Hi ME CO, nice gold dredge in your post #443. Nothin’ like goin’ to the source for precious metals.

My younger son got a box of halves but there were no silver coins; a skunk box. They came rolled in what looked like a machine rolled paper. We couldn’t take them apart without destroying the wrapper. Now we have 1,000 halves that will probably be spent at local stores. I suppose we could get some paper roll tubes and turn in the whole box.

I don’t have any complaints about not finding any silver halves. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. We have gained valuable experience. Even if we find several silver halves in a box, it will be easier to weigh time against potential profits. If this going through half boxes is not for us, at least we will be more focused on what works best.

My younger son and I plan to buy books and sell them on the internet. ABEbooks is one possible place and Amazon is another. There are different costs and rules and we will have to do further research before enter into an agreement with them.

Our other plan is to buy items and sell them for more. This has always been a good mainstay. I also expect to see some companies going out of business and selling their inventories and equipment.

All this takes cash and this is why I advise to accumulate cash and wait for the right deal. I remember buying an item, doubling my money and buying the next deal or two deals. Next with these items sold I had money for 4 deals or a larger deal, thus opening up a broader group of opportunities. Next, 8 deals and so on. You can see how money can be pyramided into a fortune. That is, as long as you leave the money alone and don’t siphon it off for toys or personal needs. It is up to you how fast you want to make your fortune grow. As I said, the fastest way requires you to retain as much as possible for future deals.

I’m going to go off on a tangent here (yeah, like I don’t do that all the time) and give an example of someone who has specialized knowledge and the incredible profits to be had. This man knows gemstones like the back of his hand and goes to the Quartzite show in Arizona during the winter. He was with a friend who wanted a bloodstone. He found a seller with a nice one. He told her that she should buy it but she refused. He then asked her if it was okay if he bought it himself. She said that was fine. They walked a ways as they looked at other sellers’ goods. Someone saw this man’s bloodstone and asked if it was for sale. The man hesitated and then told him that he wanted $300 for it. The buyer immediately pulled out a wad of bills and paid for the bloodstone. All the while the lady was watching this transaction. Rather upset, she told the man, “Why didn’t you get me to buy the bloodstone ?” the man replied that he had tried every way he could and she still wouldn’t be convinced. End of story.

But not end of lesson. What happened here ? Well, first this man was trying to find an item for someone who didn’t trust an expert’s opinion. Second, this person was with this man all through the looking, negotiating and selling of this item. Although he was doing her a tremendous favor, you can see the feelings someone might harbor when they see an item THEY could have bought for $3 and sold for $300 in a matter of minutes. That was a 100 bagger !

I mention this transaction because YOU do not want the seller know what an item is worth to you as well as the buyer of your item knowing what you had bought it for. This is ALL your personal business. It is part of specialized knowledge and is your most valuable tool.

This man also found a quartz with a 90 degree out growth. He knew that it is the rarest type of quartz and its value. He bought it for 50 cents and took it home with him. He later sold it to a collector for $650.00. That is a 1,300 bagger !

You can specialize in many types of items and it may be time for you to consider what you know best and would enjoy trading in. It doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t be trading in all manner of items; just that there may be the potential for you to deal in something you already know a lot about and may enjoy most. I would trade in anything that makes a good return because I have a hobby; I collect money. It could be a diamond or a truckload of chicken shit, to put it crudely.

For the overriding factors to me are the time from buy to sell, the percentage return and the work involved. Doesn’t matter what it is. With the money made I can buy all manner of things I may want as well as pyramid the money for larger and more deals. Right now I can handle several small deals or a couple of larger deals at the same time. I may not have enough for a HUGE deal but I have learned that these come along rather infrequently.

Besides, my goldmine is rebuilding manual transmissions. I know its potential and still have lots to do in getting the word out about my “better mousetrap” By the way the expression, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door” only works IF the world knows about your mousetrap AND the path to your door. Otherwise, you could starve while waiting for them to discover your product.

