Bartering And Horse Trading (Part Duh)

[agnut]

Hi Mick silver. Sounds like you are already in the thick of it. As I wrote in my last post, I am still learning too (and will continue to learn as long as I live). I wonder if there are auctions in heaven. Probably not what with bidding wars and last minute slamming.

So bartering and horse trading is sort of a clearing floor for information for us all as well as from all of us. I have owned several businesses and sometimes people would ask me about a business they were considering starting. They would ask “What if I fail ?” I would tell them that the only failure was to not do what they believed, whether they made money or not. They looked at me quizzically since they had considered financial success as being the only success. Although vitally important, there is also learning success and satisfaction success. To discover that someone can act, learn and possibly succeed can be revelatory and open doors to other greater personal growth.

Funny that you mention all the gardening tools you have accumulated, for you see, I have been doing the same for years. Finding a shovel, hoe, pick and many other tools for a dollar or two is just icing on the cake when out there garage sailing. I especially look for the implements that are well made. Old American stuff. When I lived in southern California in a little town there was a guy who got broken shovels, rakes and hoes and welded metal tubes where there had been wood handles. I bought several and they lasted forever. You would have to have been a gorilla or a fool to have broken them. Why don’t they sell them in the stores ? Pretty obvious, isn’t it ?

Right now we have 3 steers, having recently thrown one in the freezer ( a cute euphemism considering the alternative). Well, really two and a half steers since AJ has only one testicle (is this a test ? ) . I call him AJ, short for Almond Joy. You know, sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t. I suppose I could offer him out to stud for at half off.

Anyway, the three remaining bovines will be dispensed with by next fall. AJ will go in the freezer and the two younger ones will be sold to partially pay for the next project. I have calculated that it is too expensive to raise them, even with getting a ton of fruits and veggies a week and buying hay at $1 a bale. I can buy the beef all wrapped and done for about $4.50 a pound while it costs about the same if my son and I raise them for over 2 years. This raising doesn’t include the feeding them 3 times a day, watering them, mending fences and material. Also risk must be calculated; risk of disease and liability.

The next project may be pig breeding and raising. But I have a lot of research to do first. One event that caught my eye is that Smithfield, the largest pork processor in the US, has been sold to the Chinese. Notice the recent prices of a pound of bacon ? About doubled, didn’t it ? A sign for the future ? I wrote about this a while back; maybe here but am either too lazy or stupid to find it. Hey, maybe I’m getting oldtimers’ disease. Yeah, that’s the ticket. The only positive to having oldtimers’ is that every time you hear a joke, it is new.

Mick silver, every deal you make provides more experience to make the future deals. It is having the courage and confidence in yourself that will propel you forward. I have made many mistakes in the past and expect to make more in the future. Nothing is certain in the future except that if you don’t try, you are certain to miss out.

Best wishes,

Agnut

[mick silver]

do you guys every see they for sale , i buy they when i can find them . i try and stay below 100bucks most of the time . i refinishs theys and make fair money on them . stay away from them if there alot of rust . body filler for cars works well for fixing them . as a kid we had one , the kicker is all the older folks are looking back and want one because of there folks having one . so you guys get what i am saying there money there if the price is right . it like old wood furnture i restore that at time for people but most of the time it for my wife , we have replace most of the stuff in are home with good solid furnture , you cant buy the stuff that was made years ago . i see you may start raising hogs to me it easer the beef . but make sure you hog pen as far away as it can be the smell but i bet you know this already . i go to alot of auctions , i have never seen land an homes so cheap as they have been in the last few years . but back to the meat what you raise will be better then anything you can buy from the store an plus it safer for you guys , well i need to go be safe and good at it mick s

[agnut]

Hi Mick silver. I’ve never seen this type of lawn furniture but have seen steel single chairs, some with ornate designs. I have a pair of cast iron and oak chairs, they are so heavy that I dread moving them. Every time I look at them I marvel at how things used to be well made here in the America. To last a lifetime. This is partly why I barter and horse trade; I collect well made items that can be enjoyed for now and passed on to my family. I used to find old metal riding toys and restore them. It was enjoyable and as a result the hours passed quickly. Not work but more a fun hobby.

I think it was Orson Wells who said that if a hobby did not bring him money, he would find another hobby. Well, there are different measures of bringing money but that has to be weighed against the pleasure derived. I have spent several years restoring my own old cars and netted far less per hour than if I had been working on customers’ cars.

Restoring some things pay well. I once met a guy who restored a specific type of coffee roaster. He bought a large sand blaster machine from me so that he could fit big pieces inside. I made money selling a tool like the gold rush merchants sold gold panning tools and Levis to the miners. That is another way of pursuing a dream and more often profitable. I guess it isn’t as exciting as finding gold nuggets but is still steady progress toward the same dream of becoming financially sound.

