Article - Trade goods

[TWP]

This is the first part of a much longer article.  I read Ol' Remus regularly, it is not light reading.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but the item are compact and can be stored for years.

http://woodpilereport.com/html/index-492.htm

Recommendations on trade goods to be stockpiled: "...coffee, treats and cigarettes..."

"treats" are specifically hard sugar candy, coffee is dry powder, either free dried or spray dried.  Cigarettes are specifically bulk tobacco and rolling papers, vacuum packed.

Also recommended is powdered, non-dairy coffee creamer.  I would include sugar packets with this.

Each of these three items could be bundled into "trade packs" of various sizes for barter units.  Smaller packs of each would make "change" in a transaction for other items.

I recommend NOT caching all of your barter goods in one place, for security reasons.  Having multiple caches means you could afford to have some "stock leakage" due to vermin (animal and human), theft or storm damage.  Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

These are not items which I use personally, so they don't get cycled and replaced as I would my food stores.  They are also not "survival" rations and so don't have as high a priority in my preps.  I buy them when I have spare cash, which is not frequent.