Marketing is not my strong suit and I freely admit it. Not proud of my shortcomings but it is necessary to know ourselves and face the truth. This is the only way we can overcome this hurdle. You see, when facing an obstacle, you can go over, under, around and through it. You can ignore it but you won’t get to your goal and this bartering and horse trading is all about making yourselves a force to be reckoned with. The baddest S.O.B. on the mountain.

Best wishes,

agnut

Hi Dominus. I am becoming more focused on food preps and their significance in our tumultuous financial world. Food is a passive form of bartering and horse trading and anyone can do it successfully without any experience. Just takes a desire to get the best deal we can find and think ahead in terms of months and years rather than what’s for dinner tonight.

Ponce and I don’t get excited by the silver price rises like today‘s 65 cent silver rise. It is all a part of the devaluation of the dollar and its consequent loss of purchasing power and confidence. There aren’t probably more than one in a thousand investing in silver right now. But as the word gets out and the masses respond, there should be a bum’s rush like we have never seen. This includes the meteoric rise in 1979-80.

This article may help give some perspective of the likely future prices although it focuses on the gold price.

How High Can Gold Go Before Peaking

http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials...rov022308.html

It may be time to sit back and wonder if you are a speculator, an investor or a survivalist. There is a lot of talk about selling silver with the high prices but what would you buy ? To a survivalist, silver and gold are there for when someone may not trade food and necessities for dollars but rather for precious metals. Gold and silver are an insurance policy that we hope we never have to use. For if we still have them when we die, it would mean that we got through the future without their necessity. And unlike a car insurance premium, we can pass them on to our loved ones.

The only reason to sell precious metals that I can think of would be if you didn’t have an adequate food supply crowding your garage or you were in a position to get some rural acreage. This report from the United Nations should give us all pause.

Middle Class May Be Subject To Food Rations, Warns UN

t=239692

The point of this post is to show you that investing in food may be your best move right now. We have written about wheat and pasta prices and their ongoing dramatic rises.

Imagine buying food now for $100 and in a year it is $160 ! This 60% increase is mentioned in the U.N. article. But we must also consider the additional kicker of the fact that this food “profit” is NOT taxable. Also this food is an insurance policy that can be consumed, unlike insurance premiums. A win-win situation all around.

I cannot emphasize enough our necessity to increase our food preparations at this time, before food prices rise even further. My local Dollar store’s 2 pounds for a dollar pasta won’t wait for me to get off my dead butt forever. I have read that predictions for 2008 are for food prices to rise even further and faster than those of 2007.

Food, a great investment !

I personally would buy so much that I would have more than I would need and then NOT sell it for profit because I don’t know how long a shortage may drag on. If you had lived for the last 40 years in Cuba and had preps for only a couple of years, you would still have run out and had 38 years to lament. They aren’t starving there but you get the picture. Actually, having some land on which to grow and can your own food is beginning to look like the best plan.

Land, the bounty that keeps on giving. Something to think seriously about.

Best wishes,

agnut

Thanks Bl96s5eu. I checked the lumber mills for sale and some of them are monsters !

On further consideration, they are a bit too much for my humble small acreage. I would have to process all my trees and more for this equipment to even break even. So I guess I will hole up and be content with my transmission repair shop. And enjoy the serenity of my surrounding forest. Besides, if I cut down all the trees, where would I hang the hammock ?

As I wrote in my last post, it may be best for my sons and me to raise food and learn to can it. Lots of water here and the soil is so rich it is almost black when turned.

I just can’t help always looking for more and better possibilities.

Best wishes,

Agnut

Hey Agnut,

Ive got a solution to checking the machine rolled halves

"They came rolled in what looked like a machine rolled paper. We couldn’t take them apart without destroying the wrapper"

If I am assuming correctly, these rolls have shotgun crimps on either end. If so, just grip the roll on both ends and rip the middle where the paper overlaps(while trying not to damage the shotgun crimps) exposing the side of those halves. Just pluck away at the silver. Some coroded 40% halves might look like clad so i check all the usual suspects. If done correctly a little scotch tape and that roll is ready for the reject pile and some dirty looks at the bank. When i first started searching halves i would end up with a kings ransom of loose kennedy's. One day i ran across this technique(in a huge batch of losers) and haven't looked back. Keep looking. Silver found is twice as sweet as silver bought.