Nowadays I am bartering my skills in finding good deals for what others have to trade. It may be items or their particular skills I need. I’m getting older and can’t work like I used to. Besides I don’t have experience like a carpenter, plumber, electrician or computer expert. Maybe in the future we will be back (or is that really advanced) to going to the doctor or dentist and paying him with chickens or pigs or our labor. I just know that I am doing some of this trading now and it is working out well. There is always the human factor to consider; the other guy. Is he happy with the deal ? If not, I want to know and work it out. Hypertiger often writes that we take more than we give. I don’t agree with this as a blanket generalization; The best businesses and barterers will bend over backwards to satisfy their customers because it is good practice for future relations. But it goes deeper in that it is a moral issue also.

I sometimes wonder how we would treat each other if there were only a few hundred humans here on earth. I don’t like to make the analogy that if you put too many rats in a confined space, they will kill each other but I feel that in putting too many humans in close proximity, respect for each other is diminished. And with loss of respect comes crimes against one another. The phrase, “we are our brothers’ keeper”, may sound a bit corny in these times but I practice it. Believe me, it is hard to give something to someone without something coming back in one form or another. It is there; you just have to be able to recognize it.

If doing evil in this world comes back (my karma ran over your dogma), why shouldn’t doing good also come back ? It is said that no good deed goes unpunished. Yeah, sometimes good intentions go awry. But this shouldn’t deter us from doing what is right. As Gandhi said, we must be the change we want to see in the world.

I know that it is not easy to remain calm with so much happening in the world. When I was growing up in the 50s and 60s, it wasn’t anything like it is today. If the dollar loses reserve currency status, all the wrongs committed will come home to roost.

We have become prisoners of our own devices. How ? By having so many comforts and conveniences, folks are in denial from fear of losing them. And denial is a mechanism to not face having to make a moral decision. So Americans complain about rising costs, unemployment, politics, crime and future uncertainty while not seeming to do much about it. I think that not until they have nothing to lose will they stand up and be counted.

Best wishes,

Agnut

P.S. Thanks for the hog advice. I’m still gathering information and haven’t yet concluded if it is a best direction to go.

Yesterday I learned that raising organic produce has restrictions that I may not be able to meet.

[gunDriller]

I sometimes wonder how we would treat each other if there were only a few hundred humans here on earth. I don’t like to make the analogy that if you put too many rats in a confined space, they will kill each other but I feel that in putting too many humans in close proximity, respect for each other is diminished. And with loss of respect comes crimes against one another. The phrase, “we are our brothers’ keeper”, may sound a bit corny in these times but I practice it. Believe me, it is hard to give something to someone without something coming back in one form or another. It is there; you just have to be able to recognize it.

i used to raise rats. sold about $20 worth a week.

when they were fed well, they got along great.

but yes, i've heard about cases where they multiplied exponentially, e.g. in a grain silo, then ran out of food.

and then the rat cannibalism started.


i think it would be possible to use rats to generate electricity.

but it's one of those "get around to it" type of projects.

[mick silver]

well well i hit the jack pot last week at the sale . i pick up a bedroom suit made out of solid cedar for less than a hundred bucks . done turn down 400 on the stuff . but i will redo the furinture then sell it all . there alway nice stuff if you look for it . be safe at it mick s

[agnut]

Hi gun driller. Yeah, all too true. My son and I just watched the Hunger Games and it seemed to apply to your post. People will do almost anything to survive when cornered and put under undue stress such as hunger. We are not there yet but it could happen in a matter of days if food replenishment ceased for any reason. It is not the prepping that concerns me but the moral decisions that will have to be made. I have already made mine but I feel that so many preppers haven’t faced their coming dilemma.

I haven’t been going to garage sales because there haven’t been any for the last several weeks. Winter and everybody holes up like bears hibernating. However I’ve been picking up things at the local Blockbuster store that is going out of business. Last Thursday they began a liquidation sale; DVDs for 99 cents. I got 22 DVDs, 20 of which were foreign films which rarely show up at garage sales. I also got the 4th and 5th seasons of the TV series Weeds for 99 cents; I haven’t seen the show but heard that it was popular. If I don’t like it I could always sell it, trade it or give it away. Trading material as Ponce calls it. You know, every time I pick up an item I think about whether I would rather have the dollars or the item.

I’ve begun reading a book called Handbook To Higher Consciousness by Ken Keyes Jr. and so far it makes a lot of sense. It deals with our fears and motivations and offers solutions that we can easily use in our daily lives. It is life changing stuff. I know that I dwell upon the past and am concerned about the future too much. Sure we learn from the past and plan for the future but this is not about that. It is more about being here now and thinking in terms of preference rather than addictions. Serenity.

