Best barter items to stockpile... what do you guys and dolls think?

[erudne]

Fer Fal's Top 10 SHTF Barter Items:

 

[erudne]

Personally I would stick to basics:
Shelter
water
food
meds
next will be what PPL want, they want to return to a pre-SHTF situation that requires fuel and electricity, includes batterys
They will also want to escape
but everyone will want chocolate

 

[Just Jim]

Rubber gloves may come in handy

 

[tfbit]

I have a few extra firearms that I would consider giving to trusted neighbors for the purposes of neighborhood defense. It's a hard thing though. Once food or water runs low you don't want them coming back with that gift, thinking they are going to get your other stuff. I have plenty of other items that I see as possible barter items but having a high capacity, easy to use water filter could make you indispensable to families around you if the main neighborhood water source is now a small canal, ditch, or wetland in the area.

ammo and guns would only be for myself and loved ones.

 

[Burt Gummer]

tfbit - No good deed goes unpunished indeed. Bad idea.

 

[aflineman]

Matches, salt/spices

 

[PlayboyPenguin]

People that feel tobacco and other such things will be super valuable are ignoring history. When soldiers in the war were receiving regular rations the tobacco was valuable. When they were not; you could not trade 100 cigs for a candy bar. Food and water will always take precedence over addiction and luxuries. People with serious addiction like alcoholism or chain smoking will be much less likely to survive anyway...driving down the need for said items long term also.

Ammunition, food, water... will be worth 1000x it's weight in any substance you can name.

 

[The Heretic]

Low cost, high value.

Don't get things that will cost you a lot per item (or per useful item).

Get things that a prepper may have, but only have a few of - get those things a non-prepper would take for granted, but not stock up on. High usefulness, low cost.

Not something a person can do without if they had to, but rather something they would find really useful to survive.

Oh, and generally, these should be items you can use in the case that no one else wants them.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

My new biz is exotic woodworking. We can convert right over to making longbows and arrows, (even with hand tools, have many of those) and we are about to set up a forge for arrowheads and such...

 

[The Heretic]

Fer Fal's Top 10 SHTF Barter Items:

When he started saying PMs and jewelry I tuned out.

 

[jbett98]

Make friends with some Mormons. Then, when it hits the fan, convert in a hurry!

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Make friends with some Mormons. Then, when it hits the fan, convert in a hurry!

My neighbor and good buddy is Mormon. Funny thing is we are far bigger preppers than him. It's not cheep!

 

[abu]

ropes,tarps,shoes,rubber seals for canning and engines/pumps etc, honey anything sweet,bug repellent,citronellaetc

 

[ikemay]

All the items mentioned previously and toilet paper .......... lots and lots of toilet paper. Ok, not joking about the toilet paper. But the other stuff will depend on time of year, where you live, what others may have/need, if you have pets, if you have livestock, any medical conditions, etc, etc.

 

[erudne]

I fear that when the Ebola Gay docks in Galvaston and when the Infected Africans arrive in the US, courtesy of Obola store shelves will soon be bare. Priorities:

#1 shelter
#2 water
#3 food
#4 security
#5 health care
#6 comfort items

 

[Doc In UPlace]

+20 on the TP. Go ahead and run out of that stuff (or pretend that you have, just once) and see how much you'd trade for a 12-pack.
Also you can vac-pack that stuff with a foodsaver and it will crush down to about the size of a fat hamburger, virtually waterproof until you cut the seal.

 

[erudne]

I'm not above using a well dried horse turnip in leu of a folded sheet of TP and newspaper is OK as well
Having said that I would trade eggs for TP, 1-1

 

[fireninja13]

Prescription pain killers.

Half this country is addicted to opiate pain killers, and will be going through serious withdrawal if SHTF.

I also have deep in my safe a few potent variants of opium poppy seeds, which BTW are completely legal to buy from gardening supply stores, it is just illegal to grow and milk the poppies. So, if things get bad, I will have a serious flower garden

 

[fireninja13]

If we are talking about stocking up on quantities of things that we can store, we should all add some good reference books to our libraries. For personal use and education, and for trade/sale to those in your community who you also want to prosper for mutual benefit and defense. Everything from army manuals, to farming basics, to first aid, to food identification and preservation. Knowledge will be a huge asset. For yourself, and for your community. If you can teach people, you will become an asset to the community. Making yourself usefull is a good way to make sure everyone wants to keep you around.

Seriously. This is dead on.

I have a recommendation for anyone else who gets this one -- the old Encyclopedia Britannica 9th or 11th editions. Those volumes will literally tell you how to rebuild civilization from scratch and get you to an early 1900s level of technology. I have both the 9th and the 11th in hardback and they will be the last books I ever get rid of.

 

[Martini_Up]

Studying history all of my adult life I would say the #1 best thing to STOCKPILE for BARTERING would be pints of high proof vodka or rum.