CB

__________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinthian_bronze

One of my favorite quotes:

__________________

Hi Agnut,
Sorry to hear your box was a skunk- it happens, more and more I'm afraid. Competition is rampant so more and more skunks come out to feed haha. I would get another box but thats just ME- I've seen whats out there or used to be anyways. A very successful CRH just told ME that you have to buy boxes faster than the dumps are going back- I am doing all I can do, 80+ boxes last month with probly half of them skunks, another 40% had one or two, rest had 5 or more. Your box may have come from a huge dumping ground or maybe just unlucky and the next one will be loaded, you just never know. One thing is for certain though "You can't win ifn you don't play". You can always just stop at banks whenever you drive by too, other towns, stop in and ask if they have any halves, maybe you can buy the bag out of the coin counter that has been just sitting there for years- if they mention having to recount them tell them you trust the count and your not gonna squabble over a few coins. I remember once on my birthday I asked about the coin counter bag- teller goes to the vault and struggles with the $500 and says I have to recount them, even though I told her I trust the count she said we have to. Well I heard the counter run for a second then she comes back and said she broke the counter will have to do it by hand, one by one all the tellers disappear to the back room with one standing guard at the door. Only be a couple minutes sir. 30 minutes later she comes out swinging the bag like its a bag of candy and says $300. What happened to the other $200- she said the count was off. My a$$!!!!!!!!! In that time I could have counted, sorted and rolled $300. Knowing that I lost out on $200 face of Walkers and Bens and wasted 30 mins doing it. Out of that $300 I got over 50 40%ers, several '64's and one Ben that they missed- eased the pain a little but not much.
HH and better luck next time. Mark

Hello everybody. I'm a new guy on the block here at GIM. It took me two weeks to read through this whole thread, and I have to say this is some of the best info I've ever read. ME CO, thanks for the tips on halves. I have an order in now and can't wait to start searching. Ag Nut, you're a real inspiration. I can't wait to get out to the yard sales when the weather breaks. I've been to a few flea markets, but they're pretty commercial this time of year. I did manage to buy three halves at a flea market this past weekend for under spot. I'll take what I can get. The chatter about pasta is much appreciated. I just bought 26lbs for $13.00 last night. I saved $1.24/lb. Picked up Mac n' Cheese on sale too. Thanks again for all of the great info. I look forward to discussing more in the future.

buckeye

welcome to GIM
congrats on making your first post
in what i think is one of the most relevant threads at GIM

prepping for the before & after,
cause HARD TIMES ARE COMING

__________________

Hi Goald. Thanks; a lot of knowledgeable contributors here. The passive deal making, like buying at discount and quantity at supermarkets, may well turn out to be the number one best investment. A United Nations report said something about food going up as much as 60% in the last year. That’s right up there with precious metal’s rise. Both insurance policies but food can be eaten in hard times as well as rotated and thought of as food security. Don’t get me wrong, precious metals are great financial security but food security trumps here.

There are pasta deals in various locations and it would be impossible to tell you where the best deals are. I would start at Dollar stores and then maybe Costco and then sales at local supermarkets.

Five gallon plastic buckets are a good place to store your pasta. In the past I have bought used ones with lids from local bakeries. They were a buck each. It is best to put grains and many foods in Mylar bags with an oxygen absorber. The Mylar will prevent oxygen from getting to the food and therefore you will have much longer freshness. The bags are just the right size for the plastic buckets. Packed this way, the pasta will last for several years. RandyMatt knows all about this and I am learning several prep things from him. He just visited us and we had a ball discussing current events and preparations. And while he was visiting, silver jumped a dollar an ounce !

RandyMatt also talked to me about freeze dried pork chops that are good for 30 years. Tn…Andy tried some that were, I think, 17 years old and said that he was surprised at how good they were. I am planning to buy some soon. Now that my sons and I have a stockpile of food preps, we feel that it is time to think for the long term and something that can be stored for 30 years is something that we don’t have to worry about rotating often. I guess that having this long term food will give a sense of additional security. My older son and I are planning to go to Costco and getting 500 pounds of rice along with several other items we had bought in the past and liked. I haven’t been to Costco for 8 months and will probably experience sticker shock; I’ve heard about the tremendous inflationary price increases.

