to stockpile tobacco, I just thought I could add a nugget-o-experience to the ongoing topic.

[Tater Raider]

I'm thinking build a stockpile and move towards self-sufficiency without a stockpile. This covers all bases and the stockpile can be treated as surplus down the road and used for barter.

[Dark_Knight7096]

There are pre-embargo Cubans that still fetch a PREMIUM and are still good, high quality smokes and are 50 years old. You can keep pipe tobacco in a sealed mason jar and it keep a long time. Rolling your own or switching to pipes/cigars will be the best options if TSHTF

[dizie]

Honey is another good one, and if stored right will last forever.

They found Honey in the tombs in egypt, still good to eat.

What if you come across someone with nothing to barter. Would you give a man a glass of water?

I stock pile condament packs from taco bell, mcds, etc. Just tonight I had the idea of grabbing cracker packs for just the senario.

[Anianna]

(3) Alcohol is a depressant and can be used if anti-depressants are no longer available.

FTFY.

Using alcohol as an antidepressant is like using sleeping pills to help you stay awake on watch - it don't work that way.


Anything in demand now is likely to be in demand down the road. Also check into what Wal-Mart orders before and after hirricanes sweep through an area and you'll have some high-value trade goods for a PAW.

Also, duct tape FTW.

Thanks, TR, beat me to it. Looking at what jumps off the shelves before/after hurricanes is another good one. Think about what cannot be produced locally. (eg vanilla, cinnamon, coffee...)

bae's list is something we should all be stocking up on!

My personal decision is that I'm not stocking anything only for barter purposes - if me and mine don't/can't/won't use it, I don't stock it. This means no cigs and very small amounts of alcohol. That way, if barter after the SHTF is not possible or too dangerous (contagion, or a situation where "hoarders" are sought out and robbed/punished) I can simply use what I've got. My barterables will be excess toiletries, first aid supplies, some "luxury" food (spices, chocolate, coffee), key staples (sugar, baking soda, yeast, live sourdough and directions on how to use it) as well as basic food. Ammo and excess guns, possibly. Now, alcohol and cigarettes are still arguably better barterables for convincing somebody who's got enough of something else that you want, that they do indeed want to trade for it, and would likely have a much higher value. I completely understand why folks store them for barter, and there is a lot of precedent that it works well. I've just made a different personal decision, for my own reasons.

We also do not stock items specifically for barter. We do have items that we can barter extra of, such as tobacco that we keep for bee stings or staples like you mentioned. Even though we do not drink, though, we are learning to make certain alcoholic beverages from what we have (like honey mead from raising bees) for the purpose of trading should it come to that. It would be nice to have something in demand to trade that won't be such a sacrifice on our staples without having to take up valuable space in our stores.

[X-RayFiveNiner]

Not sure if anyone's mentioned it yet but, Chapstick is well worth stocking up on, and little bottles of shampoo too.

[polliedes]

My sister convinced me to stock chapstick

[NamelessStain]

I think I might think of more things I could put in the ruck that might be good trade material. Trying to carry a case of booze around wouldn't be fun

Items I'd think about carrying for barter (cheap items, not top of the line items):
- lighters
- hand wipes
- paracord
- firesteel
- water purification tablets
- Chapstick
- Hand sanitizer
- soap/shampoo (hotel size)
- packs of flints
- p51s
- AA alkaline
- AAA alkaline
- small LED flashlights
- packets of aspirin/ibuprofen

[PackLemming]

Clean crisp A4 paper and metric grid paper.

IF the system goes down all these fancy glowing screens of digi-text will go away too. Writing the post epoch best selling novel on a cardboard box containing a brand spanking new toilet seat wont exactly capture the people's imagination.

[ITZombie]

This might seem like an oddity but as I was adding reading glasses to all of our BOB's I thought they might make a good trade good as well.

Other options - those cheap ratchet screw drivers with bits stored in the handle. You can get them pretty cheap and depending on brand are actually quite decent. I thought of this as I was adding one to all the BoB's as well. It's not so much redundancy as being able to give up one if we have to or if we get separated.

The sewing needle post also made hellish good sense and never occured to me because, well we have them and lots of them. How many 'average' homes have sewing needles in them these days? Of course, my wife being who she is, we not only have lots of sewing needles (and crochet hooks and knitting needles, but also a treadle sewing machine (Singer made in 1903, works just as well as the day it was made). But what about other people?

Treadle sewing machines could be worth quite a bit too, you can get a working one now easily for under $100 if you're not looking for show piece.

