Beyond Silver: Practical Items for Post-Disaster Trading

Augason Farms
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We dive deep into bartering strategies for disaster scenarios, focusing on what items hold the most value and how to trade safely when traditional systems fail.

• Batteries (AA, AAA, and CR2032 "watch batteries") are excellent barter items that are always in demand
• Personal hygiene products like soap, toothpaste, and wet wipes boost morale and become surprisingly valuable
• First aid supplies and over-the-counter medications will always find willing traders
• Small tools (screwdrivers, socket sets, duct tape) and repair skills offer recurring value
• Freeze-dried meals and long-shelf-life foods become premium trading commodities
• Practice safe bartering by knowing your trading partner, bringing backup, and setting clear terms
• Don't overshare information about your supplies to avoid becoming a target
• Useful skills like sharpening tools or mending clothing can be bartered repeatedly without depleting supplies
• Trust your gut—if a trade feels wrong, walk away
• Look for fair exchanges where both parties feel they've received good value

Join me at Prepper Camp in Saluda, North Carolina on September 26-28 for classes on everything from butchering to ham radio use, night vision, and survival skills. Use the code "podcastprep" for 10% off your order at Augustin Farms through my affiliate link in the show notes.

Augason Farms
Support the podcast. Click on my affiliate link and use coupon code PODCASTPREP for 10% discount!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Bartering in SHTF
• 3:30 Batteries and Flashlights as Currency
• 5:10 Hygiene Products and Morale Boosters
• 7:00 First Aid and Small Tools
• 9:10 Food and Repair Skills
• 12:20 Bartering Safely and Avoiding Risks
• 17:07 Prepper Camp and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. The National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm warning. Welcome to the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast, where prepping doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. Coming to you from a well-defended, off-grid compound high in the mountains, coming to you from his Florida room in Richmond Virginia Neither off-grid nor well-defended, unless you count as chickens and cats, here is your host, keith.

Speaker 2: 0:41

Hey, all this is Keith and welcome back to the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast, august 19th 2025. Well, tonight I want to talk about bartering and I want to go into a little more depth than I did a couple weeks ago when I specifically spoke about bartering with silver one ounce silver rounds. So I want to go into a little more detail and a little more in depth about the type of bartering and the things you can barter with. So, like any SHTF situation, it could be relatively minor, absolute catastrophe. So I'm going to pick just kind of a generic SHTF situation and keep it relatively simple, because you can go off on so many tangents and what, if and how, about what happens if, or what are you going to do when. So I'll keep it relatively basic if I can. So we're going to talk about a severe storm, a severe storm that a hurricane makes landfall and, by the way, erin is slowly making her turn north and east out to sea and boy, she's taking her sweet time. So a hurricane comes ashore, takes out a significant chunk of the East Coast, goes as far north as Virginia, maryland. We get Virginia, maryland, north Carolina, south Carolina, georgia, atlantic Coast, florida is just completely hammered right. So we're talking about power utilities and there's automatically going to be a stress to the supply chain. Okay, so let's talk about things that you can barter with Batteries AA, aaa or even what I call the watch batteries, the CR2032s, the one that you can never find, or I always go to the store and get the wrong one but the 2032s are kind of the universal type of what I call watch battery. Garage door openers use them. They are very, very inexpensive. Garage door openers use them. They are very, very inexpensive. You can get, my goodness, you can get 10 or 12, and they're only, you know, maybe a quarter a piece. You can get them in a box of 30 or 40 or 50. Check Amazon If you go to your local drug store or grocery store, they're going to be much, much more expensive. All right, so those go in.

Speaker 2: 3:03

All sorts of different devices. Make sure that you have enough for you. Obviously, your AA, aaa, maybe some nine volts D size batteries, maybe the bigger mag lights and maybe some of your cheapy plastic flashlights might run your C's, but if they're LEDs they're going to probably run a smaller battery. Make sure that you have an amount to barter. Make sure you have a little bit extra. Things can get a little dicey when you're actually dipping into your core preps to barter Now, you may have to, there'll be you may be running on running short on something that that's one of your core part of your prep. So you know, it's all about. It's all about negotiation. It's all about what? What you would consider a good, a good price, I guess. All right.