Ambient temperature is a crucial factor in all stored foods. Below 70 degrees would be best for longer life. The cooler, the longer its life. Basements are great if you have one. I don’t and will have to insulate for the coming summer. I recommend that you think about the sun heating the south wall and therefore nearby food stocks.

And Goald, I don’t have nearly enough pasta sauce. The Hunt’s spaghetti sauce is $1 at my local dollar store. I need mucho cases. Let’s see, three hundred fifty pounds of pasta in need of sauce. You do the math.

Preparations are just that. What you have when a calamity hits may be all you will have for a long time. At least I’m not willing to find out how much is enough. Pasta at 2 pounds for a dollar is cheap insurance.

And going back to those freeze dried 30 year pork chops, I understand that they cost a little more than one dollar per pork chop. Can you imagine what they will cost in 10 years, 20 years or even 30 years ?

So what’s all this talk about food preps doing on a bartering and horse trading thread ? First, we should be concerned about getting the best quality for our money. And second, if we are not adequately prepared, we will be in no condition to be out and about making deals. From what I gather, there will be opportunities galore (amid the gore) in the following months. This is the first year I have seen so many garage sales in the middle of the winter; this is what I take as a leading indicator. So have cash in hand for this spring and summer. Now is a good time to familiarize yourself with local newspaper ads and other sources of advertising.

Oh, here’s a trick I used many years ago; it made me many thousands of dollars. I used to buy a lot of cars and would mark likely bargains in the classified ads. I kept these ads for a couple of months and called the sellers and asked if they had sold the car. Many times they hadn’t and since the market had beaten them up, they were softened up for my assault. Like on D-Day when the ships blasted the coastline, softening up the defenses for the troops. Poor analogy but you get the picture. This works for other kinds of items as well.

A customer was in my shop the other day and we were discussing deal making. He said that he had been doing it for most of his life. I told him a refinement that I had come up with recently. I asked sellers, “What else do you have for sale ?” He was surprised and said that he hadn’t thought of it. I showed him items that I had bought that resulted from my asking this simple question. Point here is that what may seem like a minor query can have major results. Try it; it has worked miracles for me.

Best wishes,

Agnut

Hi Agnut,

My pasta to sauce ratio also needs some attention. I got a little carried away with all the recent deals on cheap pasta and loaded up. I feel we have a very short window of opportunity before skyrocketing wheat prices trickle down to the processed grain.

Claudia Conti, a spokeswoman for Barilla, one of the largest Italian pasta makers, comments, "New and increasing demand for bioenergy production has put high pressure on the whole world grain market"

I just read that United States stocks are the tightest they've been since just after the end of the Second World War.

How long will we have 'cheap' pasta?

As for sauce, luckily the same place I was getting 2lb bags of pasta for $0.99 now have 24oz jars of sauce for $0.99. Problem is, the pasta will well outlast the sauce in terms of shelf life so growing tomatoes and making your own may be an option for long term. Don't forget to plant some onions, garlic and spices.

-Randy

__________________



The president of a socialist nation (America)..
has to give a convincing speech saying essentially..
“We are not going to do.. what we are doing”

"No exports, No recovery"... Ponce

Hello Agnut,
Been very busy but I always keep up with the thread...
I have used the above just recently...
Interesting you should touch on it...
The Mrs Haystack was hit by a Sears van from the rear and it bodily enhanced her auto as to make it totally NOT road worthy and of course the insurance company says the damage is more than the auto is worth....
( sidebar...where do you wanna be at this point..."upside" down on a financed car that is wrecked and still owing payments, or negotiating with them on a paid off and less expensive used car and thereby inconvenienced but not hurt when dealing with the insurance company dude whose job is NOT to pay you full value.... )
So anyways, I have used a technique I call " mining" on Craigslist...
The listings stay up for something like 45 days...
So,... I go to any ads that are 30 or more days or older and I sort them.
Then I email all of the ones I am interested in with a " Auto still available.????..I have CASH " and that is all and I sit back and see what happens...
I have had a LOT of responses and the correspondence opens up some channel of communications and I have also saved myself a LOT of wasted tire kicking trips this way...
So, during the interim that wherein we are messing with the insurance company we have bought for and paid cash for another vehicle at a bargain price INSTEAD OF going out on a line and renting and "hoping" some nice insurance guy is gonna just come out and compensate us for the rental until we come to a mutual agreement...
I use this also for items other than autos as well.
Regards,
Haystackneedle

