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I lived through the collapse of the Soviet Union. At the time the main barter items were Maxell audio cassette tapes, blank VHS tapes, Nescafe freeze dried coffee, American-made Marlboro cigarettes, and a few others like Snickers bars. I bought taxi rides and all sorts of other things with cassette tapes.

The main thing is that it be of recognized valuable in and of itself, convenient to transport, and relatively cheap per unit so they're easy to trade other things for. There was always a set market for those things. The ruble was worthless, and dollars were scarce and generally illegal at least in theory. But those things always had a going market in both currencies. The speculator was the guy who knew all the day's prices.

I'd say that the best bet for tradable goods in the event we have a SHTF even is standard ammunition (I like Remington .22 lr because everybody has a .22 gun so demand will always be high and it will be pretty cheap per unit - it would become the next dollar - so everybody would accept it as currency). 9 mm is probably next best, because it's become the gun of choice for self defense. 30-06 is a standard hunting round and there are tons of 30-06 rifles out there, so that would be good, too. I would think that things like laundry detergent in standard sizes - like the $20 bottle of Tide at Walmart - and Pampers diapers, etc.

I have to say that I just can't see the kind of scenario many preppers envision. When the USSR fell apart, it wasn't like there wasn't anything at all to eat or drink. It's just that the ruble was worthless and nobody wanted it. The wheels kept turning, and there were all sorts of dislocations, but people always figured it out.

I think that if we have another 2008-type financial meltdown but maybe bigger we'll have bad dislocations, nobody will want the dollar, and so forth, but you'll still be able to buy stuff it's just that they'll only take ammo or something like that in exchange.

Couple points.
.22 ammo stored for a couple years can have a high fizzle factor.

Laundry detergent. I no longer use laundry detergent or bleach. I recently bought ($300) a Pure Wash. It’s an ozone generator that injects ozone into your cold water and cleans and disinfects your laundry. No detergent, no bleach, no hot water. Local dairy farmers have found they can hook it up to a hose and have a disinfecting wash down.
Which means it is a water disinfectant. 12 volt operation off of a plug in power converter.

Trade is what makes countries wealthy and is what will keep civilization going.