Speaker 2: 3:48

So we have our flashlights, we have our batteries, or extra batteries, those little uh 20, 30 twos. They're very small, always in demand. You can go ahead and put them in either their original pack and keep them in there it's kind of like a blister pack. You pop them out on the back but put them into a Ziploc bag, something that will remain watertight. And if you have them in your go bag or you get home bag, but just make sure you have them handy and have them in a bag that's watertight and do check the expiration. You leave them in your pantry or your go bag for a long period of time. Go ahead and check the expiration. I really don't know over a two or three year period, how much of the state of charge they actually lose, but it is certainly possible.

Speaker 2: 4:33

Hygiene products, soap, toothpaste, sanitary pads, disposable razors, didn't even think about that. So when we go back to personal hygiene products, just things for basic cleanliness. Now, if you're like me, if you've ever been outside in the yard or you've been involved in a strenuous activity some sort of athletics and you get home and you're like, oh man, I just want a shower. And you drag yourself in a shower. Do you know how good it feels once you get out of that shower man? I feel great, that was one of the best showers shower. Do you know how good it feels once you get out of that shower man? I feel great, that was one of the best showers ever. And you kind of catch your second wind. Well, you kind of boosted your morale.

Speaker 2: 5:12

So when you have an SHTF situation, the tiny little things, like somebody shaving who normally stays clean, shaven, somebody who not necessarily a germaphobe, but someone who's been slopping around in the woods and they're wet and they're dirty and they've been looking for things to forage, and you have an opportunity to barter and you have some dude wipes, or whatever you want to call them, flushable wipes. Costco are relatively inexpensive. You can get them in a case. It's a very good price. But here I go, I digress. So just someone shaving who normally doesn't shave, just someone to wipe the crap off of their face, just get clean, does a tremendous amount for morale. Not only is a good hygiene to keep the dirt and the ooky stuff out of your face and out of your eyes, but it's very good for morale. So remember that. Just soap I mean bars of soap, I mean how cool is that when somebody would, I'll give you four gallons of water for three bars of that Irish spring. Or the antibacterial liquid soap something I really never even thought of. I know soap is important. Toothpaste got to brush your teeth, that sort of thing but was never at the top of my preps. So talked briefly about first aid supplies bad bandages, antiseptic wipes, any over-the-counter meds, antihistamines, tylenol, motrin. Again, keep what you need, but keep your little stash, your little bartering stash, separate from what you have for your core preps Small tools, a small screwdriver set, a small socket set, duct tape, multi-tool, a sewing kit.

Speaker 2: 7:01

What happens if your neighbor or somebody like rips, like their only one of their only pair of pants they have because of the storm? Their only only t-shirt is now ripped and they needed it mended. Super duper important. A lot of folks don't have the basic tools. They don't have the little cheapy screwdriver set with the Phillips and the straight head, other different type of tools, a little socket set, nothing crazy. A lot of folks don't have those. I probably have more than I can count in my junk drawer Now. Most people I know have a junk drawer in the kitchen that has exactly that. It's just a bunch of junk. So consider that Small tools often overlooked. You're going to I'm not sure if you would let somebody borrow the screwdriver for a gallon of water. If you know the person and they're going to give it back, that's one thing. But again, we're talking about bartering.

Speaker 2: 7:53

Briefly, we'll talk about precious metals and, like I've said before, if you've got the budget, small denomination of silver coins we spoke about the one ounce rounds are fantastic. They're recognized, they hold value and they trade easier than gold. Okay, gold is very expensive. Was it like $3,100 an ounce? I think I don't have the money to purchase gold, so I really don't follow gold that well. To be honest. Soap, toothpaste and those handy wipes probably are going to be a little more popular than silver. You'd be amazed on what people will trade or what people will barter for when you have the batteries and the soap and the toothpaste. People think personal hygiene first, so they're probably thinking about what do I have that I can give to you for the soap, and then vice versa.

