It's time to brush up on our barter skills again. Bring all your extra gear or goods for barter along with a table to display it all on.
Where
Prep and Save parking lot
1472 Linda Way
Sparks, NV 89431
When:
Saturday, April 29
10:00am – 2:00pm
Guidelines:
To stay in the spirit of the Northern Nevada Preppers Group please help us keep this event family friendly.
No Guns or Ammo
This is Trade or Barter Only event (No Cash).
Prep and Save will be Open during the swap meet. If you have cash burning a hole in your pocket they will be happy to assist you.
Here are some great thoughts on trade or barter that our own Jerry D Young has graciously allowed me to add to this post.
1. If both parties are happy with the trade, it is a good trade.
2. What is a good barter/trade between two people is not always a good trade for two other people. Everyone has different value systems, needs, wants, and resources.
3. While getting value for value is nearly an absolute, being extremely ‘stingy’ will get a person the reputation of being too difficult to deal with, and reduce that person’s ability to trade.
4. In the same vein, taking extreme advantage of someone that is essentially clueless, will usually come back to haunt one when that person learns they could/should/might have received rather more than they did for a given item. That will turn a ‘both parties happy with the trade’ good trade into a grudge by the person that got taken advantage of against the person that took advantage. In addition it will get the undue advantage taker the reputation of one that cannot be trusted to do an honest trade.
5. Sometimes a direct trade simply is not possible when one of the traders simply does not have anything the other trader wants. Pushing for a trade by the one that does want what the other has is usually both useless, and counterproductive.
6. Sometimes three-way (or more way) trades are required if two people do not have what each other wants, but a third party has one of the items and is willing to participate in the trade, with each getting something they want. Again, trying to force someone to trade is almost always counterproductive.
7. When using PMs (precious metals), having an agreement for any given barter/trade day on what specific PM coins are worth and posting it might be advantageous. Of course any two people making a barter/trade that includes PMs will apply their own value to the coins, having a standard value as a reference point for those not familiar with PMs might make it much easier for them.
8. While being ‘wealthy’ in trade goods is certainly not a bad thing, making excessive value barters/trades to get all the ‘good stuff’, will get one plenty of items, but will also get one the reputation of being a ‘rich person taking undue advantage of that wealth’. Just as it does now when someone tries to buy up everything they can of limited supply items in a crisis situation.
9. In the same vein, someone that constantly interferes in barters/trades between two other people and offers a bit more than what the one person can give, to get a given item without having to trade for it with the person that is trying to get it, gets the same reputation of abusing their wealth.
10. Once a person gets a bad reputation as a barterer/trader, that reputation will stay with them for a very long time, no matter how much they might try to reverse it.
11. The reputation of being a good, honest barter/trader is worth its weight in gold.
12. Cheap junk is still cheap junk in a barter/trade situation, just as it is in a regular money based economy.
13. The old adage that one person’s junk is another person’s treasure is an old adage for a reason. It can certainly be true. But it sure is not all the time. People can have very different value systems for different types of items.
14. Sometimes a ‘kicker’ is worth a lot more in good will than its actual value. And while it might not ‘make the deal’, that good will can often make a deal in the future possible that might not be otherwise. Especially if it is given after the deal is made.
One thing that should be noted, is that in current times, barters/trades are considered taxable transactions. Regular, on-going barter/trade, or barters/trades of significant value, should probably be recorded with the Fair Market Value, priced in US FRNs (Federal Reserve Notes [Dollars in other words]) and the record kept available in case of inquiry by the government, be it State or Federal.
If a tax must be paid, it is much better to have a reasonable value recorded than risk having the government assign any value they wish to the transaction, and pay the tax on that.
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