10 Rules for Trading in Long Term Survival Scenarios

All of us rely on our skills when SHTF. So we all hope that we can cover all of major skills that can lead us trough all basic needs in order to survive. So we choose to learn lot of things, how to fight , how to can, how to grow food, how to heal people. And we are buying equipment and learn things.

We choose different approaches, someone chooses to learn just basics from one skill, or someone chooses to learn one particular skill in depth. Like to be very good in growing food when SHTF.

But most of the people take trading and bartering in long term survival scenarios for granted. Most of the people see trading like scenes from the movies. So there is some kind of accepted picture that man gonna be able to go out with bag of potatoes for example and trade it for something, for batteries or whatever.

Or there is gonna be something like trading place, where you can go and check what is on offer there.

It is actually strange how lot of things are covered good at lot of places on forums and blogs when it comes to some skills and equipment, but when it comes to trading it is accepted more or less that it is common sense that it is gonna be easy to trade things.

When SHTF we all going to trade things, no matter how great we are prepared, because it is gonna be way of living, one of the few ways of obtaining the things we need, especially for long term survival.

I wrote this article for Survival Podcast and it fits for this thread.

STORES ARE SOLD OUT - WHAT IS LEFT? BARTERING IS LEFT.

Bartering in general, when to consider it:
When a major emergency begins, stay where you are if that is your house or you have gone to your bug-out location (if you have one). At the beginning of such an emergency, there will be panic and you don’t want to be in that or near it. Check your preps, getting them started such as having your guns where you can get to them, wear one on your person, get your backup light started, your cooking method in place, etc.. Let the lawlessness happen without you in it.

How long will lawlessness last? It depends where you are. Lawlessness in cities and towns will begin shortly after the emergency happens. The lawless will loot stores and kill each other. After finishing off the stores, they go to houses. I think, in Texas, when they start going to houses, many bad guys will be shot and killed. Most people here have guns and we have a law that says a person can use deadly force if the person feels his/her life or property is in danger. If your state does not allow you to have a gun, bad guys are going to be around longer. Here, I think the lawless will leave cities/towns sooner rather than later after stores are stripped, and head to rural areas where they mistakenly think food is growing behind every house and the places have water. Most people in rural areas don’t grow gardens (the grocery store is their garden) and if they have a well, it takes electricity for it to work. Unless these people are preppers, they have little for bad guys to get but the lawless may kill them anyway.

So, lawlessness will start soon after the emergency starts in the cities/towns and will start later in the rural areas. If you live within a gas tank away from a city/town, you will be hit with the lawless when their car runs out of gas. If you live more than 10 miles away from the last tank of gas, it will take a while for bad guys to get to you. If you live many miles away from the last tank of gas, it could take months for bad guys to find you. There will also be less bad guys at your place because, by then, many of them will be dead.

Consider where you live and estimate when you might have “company” you don’t want.

After a period of time, there will be a “new normal”. Many people will be dead, both good and bad people, and there will still be some lawless around so one still has to be aware of his/her surroundings. At this point, bartering might be considered.

It is my opinion, there are two types of bartering. The types are, bartering with people you absolutely trust, and bartering with people you don’t know.

People you absolutely trust, you thought: Let’s say you know the “Smiths” down the street really well, you trust them to be good people. However, they are happy go lucky people with no preps. You have preps. If they have no water, they will attack you in three days and they don’t care if you die – they have to have your water to stay alive and if they have children, you can double their determination to get water. Hmm, the bar just got raised to determine who you absolutely trust.

You can (probably) absolutely trust other people who have enough preps to stay alive for a year (I’m leaving out the six months people just in case). If they have done that, they are responsible people. Note, I stuck in “probably”. It is impossible to know how someone will react until you see the behavior.

Personally, I don’t trust people who NEED stuff, as opposed to WANT stuff. If they don’t have an item that is vital to life, they likely need a lot of vital things. If you have what they need, desperate people will take yours. People who are prepared, may like to have an item they don’t have and barter could happen with these people.

If you barter, don’t do it inside your house. What you have inside your house is no one’s business, plus you don’t want a gun battle inside your house if things go sour with the bartering.

If the area has some order, there may be bartering areas set up. This should be fairly safe as a place to exchange goods. Maybe there will be some kind of security there. However, be aware of your surroundings, who is there, how they are acting. Keep your gun easy to get to. At this point, I don’t think concealed carry laws will be observed. It could be, everyone there has to check their guns and pick them up when they leave if this is an organized, safe place. Make sure you are home before darkness comes.

Consider people who have no food: If you give them food, they will come back for more. Now, you are in trouble. You cannot feed the world so you don’t want to give them food at your house.

