No Cash? Time To Barter!

Money Matters Monday KNOWSY Readers, how have all of you fine folks been lately? It seems like it's been so very long since I have posted on my blog, point in fact it was on the anniversary of my Mom's passing (Sept. 4) and today actually marks the anniversary of my Mother's birthdate, if she were still living she would have celebrated her 93rd birthday. So here I am still coping with the loss of such a dominate force in my life, trying my best to move forward, especially during this month that focuses on all aspects of the disease my Mother battled with: Alzheimer's. I especially want to commend all those who are caregivers (in particular to ALZ patients), they see firsthand the devastating effects of this horrendous disease, depending on their own relationship to the patient: husband/wife/son/daughter/brother/sister/friend, it can be even more acute the pain and suffering (both physical and emotional), let alone the financial toll for the patient and family.
I apologize for going off topic for a moment, I can only say this indeed has been an ongoing struggle in more ways than one and I believe many of my readers can understand this if they too have experienced the loss of a loved one, especially one who they have personally cared for.
Now onto today's post, this article comes from one of my favorite sites, dailyfinance.com via their Savings Center and was written by Annalisa Kraft-Linder.

Barter for Everything: Are You Brave Enough?

Annalisa Kraft-Linder

Sep 27th 2014 6:00AM

Diego Giudice/AP

You likely bartered when you were young, trading baseball cards or maybe swapping toys, but the Internet really re-energized the ancient practice, and the Great Recession gave a further popularity boost to exchanging goods or services without using currency.

You probably know about the barter section on Craigslist, and U-Exchangeboasts 70,000 members. Local Exchange Trading Systems includes tiny volunteer nonprofits and highly organized barter societies and clubs likeNeighborGoods. More sophisticated swapping sites with mobile apps include swapdom.com (with its cute explanatory Lego video) or listia.com. However, as rapidly as barter sites start up, they can go out of business just as fast (like zwaggle or bookins) or change their business model (thredup.com is now sort of an online thrift shop).

Almost anything you can imagine is being bartered for by someone -- be itvacation home stays, video games or garden plots. Shannon Simmons, a former Toronto financial planner, bartered her services for a year as an experiment, but found rent was one of the few things she couldn't barter for. Lindenwood University in Missouri in 1999 started an Education for Porkprogram in which farm families could trade hogs for the opportunity to earn a sheepskin. It later invited bartering of other items.

More than 7,000 sharing initiatives worldwide are listed at www.compareandshare.com, a New-Agey compilation of ways to engage in crowdsourcing, recycling, bartering and other aspects of the sharing economy.

Be Part of the Trend

You, too, can join the cashless economy and barter with the best of them -- though you probably won't manage to barter your way from a red paperclip up to a house, as Canadian Kyle MacDonald did in 2006 with a series of 14 trades.

You can barter on your own or sign up with a trading exchange service. These generally charge a membership fee to act as a broker or clearinghouse. They can match up trades more quickly and offer a sense of buyer confidence. Members get "barter dollars" or "trade dollars" and then are matched up with the equivalent-value trades for items or services that they desire.

Swap.com warehouses children's clothes and other stuff to swap and then fulfills trades with a proprietary algorithm for a transaction fee. Like on eBay (EBAY), traders can be thrown off exchange rolls if they bargain in bad faith one many times.

Bartering in the Business World

The more-established business and commercial exchanges belong to theInternational Reciprocal Trade Association. The nonprofit reported its members set a record in 2013 of more than 8 million inter-exchange barter deals among 400,000 companies. Since its 1979 founding, the association has fought to legitimize the industry with ethical standards and broker training.

On regional exchanges like Florida Barter, small businesses can make trades and business connections at the same time. These commercial exchanges can charge membership fees, monthly fees and commissions. Larger businesses might check out bizx.com or the decades-old www.activeinternational.com.

Wannabe traders should also know that the Internal Revenue Service considersbarter transactions as taxable, with some exceptions. That said, bartering can save you cash and can be fun.

More from Annalisa Kraft-Linder

•Hoarding: What's Going on With All That Stuff?
•What I Learned From Selling My Own Stuff at an Estate Sale
•Why Kmart Still Sucks, Losing Stores, Staff, Customers

Now than my KNOWSY Readers go ahead and check out one or all of these sites for yourself and if you actually do or already have used any one of these please let me and your other fellow readers in on your experience. Myself, I am a member of listia.com, I definitely do recommend it and I like to call it: Ebay meets the Barter Kings, since it is very much designed like Ebay with the different categories you can either list your own item or place a bid with credits you get either via listing an Auction (similar to Ebay) and receiving   credits after a buyer has won by bidding (credits) which then are transferred into your account once the buyer has received the item he/she bid on. You can also get some beginning/bonus credits by clicking my link:https://www.listia.com/signup/5007699

Signup is FREE!