Prepper Barter Items

If government currency no longer means anything, will people engage in trade to get the things they need? Whether you stockpile items specifically for trade, or you have extra things that you store anyway, bartering may be a valuable way to obtain food, supplies, or gear you don't have. This video talks about several types of items that could be useful in a post-SHTF barter.

[DRUMMER-j-ux]

With regards to the tobacco -- the vacuseal bag is porous because it's a plastic, whereas the mason jar is glass and is not nearly as porous. This could be the reason why one method resulted in stale tobacco and one method held up much better.

[williambianchi]

I'll speak on 2 items, toilet paper and tobacco.
Rather than TP, I purchased several inexpensive portable bidets. They are just spouts that screw onto standard water bottles and direct a spray of water to the backside when the bottle is squeezed. They take up very little storage space, will last for years of use, and are a good option if water is plentiful. Works just fine as a TP alternative, in my experience.
For tobacco, I stuff my own cigarettes and tend to purchase a year's worth of bagged tobacco and empty cigarette tubes at a time. My price per pack is 64 cents. (One of my orders was for 24 1LB bags tobacco and 60 cartons of tubes---2 1/2 cartons per bag in my experience) The bags mine come in are thick plastic and sealed and they last 3 years if stored inside my home. I know because I purchased 4 extra bags 4 years ago for an experiment. I opened the first one a year later, 2nd one 2 years later, and the 3rd one 3 years later. No issues with taste or smokability (not a word, but it should be) so far. In January of 2023, I'll open the 4th and see what happens. I just put the original sealed bags they came in into a big plastic tupperware type bin (not air tight) and left them there until I was ready to make cigarettes out of them, so the tobacco bags were not exposed to sunlight or temperature extremes. My tobacco brand is Golden Harvest and my tube brand is Classic. I get them online and get free shipping on orders greater than $120.00. My order makes about 12, 000 cigarettes and I now know I can order twice that much without any of it going bad before I smoke it. Leaves me the option of bartering with people I know and trust after shtf, like my neighbor who smokes and has a chicken coop. I do not have chickens, but it's likely I'll be eating eggs whenever he runs low on smokes. 😃
Anyway, there is my experience so far. Hope it helps someone.

[williambianchi]

Quick point to mention. Barter items should only be bought after basic preps are obtained and ideally, whatever is up for barter should be a surplus of something you currently use or consume right now.

[hansmcq]

Toilet paper is always the first thing to go, ask the Russians, Bosnians, Venezuelans, or any one who gone through a SHTF.

[mikemcdonald]

yeah never trade ammo. It could be used against you to take everything you have. How bad would it suck to trade ammo only to be killed with your own ammo? lol

[crankupthechainsaw]

Games. Well, the main game will be keeping up with the situation..