Hi Corinthian bronze. Good idea with the shotgun crimped half dollar rolls. A little Scotch tape and you have “scotched” the heavy lifting.

I have a 1/10th gram scale somewhere in all of my junk and thought it would tell me if a roll had some 40% or 90% halves. A quick way to tell. My problem is that I live in a small town and the banks aren’t too happy in providing bricks of halves.

I think this is fine for some but my sons and I are so busy in getting the place ready that we can’t spare the time. I can’t even get out for garage sales right now. And I absolutely love garage sailing.

As I said before, keep your powder dry. There will be plenty of opportunities coming this summer and beyond. Even then, we can’t be sure that prices will be at rock bottom. Always remember that true rock bottom is less than zero ! That means that someone is actually paying you to haul something away. This does happen and has been happening for a long time. Things that have dollar values right now will become as junk in a depression. I had been considering buying industrial shelves for the barn. RandyMatt told me that a nearby business that went under paid someone to haul away their shelves. See, less than zero !

Seek and ye shall find. Obviously if you don’t beat the bushes and flush out the quarry, you won’t find the deals. Just getting out on a nice sunny Saturday and cruising the garage sales and talking to people will open up a world that many never even knew existed. But I will warn you; it is highly addictive.

In my last post I said that my son and I were going to Costco for survival preps. We got 600 pounds of rice, 150 pounds of pinto beans, and lots of odds and ends. We had two flatbed carts loaded to the max. The pickup truck was so loaded that we had to stop to put more air in the tires.

Three people asked if we owned a restaurant. I told them no, with food prices going up so fast, food was the best investment we could find. They left scratching their heads.

Costco was busy but we were the only customers buying anything in bulk. I checked out many others’ carts and it was as if they were buying food for the next week.

My son wants to buy an additional 1,000 pounds of rice for long term storage. Might do it if I can feel confident that it won’t go bad. RandyMatt knows much more about food storage that I do. I have several old military surplus plastic shipping containers. They are airtight and cost me about $35 each several years ago. We will probably pack some rice in these containers, put them in a cool area and forget about them for a few years. Even if the rice were to go bad, it could be fed to the pigs or fish. And rice can be added to dog food to bulk it up.

Just a dot to let you know how oblivious the public is right now. Notice how close oblivious is to oblivion ? For good reason, I’ll wager. Funny, we have news articles about wheat shortages and other shortages and nobody seems to be reacting. But wait ! The real news of how bad and dangerous things are is only being reported in depth on some internet websites. So the MSM is keeping the sheeple in the dark. Can’t create a panic now can we ? Especially with the illusion of plenty in the stores. Three days really and with a truckers’ strike on the back burner. Can you imagine what would happen if only 10% of the population were to begin to stockpile in earnest ? The stores would be continually out of many items, only to be quickly grabbed as they were replaced on the shelves. This would impossible to conceal and the other 90% would become aware immediately. Whether they would have any money to stock up themselves is doubtful however. Trying to live the good life has left them broke and in deep debt.

I don’t mean this thread to evolve into a survival prep site but to consider and weigh the relative importance of having food stores at this time in history. The best deal out there may well be integral to your survival. Will the biblical warning of a measure of wheat for a penny come true ? A day’s work for a meal, in other words. As I read the other day, three hundred million Chinese are living at this level right now.

Best to be able to separate illusion from reality. We live in a world of fantasy and misdirection. It would be wise to take some time to consider what we can get now that will be necessary far, far down the road. Ponce said that Cuba has been in shortages for 45 years and a world depression wouldn’t affect them much since they are so used to it. Even a straight nail is valuable there. Construction materials are practically nonexistent at any price. And this brings up the point that just having a lot of money, be it dollars or even precious metals, does not necessarily mean that you will be able to get what you need in a depression.