Today my son and I were delivering fruits and veggies to the local thrift store and I noticed that there was a bag sale on men’s clothing. It was all you could stuff in this plastic bag for $5. Well, my son and I set about methodically picking out clothes we could wear for work or dress. My son got 14 shirts and 2 pairs of pants in one bag. I got 10 pairs of pants and 9 shirts, a wide variety of dress, casual and some camo shirts. These clothing items were better quality with labels such as Dockers, Puritan, Wrangler, Bass, Clairborne, L.L.Bean, Arrow, St. Johns Bay and others. So for $5 each we have enough clothes for a long, long time.

I do realize than not everyone has a great thrift store such as we do but one should persevere and search surrounding areas for other thrift stores. Sometimes when I am traveling I will find a local thrift store and check them out. I’ve found some unusual items that I had never seen before.

I’ve been wondering about future inflation/deflation for some time and here are a couple of articles to think about :

2014 The End of the Beginning
Darryl Robert Schoon
http://www.321gold.com/editorials/sc...oon010914.html

When Deflation Becomes Hyperinflation
http://bullionbullscanada.com/

If we have deflation on a massive scale almost nobody will be able to pay their bills; no cash to be had. And if we have hyperinflation, the currency may not buy anything. Personally I believe that we will have what I long ago called hyperstagflation wherein prices are rising dramatically while wages are stagnant. All in a scenario of high unemployment. In fact it is going on now. Why do I bring this up ? Well, I would want to know that what I am buying now will be valuable in the future. More desirable and needed than the dollars I hold.

It seems that we have been paying higher prices while receiving lower wages for some years now. But lately we have been running out of dollars to continue on this path. How can prices fall to where we can afford things we want ? First would come an increase in unsold goods inventory but will a price drop follow ? And if a price drop did indeed follow, would manufacturers be able to stay in business ? Or would current inventories be sold out and then replaced with continued manufacturing to be sold at a loss ? What would be the sense in that ?

How can we have hyperinflation when nobody will have the bundles of dollars to pay for things ? Germany had hyperinflation in 1922-23; but the government printed money like toilet paper. Will the Fed do that ? No, it seems that they are “printing” electronic money; and it is all going to prop up the banks and Wall street. Do we personally see any of that ?

Money is like the blood coursing through the body. Not enough and the body becomes weak and near death as various organs are insufficiently fed needed materials. There are too many bloodsuckers, too many taking more than they give as Hypertiger says. The parasite has become larger than the host.

A reset is in order. But it will be complicated, painful and fraught with many dangers. I hope that we who have prepared have the skills to navigate through what is to come. About 7 years ago I began writing this bartering and horse trading thread and only lately have I realized that it as a skill will be more important than ever.

Best wishes,

Agnut

[mick silver]

went to a sale the other night . most of the stuff there was junk it look like the sales maybe coming to a end to find good stuff . i hope not ........ be safe at it all mick s

[govcheetos]

went to a sale the other night . most of the stuff there was junk it look like the sales maybe coming to a end to find good stuff . i hope not ........ be safe at it all mick s

Hang in there Mick. Winter is the slow time for sure, but every now and then you find a nugget, gotta be out there looking though. I hadn't found anything in weeks until this past weekend when I picked up a United Welding side mount truck tool box for $5, a NEW trailer tire size 205/75/15 for $5, and a 6 gallon VENTED gas can for $1. Been cruising craigslist hard lately. Sold a bunch of stuff I wasn't using or stuff I had multiple multiples of. Some prices are so high I really wonder what the seller is thinking selling items for damn near the new retail price, or selling some old raggety project for what a decent good shape useable item would cost. Gotta look through a bunch of BS to find the good stuff. I feel for people trying to sell a high priced used item today. Lots of people don't have any funds and those that do buy new, even if they do finance it. Saw a commercial for people to LEASE flatscreen tvs, not rent to own, LEASE!

Hope everyone else is doing good.

Buy low, sell for more, and hang on to the good stuff that doesn't depreciate or go bad for later.

[mick silver]

here a site so you guys can check out some of the old glider and what they are saling for , http://www.retrovintagepatio.com/unr...l-gliders.html

[mick silver]

also watch for theys old metal window fans , most young people have never seen theys , as a kid we had them in our house . i just pick up two today , pay 40 for both of them , both work great they will be going to my work shop for the summer ... i have seen they fans go as high as 300bucksthey fans go for alot more i just knew the guy and he let me have them cheap . here a site look for theys fan . the go for alot at places that sale old homes stuff ... https://www.google.com/search?q=old+...h=742#imgdii=_