Some kinda details!!

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “barter”? Is it the book, One Red Paperclip. Does it make you think of Craigslist.org? Maybe it gives you the vision of a shady business deal going on in a back alley.

Did you know bartering can save you a ton of cash? Well, it can! But only if you do it right.

First, let’s take a look at what bartering is. To barter is to trade goods or services without using money. The idea is simple, and the practice dates back to the beginning of time, when money wasn’t around yet. Caveman want food? Caveman make fur coat for other caveman with wooly mammoth meat. Or something like that.

You’re really a bartering expert in disguise. Reflect a moment upon your childhood. Did you ever trade your pb&j for a Snickers bar at lunch time? How about trading baseball cards. Or pogs! Remember pogs?

You didn’t have cash as a kid, so you improvised. This entrepreneurial spirit certainly doesn’t have an age limit. The barter savvy Americans among us have scored prime vacations, cars, Christmas gifts, and even surgery!

How can you regain your bartering prowess? Follow these five tips from the pros to get started, and quit paying cash!

1. Assess your assets.

Take a mental (or physical) inventory of what you have, and at what price you’re willing to part with it, whether it be special skills you have, or actual stuff.

Think creatively.

Sometimes you might take something about yourself, or something that you have, for granted, not realizing its bartering potential. Maybe you have a passion for painting desert fauna. Maybe someone out there who knows how to build that hutch your wife has been begging you for has a wife who’s been begging him for a painting of desert fauna for their living room. Who knows?

2. Find a forum.

You know what you want. And now that you know what you’ve got, put it to the test—online. The internet has made bartering incredibly easy. Craigslist.org is arguably the most popular site for trading goods and services.

List your request, and what you can offer in return clearly and favorably. If it’s a thing you’re trading, make sure to attach a good photo (or two or three) to your post, and describe its current state. The last thing you want to do is tick off the gal who’s got what you want because when she receives the “like new” mountain bike you send her, she notices the shocks are blown, and the paint is chipped off on one side—the side you didn’t take a picture of.

SwapThing.com is another site that has taken off in recent months, where you can barter services, things, and skills online.

3. Be confident.

Know your limits. If you appear wishy washy to a potential barter partner, he/she might not want to do business with you, fearing your goods or services aren’t worth what you say they are. Or worse, you’ll undersell yourself and feel like you got swindled. 

For example, if you stripe and seal coat the parking lot of a chocolate shop in return for specially made chocolate bars as Christmas gifts, know how much chocolate your services are worth.

In fact, if you’re exchanging professional services, you need to be aware of the barter credits system currently in place. A barter exchange is a commercial organization that creates a platform for clients to trade on and an internal currency for clients to trade with.

When you perform a service for another business in the organization, you are paid in trade credits, which you can then use to buy another company’s services. Check out the National Association of Trade Exchanges (www.nate.org) and the International Reciprocal Trade Association (www.irta.com) for more information.

Make sure when you’re trading commercially that you list your transactions on your taxes, lest you be attacked by the IRS! They need money just like everyone else, but instead of bartering, they’ll come after unwitting tax evaders!

4. Never cross the bottom line.

Don’t be afraid to push the limits, but know when to stop.

Don’t insult the person you’re trying to barter with by offering something ridiculously unequal to what they’re offering. Like a Hershey’s kiss for a Porsche. You’ll immediately be written off as an unserious, and annoyingly time-wasting barterer. Your chances of ever owning that particular Porsche, or some other similarly hot car owned by the same guy, will be shot.

5. Get it in writing.

If you’re sending something through the mail to someone you don’t know because you’ve bartered over Craigslist with them, get a written, signed document stating your exchange, both of your names, the goods being exchanged, and your addresses and phone numbers. That way if your mail box remains empty after the exchange has taken place, you’ll have somewhere to start to track down that original My Little Pony your husband made you trade for a bigger TV.

According to America’s Research Group, “67 percent of consumers have haggled in recent months, compared with 33 percent in 2006.” Now is a great time to get bartering! There are tons of people out there willing to barter with you, and more forums than ever to hook you up with them.

Stay focused, know what you want and what you’re willing to do, or part with, for it, and go for a trade!