As an aside, Ponce told me that restaurants in Cuba are typically run from homes. And the forks, knives and spoons all have chains connecting them to the table. Like we have with bank pens. Can you imagine that ? Also, the waiter comes around with the salt , pepper and condiments on a tray and watches and waits for you to finish and then takes them away. Ponce also said that when he was visiting Cuba that a neighbor had his water pipe stolen and water was pouring out. And the punch line is that it was an iron pipe and not a copper pipe. Oh, our folks have a long, long way to go. We are only taking copper pipes, aluminum guard railings and cutting out catalytic converters. So far, that is.

We on GIM are all hopefully prepped to some degree. But looking out some 45 years into the future as Cuba has experienced, will we have food, clothing, resources, etc ?

My point is that we should be as prepped as possible but even our best efforts only buy us time until we run out. I would recommend the wisdom of having renewable resources such as land upon which could be grown crops. Trades which would be in demand in hard times. A renewable resource such as flowing water. And as Ponce has been saying for a long time, water will become an ever increasingly important investment. A large percentage of the world’s population is without clean water. In fact, pollution is sometimes so bad that people are dieing from it. We take clean water for granted here in the U.S.

Stockpiling is not a skill nor is holding precious metals. They are both crucial to the near future. But the long term prosperity comes from within. This bartering and horse trading thread is but one of the skills we must master. It works in good times and bad times. Both Ponce and I talked about our not noticing recessions in the past. It was partly because our work was in demand but also partly because we supplemented our jobs with deal making of all kinds. Some call it resourcefulness. I will be the first to admit that I am not as sharp a deal maker as Ponce or RiverRat, however I am still content with what I have been able to do. It is all relative to how we apply ourselves. We are capable (and sometimes culpable) of amazing things.

Isn’t it about time you amazed yourself ?

Best wishes,

Agnut

P.S. Haven’t you noticed all the little things at the stores costing more ? Although they don’t seem like much, a dime here, a quarter there; they are an incredible increase when factoring in how rapidly this has been happening. I am seeing items that were 79 cents before and now they are 99 cents. Doesn’t seem like much but that is a 25% increase in one jump. Yikes !

I read a prediction that food prices would double in the next year. If true and you were to buy right now, where else could you make 100% on your money ? And tax free too !

My son and I went to Big 5 Sporting Goods and found some hiking boots on sale for $14.99. We have extra boots for years into the future. Hundreds of socks too. I think the end of cheap imports is inevitable.

This thread is excellent, it's like a free version of the Tightwad's Gazette! I remember reading it as a kid.

One thing I'd add that I don't think is mentioned here - when you buy or rent a house, consider where you will be working and note any bike tracks in the vicinity. Couple bike tracks with back roads and mark those areas along with other things you may need and look for your house in those areas. You might well be able to dispense with one or both cars for good.

Or do what the Chinese do - live where they work. Although this won't give you a bit of exercise each day that you are forced to do.

I've prepared my own budget and I know that my biggest three expenses are rent, food and car. Not a lot separates them really. If you can eliminate the last one, you are 1/3 your way to an ultra-efficient lifestyle.

Hi fasTTcar. Good quote; I will be talking more about buyer and seller psychology. Being a middleman can sometimes make a fortune. Besides, it is one of the most fun and exciting things I do. When someone asks what my hobby is, I think to myself that it is collecting money. It’s hard to tell them this verbally unless I want to get into a long conversation that usually ends up nowhere. Most people change only when dragged kicking and screaming; and I like peace and quiet. Can you understand my ambivalence toward helping others in person ?

And while I am thinking of helping others, I want to caution you on telling people about preparing. In the first place, all my warning others in the past has had little effect, even with my own family. They are blissfully ignorant and show no signs of wanting to face the truth. And in the second place, by telling others you place yourself at risk, for they will in all likelihood not prepare but they will remember that you are prepared. Somehow there is a moral disconnect with most people that they think they have a right to your preparations in times of crisis. I know, the reality is ugly but we all must weigh our security against our wanting to help our fellow man.