Items for Barter:
Years ago, when I began to study barter items, ammunition was almost always at the top of the list. As years went by, I noticed ammunition started dropping off the list. Many lists still have it there. I would not give anyone ammunition unless it was someone helping me defend the “fort”. You give bullets to someone and those bullets may come back to kill you. You make the decision, whether you know this person well enough to give him “a” bullet. I have not put ammunition on the list.

The cost of barter goods: I’ve lost count of the number of articles I have written here but most of them involve cost and when you add it up, it’s a lot of money. Don’t spend a bunch of money per item for barter goods – use inexpensive ones that people will want and the item will have more value than you paid for it because it’s not being made/sold anymore. You see, value changes in this situation. You don’t think of the cost of a cup of water when you drink it now – how much will a cup of clean water be worth then? If a person is dying from not having water, how about he gives you his house for that cup of water? His house is worth nothing to him if he is dead. You have to adjust your thinking when considering barter goods. You will note nothing (except liquor), is a higher dollar item on this list.

Trade nothing in large amounts – always small amounts.

1. A skill to use for trade.
What can you do that would have value to someone else? Maybe a skill you learned due to your job. Maybe a housekeeping skill. Maybe a hobby skill that has value to someone. You know what skills you have. Try to turn that skill into trade if you want certain goods. Hopefully, you won’t need an item that you must have to live as you have prepared for that.

2. Food stuffs:
I am listing Maruchan Instant Lunch cup first in food. Why? Because at my Kroger store, it is 28 cents and it’s probably cheaper at Walmart. What is it? It’s a packaged Styrofoam cup with noodles and a few dried veggies and a bit of soy protein. Fill the cup with hot water and you have a substantial amount of food to eat. If you have no water, it can be eaten dry. You get a bit of protein and lots of carbohydrates to give you energy and it is tasty, has flavor. Doubt you can feed a person for less money than that. I guarantee you, if these cup packages are for barter, people will want to trade stuff to get them – it’s easy to carry food, easy to fix, and has taste. That 28 cent or less investment will turn into a high value item. They are easy for you to carry around for barter as they aren’t going to break or come apart and spill. Don’t carry a big box of them to trade. Only take a few and pretend you really need the item you are trading for or you would not part with this one valuable cup.

These cups traded at a bartering place don’t tell anyone you have a large amount of regular food at your house. That makes them fairly safe to trade. The selection is Roast Chicken Flavor, Chicken Flavor, Beef Flavor, and two types of Shrimp Flavor. If you want a fast food item at your house to eat, here it is.

Other food stuffs (don’t trade anything you may need later):
Sugar
Salt
Pepper
Tea bags
Instant coffee in small plastic bags
Quick 5 min. oats in small plastic bags
Powdered milk – 1 qt. package
Instant rice in small plastic bag
Instant mashed potatoes, one envelope
Hard candy – candy has sugar which is energy.
Vegetable oil for cooking – a small amount
Add any inexpensive food you think should be on this list. (I didn’t put dry beans on here as that requires a good bit of water to make. Add them if you want as some people could have plenty of water and want them. Small packages of beans would work.)

3. Non-food Items:
Hand sanitizer packets
Band aids by the individual band aid
Fishing line and hooks – buy small rolls of fishing line and hooks - a person can feed him/herself if there is any body of water with fish around.
Matches in small amounts
Kitchen trash can size plastic bags – trade by individual bag. The use of these is many – even a way for a person to carry their “purchases” from the bartering center.
Candles
Men’s throw away razors. They won’t be automatically thrown away anymore.
Ladies sanitary pads – These pads, individually packaged, are used by EMT people for large wounds. If you don’t have some, get them. Only trade these items if you have plenty.
Needles and thread
Pencils, paper, note pads
Toilet paper
Tooth paste
Soap – these would include little soaps you got at hotels plus you can buy cheap travel size personal items at Walmart.
Shampoo – from hotels and small travel bottles at Walmart. This is liquid soap – people can use it for hair, clothes, dishes.
Body lotion – from hotels and travel bottles at Walmart.
Duct tape
Aspirin – trade per individual aspirin
Liquor - This costs a fair amount of money. Don’t store beer for trade as, over time, it goes flat. Hard liquor lasts forever but it has a fairy high cost compared to these food stuffs. It’s your choice to buy liquor or not for trade (small bottles). You need some for your own consumption as a pain killer or just because.
Tarps
Large coffee filters – people can use these to filter dirty water as well as for coffee.
Manual can openers – buy a bunch of military openers at 10 for $4+ dollars on Amazon.
Charcoal
Aluminum foil
Paper towels
AA batteries
Spices
Bleach – used for purifying water
Baby wipes
Disposable lighters
Plastic sheeting
Nails and screws
Vegetable seeds (heirloom)
Men will likely trade large tools for other large tools, hand tools for other hand tools

You will probably think of other cheap items to add to these lists.

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