Speaker 2: 8:50

You can always find yourself in a position where you haven't prepped well enough, you don't have enough of the personal items, and you're going to be in a position where you're going to be requesting from other people Freeze, dried meals, food with a long shelf life, long shelf life grains are perfect. If you bag your own meals, your own little trail meals, those are fantastic. There's meals in a jar, soup mixes in a jar. The list is endless and you would be amazed again. For folks who are not prepared and that's 90% of the population just like having a good shower, having a nice warm, hearty meal that kind of sticks to your ribs, as my grandfather would say. That increases morale tremendously. So when you're out in the wilderness, getting clean, a nice hot meal and starting a fire and sitting by the fire are probably the three things that would increase morale the quickest.

Speaker 2: 9:51

Be careful about hoarding supplies. You don't want to have too much of anything because you may not have the room for it. 200 pounds of rice in the five-gall gallon buckets might be taking up too much room. So again, just be careful and be mindful, obviously if you have the discretionary income but also the storage, the space that you're going to be placing those items.

Speaker 2: 10:17

Let's talk about repair skills. Can you fix a leaky pipe, patch a tire? Back to the sewing kit, mend clothing? Just think about a situation. Somebody in your community has come to you and say, hey, I've got a leaky pipe, or the toilet's leaking or something's not right. A handyman, do you? Is there anything you can do to help me? Again, a bartering situation just presented itself.

Speaker 2: 10:44

Do you know how to sharpen a knife? Do you know how to sharpen a chainsaw chain? So very interesting, if the neighbor across the street has trees down and they break out their chainsaw and they haven't had it out for several months, several years. They never got the chain sharpened and you know how to do that. It's not that difficult. It can be a little time consuming, but again, hey, keith, I heard you running the chainsaw yesterday. I haven't had this thing out in two or three years and it's all rusty and it's dull. Do you think? Do you have time to sharpen this for me? I mean, I've got those fresh peppers or the corn we just picked, or two gallons of my favorite lemonade. You know, if I give you a gallon lemonade, would you mind? Sharpening the chainsaw chain? There's a perfect example of just having just basic skills is going to be absolute gold in a situation like that. So if you want to know how to sharpen a chainsaw chain, look it up on YouTube. Well, you look up anything on YouTube and you can get some very good tutorials on on how to do that.

Speaker 2: 11:55

Sharpening a knife A lot of folks don't have a wet stone. They don't have the stone to sharpen a knife. As you know, it's only the dull knives that cut you. My grandfather told me that a million years ago and it took me a second to get it, but I eventually was able to pick that up. So let's talk about bartering safely and smartly.

Speaker 2: 12:19

This really makes me nervous, especially with a stranger, when you're trying to do some bartering. Okay. So how to barter safely and smartly? So trading during an SHTF situation is like haggling at a flea market. Emotions can run high. You need to protect yourself.

Speaker 2: 12:37

So here's a few tips that might help. First, if at all possible, know the person you're trading with. If possible, take somebody that you trust along with you, a neighbor, friend, whomever it might be. If you're trading with a stranger, meet in public, a neutral spot, bring a buddy maybe, but you know again, be very, very careful when, when it comes to bartering with a complete stranger. So set clear terms up front, before you hand over your batteries or before you sharpen that gentleman's chainsaw chain, agree on what you're getting in return. So you'll say I'll trade you 10 AA batteries for a gallon of water. Not well, whatever you think's fair. Because when they say, well, I'll give you a stale biscuit for those 10 AA batteries, you're like whoa, whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute. That's not fair. So just get right down to the nitty gritty, right down the brass tacks, and get it clarified on exactly what you're going to provide and what this other person is going to provide.

Speaker 2: 13:48

Let's talk about oversharing. This ties into OPSEC or operational security. Don't let people know how much you have in your stockpile. If you're trading a few bars of soap, don't mention that you've got 200 bars back in the shed. Keep it low key. Avoid from being a target. So if somebody comes to you and they want to barter and they have a gallon of the lemonade and they're like do you have any rice? You're like well, sure, I'll give you five, three pound bags of rice for the gallon of lemonade, and that's a deal, because I have so much. I got rice coming out my ears. I've got so much rice I could probably live on rice and beans for the next 18 months. Don't do that. Don't overshare Again.

Speaker 2: 14:39

When people get desperate, these can be your friends, your neighbors. People get desperate in certain situations so you need to be really careful. Trust your gut. I've preached this for years. If a trade feels off or anything else feels off, if someone you believe is pushing you too hard, just walk away. There'll be other opportunities. Just walk away, there'll be other opportunities. The goal is to come out of every trade feeling good about the deal and staying safe.