[goofygurl]

Luxury items of ALL sorts..


diapers, baby wipes, soap, shampoo, femenine hygiene items, hair color, etc..but hey, I barter that stuff now so thats why I have the excess..if SHTF the bartering situation just changes and goes from a new pair of jeans or whatever to something actually needed.

[NorrisUnleashed]

US gold dollars are gold plated nickel. Both of tjese metals have practical uses in the PAW. Having mountains of cigarettes that I dont smoke or bunchs of mini boozes I wont drink seems like a bad idea. What if the S never HTF? Having an ammo can full of money seems more valuable than a bunch of shit Ill never use. Gold was valuable before paper money, its valuable now, and PAW or not, gold will ne valuable after paper currency has gone the way of the dodo.

They're not gold plated nickel, they're manganese brass coated copper. There's no gold in any US "gold" coin. That's why I put it in quotes, and why I suggested stocking silver coins, a golden dollar is not golden. It's not worth anything more than a paper dollar. I didnt mean to say you shouldnt stock up on them if you want to, but if you think they're real gold and will be a great fallback if the paper dollar collapses you're mistaken. Though you are correct when the S doesn't HTF and society doesn't collapse, they're still easily usable in normal life.

You right. Now I feel dumb.

I do like the sewing needles though.

[ITZombie]

What about cheap kerosene lamps? $10 or so for the cheap ones. What would you be willing to barter to have light after dark especially in the winter months when light is not so plentiful?

They burn about 1/2 an ounce of fuel per hour of light. A gallon of kerosene would keep one running for many months at least assuming in a PAW we go back to early to bed, early to rise.

Kerosene properly stored can remain good for decades.

There are also some kerosene lamps with a small plate on top that let you reclaim that wasted heat from the light to have a hot drink or warm up some soup.

[towm8er]

My traide stock would consist of alcohol and tobacco. This being said im also studdying onnmayking wine etc etc also growing my own tobacco for home made cigars and hand carving tobacco pipes for those that refuse a cigar. I will never traide a weapon or ammo because it then could be used agenst me in my sleep.

[TacAir]

What about cheap kerosene lamps? $10 or so for the cheap ones. What would you be willing to barter to have light after dark especially in the winter months when light is not so plentiful?

They burn about 1/2 an ounce of fuel per hour of light. A gallon of kerosene would keep one running for many months at least assuming in a PAW we go back to early to bed, early to rise.

Kerosene properly stored can remain good for decades.

There are also some kerosene lamps with a small plate on top that let you reclaim that wasted heat from the light to have a hot drink or warm up some soup.

Like this? 30 dollars.

[NamelessStain]

What about cheap kerosene lamps? $10 or so for the cheap ones. What would you be willing to barter to have light after dark especially in the winter months when light is not so plentiful?

They burn about 1/2 an ounce of fuel per hour of light. A gallon of kerosene would keep one running for many months at least assuming in a PAW we go back to early to bed, early to rise.

Kerosene properly stored can remain good for decades.

There are also some kerosene lamps with a small plate on top that let you reclaim that wasted heat from the light to have a hot drink or warm up some soup.

IMHO, no. No matter how long and how much you can store, it will run out. Now getting it to burn off animal fat and it's a potentially renewable resource. Plus if you are using it to trade, people would need to have kerosene or you'll have to trade that too. I personally wouldn't want to be dependent on you for fuel.

[dizie]

Read several post about knowledge being a good barter tool. That is spot on.

If I was starving to death, I would give up all the gold in fort knox. To have the knowledge of wild edible I could eat. Or how to make water safe.

[fixinto]

Ok tobacco has been mentioned several times so along with everything else I am a pipe smoker/ collector, pipe tobacco is regularly stored in sealed tins or mason jars for well over 20 years the oldest I have personal knowledge of was 40 years old and still good. You can can tobacco, water bath method and it will stay good as long as the seal holds. I also think that pipes will make quite a come back in the PAW after all its much easier than RYO as you need no papers. I imagine you could can cigs cigars and chew/dip as well. I have 6 pounds or so canned/ tins really not so much for the PAW as for defense against rising tobacco prices. http://pipesandcigars.com/pestbubuo.html as low as 1.37 an ounce here. For those wondering 1 pound of tobacco fills 2 quart mason jars tightly packed with about 4 ounces left over and one mason jar will last a regular pipe smoker, 6 to 8 pipes a day, about a month. My 2 cents.

