Saturday, July 26, 2008

CNI Challenge #9--Barter for Something Big

Old fashioned trading and bartering, for many people, has gone the way of the covered wagon. It's quaint, it seems, but no longer necessary. As money gets tighter for many people, I'm hoping to see a resurgence of this lost art. The challenge here is to barter or trade for something you need. I'm not talking a trade of corn for tomatoes--it needs to be something fairly substantial. If you want to learn how a man started off his bartering project with one red paper clip and eventually, through many trades, ended up with a house, read "One Red Paperclip" by Kyle MacDonald. You can also find his blog at http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/ Other useful information on bartering can be found at http://www.u-exchange.com/barter101. Give it a try! Bartering can be a fun, rewarding way to acquire the things you need while helping others to get the things they need.
p.s. My biggest barter was for teeth. A friend's mom needed dentures but he couldn't afford them. He was, however, in the business of installing flooring so we found a dentist who needed flooring to pull the mom's teeth and a guy who made dentures who's son needed flooring to make the dentures and, just like that, mama had new teeth.

4 comments:

  1. Of course, you must pay protection money, errr, I mean "taxes" on your barters. And, of course, you do.

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  2. Bartering is a good skill. Having a bit of experience (getting burned) when the stakes are paying an extra couple bucks for an old blanket is far better then getting burned when you are bargaining for something important.

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  3. I bartered for every door and window in my house, a painter for a day, and some plumbing when I remodeled it. The coolest thing was trading for a Springfield M1A with 6 20-round mags. And it was tuned by a military shooting team armorer. Bartering for good stuff can be done. My friend and I have traded for literally pickup loads of stuff. And I even got some other great items for free: Two dogs with dog house, a 6-inch cast iron jointer and a Colt Detective Special in .38 cal.

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