Speaker 2: 15:09

My dad always taught me when you buy a car used car or new car when you leave, if you believe you have the best deal or you received the best deal, you negotiated the best deal, then that's all you need. It's not. Well, did I pay a good price? That's relative. Somebody could say, well, $12,000 for that used car, oh, you got ripped off. The next person could say $12,000? Oh, that seems fair. It's all about when you walk away. So when you walk away, you drive away in your new car or used car. If you feel away, you drive away in your new car or used car. If you feel as though you were treated fairly and you negotiated the best price you could, that's all that matters. It could be completely different for somebody else, but that's all that matters. So the same with bartering At the end, if you feel as though it was fair, if you feel as though that you received something in return you know that's roughly valued, you know quote, unquote, valued as the other item then that's considered a win.

Speaker 2: 16:14

As you know, I'm part of the affiliate program for Augustin Farms. A lot of really good freeze dried meals, pre-prepared meals. They have a great website. Lot of really good freeze dried meals, pre-prepared meals. They have a great website and every once in a while they'll have some fantastic sales buy one, get one, that sort of thing. Now I will put the affiliate link in the show notes. Now, with the affiliate link, if you click on, that link takes you to their website. But if you purchase items from the affiliate link, I may if I'm lucky, if it's the right day of the week, I may get a small commission on that purchase. In addition, with that affiliate link, when you check out, enter podcast prep all one word podcast prep for additional 10% off your order. So there's my shameless commercial plug.

Speaker 2: 17:07

All right, let's close with a little more information about Prepper Camp. They're the last part. What 26th, 27th, 28th of September, down in Saluda, north Carolina? A couple folks have asked me if the schedule for this year's Prepper camp has been posted and it has not. And I checked with some folks and apparently it's kind of one of those they publish it at the last minute or very close to the actual days of the events because there's probably a lot of moving parts and the schedules. There's eight hours of classes and there's, like I guess, eight areas, so eight locations, different tents in different areas around the campground that these classes take place. So there's a lot going on, three days full of classes. So I went to the website and I'm just going to give you a couple different classes that were last year, 2024. And I assume most of these people will be back, but I'm sure there's probably a few differences.

Speaker 2: 18:09

Butchering class man if they have that, I may have to go to it. Freeze drying I have a freeze dryer. It's a fantastic tool. How to use herbs? Beekeeping, mushrooms, ham radio using drones? Post-disaster that man that'd be fantastic if you have a large property to check things out. Herbal animal care, surviving martial law that's kind of important.

Speaker 2: 18:38

Prepping for an EMP. Secret garter secret gartering, gartering, oh Lord. Secret guarding I'm not sure what secret gartering is, but it sounds like something that should happen after a wedding. Ghost phones, trauma from terrorism, edible items in the wild, situational awareness Boy that's a great class. Night vision, emergency shelters, ai, avoiding abduction I highly recommend avoid being abducted at all times. Survival groups, secret livestock, bug out bags, survival evasion all sorts. Cane self-defense If that one's there, I'm going to have to check that one out. Travel security all sorts of things Bartering they're all over the place and there's a bunch of different speakers.

Speaker 2: 19:28

There's different events. They have movie night. Recently the prices went up. It's kind of one of those things the further out you purchase your tickets, the less expensive they are, and I think it kind of helps the folks that are putting it together get a head count or an accurate head count early on. So again, I'm going to check it out. It's going to be my first time down there, looking forward to touching base with a few people that I've met online and through different prepping channels and prepping forums. So again, folks, if you have a chance, go down there, I'll be there. If you want to reach out to me, email practicalpreppodcast at gmailcom. I'm on the X. You can search Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast or the official handle, I think, is prep underscore podcast prep underscore podcast. Obviously, the easiest way is just to go on and just do a quick search for Common Sense Practical Prepper podcast. All right, folks, thank you so much for stopping by and listening and, as always, be careful out there, take care of one another and until next time.

Speaker 1: 20:35

Thanks for listening to the Common Sense Practical Prepper podcast. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode While you're at it. Help spread the word by leaving a rating and review.