[woodwose]

Seems like there are multiple categories of barterable items based on the situation we are planning for:

Economic collapse, hyperinflation, depression, rule of law intact:

long shelf life luxury items, bicycle parts, functional clothing, sewing supplies, tools, cooking fuel, seeds, garden chemicals, compost, garden tools.

Grid down collapse:

The usual bugout bag items, Candles/wax/wicks, little LED lights, can openers, mason jar lids, heating fuel, wood processing tools (hand saws, axes, splitting mauls), water filters, water storage/hauling containers, bicycle trailers, bicycle inner-tubes, guns/ammo/defensive weapons, work boots, shoelaces, work gloves, solar panels, battery chargers/batteries, radio equipment, vintage telephone equipment?, glue/caulk/roofing tar, personal hygiene items, grain mill.

Grid down plus EMP/CME:

Horse tack, seeds, hand tools, primitive skills knowledge, lye for soap making, chemicals for tanning, forging tools, livestock, lumber, wow too much to think about.

The commonality seems to be tools, low-tech and human-powered versions of things we use, and simple daily use items that will become extra-handy (or scarce) in the future. As an "investment" I like to stock up on common everyday items that will be rare post teotwawki, but are still usable today. And that are cheap Right now I have a pile of little LED lights, lots of spare tools, personal hygeine items from "grocery game" buying, and lots of redundant BOB/wilderness/power outage type items like candle wicks and mason jar lids. One of my favorite things to do is recondition old tools from yard sales or thrift stores. Re-handling hammers, knives, and axes is a favorite.

We should have a "stock up while it's on sale" thread.

'wose

[goofygurl]

What about cheap kerosene lamps? $10 or so for the cheap ones. What would you be willing to barter to have light after dark especially in the winter months when light is not so plentiful?

They burn about 1/2 an ounce of fuel per hour of light. A gallon of kerosene would keep one running for many months at least assuming in a PAW we go back to early to bed, early to rise.

Kerosene properly stored can remain good for decades.

There are also some kerosene lamps with a small plate on top that let you reclaim that wasted heat from the light to have a hot drink or warm up some soup.

I don't know about bartering them, but thanks for posting it..reminded me I'd like to get a couple 3 or 4 for my own preps.

[goofygurl]

Seems like there are multiple categories of barterable items based on the situation we are planning for:

Economic collapse, hyperinflation, depression, rule of law intact:

long shelf life luxury items, bicycle parts, functional clothing, sewing supplies, tools, cooking fuel, seeds, garden chemicals, compost, garden tools.

Grid down collapse:

The usual bugout bag items, Candles/wax/wicks, little LED lights, can openers, mason jar lids, heating fuel, wood processing tools (hand saws, axes, splitting mauls), water filters, water storage/hauling containers, bicycle trailers, bicycle inner-tubes, guns/ammo/defensive weapons, work boots, shoelaces, work gloves, solar panels, battery chargers/batteries, radio equipment, vintage telephone equipment?, glue/caulk/roofing tar, personal hygiene items, grain mill.

Grid down plus EMP/CME:

Horse tack, seeds, hand tools, primitive skills knowledge, lye for soap making, chemicals for tanning, forging tools, livestock, lumber, wow too much to think about.

The commonality seems to be tools, low-tech and human-powered versions of things we use, and simple daily use items that will become extra-handy (or scarce) in the future. As an "investment" I like to stock up on common everyday items that will be rare post teotwawki, but are still usable today. And that are cheap Right now I have a pile of little LED lights, lots of spare tools, personal hygeine items from "grocery game" buying, and lots of redundant BOB/wilderness/power outage type items like candle wicks and mason jar lids. One of my favorite things to do is recondition old tools from yard sales or thrift stores. Re-handling hammers, knives, and axes is a favorite.

We should have a "stock up while it's on sale" thread.

'wose

We do..it's the Extreme Couponing thread, the coupon blog I own and run (http://www.adventuresincoupons.com or NoAm's favorite couponing blog ( http://www.southernsavers.com)

[8valve]

ive got for trade;
2 boxes of zippo wicks
2 boxes of zippo flints
2 boxes of zippo fuel
300 lighters (BIG knockoff)
a box of fake zippo's
a small box of liquor shot bottles
a good roll of rg58 coax (building antenna's)

[DJH]

In the bob/ghb, jic... (omg. The acronyms, the acronyms!)

Instant coffee packets (i don't use anything caffeinated myself.)
Cigs (again, I don't smoke, so these are worthless to me, but to someone else...)
Airport liquor bottles (the wee duty free stuff. Same as above, worthless to me...)
Dice & Cards (not really to trade, but for gaming with anyone I'd run into)