Warming Up and Kind of Bartering
Today I had what I would call my pre-first-barter barter. I had a lot of old music equipment that I didn’t want to just give away: effects pedals, some computer recording stuff, etc, and I didnt think it was worth much. I didn’t want to take the time to sell it $20 by $20 on ebay or craigslist, so I decided the easiest thing to do was to go to a music retail store with the entire pile and say “take it, give me whatever you want.” I first went to an independently owned store, who didnt even take some of my stuff out of the boxes (everything was in perfect condition), clicked around ebay for 5 minutes, and offered me $75 for the entire pile, no more no less. Ok, that was fine, but I wanted to be smart, not hasty. So I took everything down the street, to a larger corporate store.
Don’t automatically assume large chain stores are out to get you. Bigger companies have more resources, so as a consumer it’s smart to keep them as an option if they’re not doing anything objectionable (like breaking labor laws and not taking steps to be more environmentally friendly). After they had tested all of my equipment, the larger store looked up each piece’s value in their computer database and compiled two full lists for me: a cash value for each, and a trade value for each (finally, a barter!). They walked me through each piece, and said they would take whatever I wanted to give them, but I should feel free to keep anything if I feel uncomfortable with their offer.
They offered me $100 more than the small store, $175 cash. I was pleased, and was planning to take it until they showed me a trade value of $275. That was $200 more than the first store had offered! I thought about it for a while, and decided that I was going to trade in my gear for a smaller “parlor” sized acoustic guitar. I was planning to buy one for the road, and they had the exact model I was interested in for exactly $275.
All in all, this isn’t the type of trading I’ll be doing, but it’s nice to get my toes wet. The great thing about trading goods is that both parties involved leave happy, because they’ve both got what they want or need in their hands. There’s no second step like there is with money, first making it then spending it. I felt that today, it was so nice to not think about money at all (after the initial appraisal, of course). I’ve got my first official barter coming soon with a really great artisan from Brooklyn, trading things to get ready for leaving!
