Swap Or Trade It For Fun And Profit

By Beryl Dalton


It's true that one man's trash is another man's treasure. The very item that you never plan to use again may be exactly what a neighbor is looking for. When you swap or trade it, you get something in return other than cash money. This makes the whole thing more fun than a routine shopping trip to the grocery store or the mall.

Say for instance that you keep free-range hens and have more eggs than you can use for your family. Selling them would raise cash that you could use for the next sack of chicken feed. However, you may also be able to trade those eggs - worth up to four dollars a dozen - for things you routinely spend money on.

Maybe you admire a neighbor's perennial borders, full of color from early spring to the end of fall. Think about offering to barter eggs for bulbs, root divisions, or bushes from that garden instead of shopping at the garden center. Use the money you would have spent at the nursery to buy chicken feed.

You may get other benefits, too - like free planting advice or a better acquaintance with your neighbor. Once word gets out, other neighbors might be willing to trade garden produce, fruit from their trees, or unwanted items from their garages for your fresh eggs. Pretty soon, the whole community may be into swapping and bartering.

You may be able to find an established 'swap meet' in your area. People come to these informal gatherings to trade everything from cars and trucks to homemade crafts, garden produce, and yes, fresh eggs. The fun here is never knowing what you may find. People also trade services. You may be able to offer that perfectly good dishwasher your wife changed out because of the color in exchange for a set of new snow tires.

Local classified ad magazines, many of which will publish an ad for free, often have entries that say: will trade for (whatever) in good condition. If you have a whatever on hand, you're golden.

This is great for those who may not have a lot of ready cash but still like the thrill of getting something new and different. After all, shopping is addictive because it's fun, even more than because what you get.

People who live on small incomes, who prefer to get by without a nine-to-five job, or just like the idea of barter rather than money exchange love trading. Canny traders can often get more than retail for items that people want; not everyone knows values well enough to judge correctly. People may not even mind paying a little more to enjoy the down-home atmosphere that goes with face-to-face bargaining.




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