Yesterday my older son and I were in the local Dollar Store and had a full basket of canned goods. When I talked to a fellow shopper I told them that the best investment they could make right now was in food with all the prices going up so much and so fast. My son heard this conversation and chewed me out later in the truck. He was right and I vowed to discontinue spreading the word. I felt kind of sad not being to help others in this way but my family comes first. We don’t want to have to hold off hungry hoards later. Believe me, THEY WILL REMEMBER ! Call me selfish and I will shoot back with, “And your point being…?” ‘Nuff said.

The same holds true with deal making. Why tell others of your deals unless you want competition ? By the way, it is most assuredly not wrong to buy an item that you know can be sold for more. You are taking the calculated risk as well as financial investment to buy an item in the first place. Your time is valuable too. Let’s put it this way; if you lost money on a deal, can you go back to the person who sold the item to you and ask for them to return some money since you lost money when you sold the selfsame item ? Don’t make me laugh.

So the risk, time, and money is all yours. It logically follows that the profit is also all yours. There should be no doubting or hesitation here.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The GIM Forum

The other day Ponce was going into his local Dollar Store. He saw something curious outside as he entered. He filled a basket of goodies and was in line with an elderly lady behind him. They struck up a conversation and she said that she was 90 years old and liked to shop around the store and get some exercise at the same time. She only had three items so Ponce said for her to go ahead of him. She thanked him. Before she could pay, Ponce told the cashier that he would pay for her three items. She beamed and said, “Oh thank you, thank you”. Ponce said, "But you have to give me a kiss". She kissed him on the cheek as others giggled at the unusual request. The elderly lady left and Ponce paid for his items and went outside. There was a Mercedes 600 limousine with a chauffer pulling out (that's the curious). In the back was the elderly lady smiling and waving at Ponce (that's the punch line).

Best wishes,

Agnut

Thanks buckeye and welcome to GIM. As I wrote recently, this summer and fall will be The Great American Garage Sale. I expect lots of goodies for sale and not enough buyers. Lots of room to haggle over price. So accumulate some cash in anticipation; I sure am.

Have you looked for estate sales ? They sometimes pose as garage sales; you never know. Moving sales are about the same as estate sales and just as good in my book. The difference is where the previous owners are moving.

Good for you on the halves at the flea market. When I was buying sterling silver on Ebay I would bid a little higher (but not too much) that the going price. It may have been an extra $12 on a group of sterling silver that ended up at $412. That’s 3% higher. I knew that silver was going to be much higher soon and I also knew that other bidders weren’t thinking in the future. So what if I had paid an extra $12 to win the auction ? The point is that I now have the silver and had gotten rid of the depreciating fiat dollars. Silver that I had won at $4 per ounce a few years ago is now $20 per ounce. So now who looks foolish by bidding a bit higher ? As Ponce says, “If you don’t hold it, you don’t own it”.

There are a few pasta fanatics here on this thread and I am one of them. Where else can you buy a food staple for 50 cents a pound ? Especially with 400% wheat prices in the last year ? And with a potential famine next year if this season’s wheat crop is a bust like past years ?

By the way, my local Dollar store is out of 2 pounds of spaghetti pasta for a dollar. They only have one pound for a dollar. If they cannot restock, the price has effectively increased 100% !! Yikes !!

Have to admit that they do have some macaroni for 2 pounds for a dollar but it doesn’t store as well. I might buy some for variety before it disappears too. Each day, we don’t know if the deals we see at the stores will be discontinued. So it is best to buy now while it is still cheap at what I perceive is about the best deal readily available.

Where else can you passively make so much interest on your money ? Glad you asked.

Think long term. Think of the next 10 years or beyond. Look at your shoes. Will they last more than a couple of years ? I was in Big 5 Sporting Goods the other day and bought a pair if hiking shoes for $14.99 and I love them. So imagine buying 5 pairs for $75. What do you think the price will be in a couple of years ? C’mon now, think in fiat dollars. You know, the ones all the foreign manufacturers are getting sick of taking in trade. How many fiat dollars will it take to buy a pair of hiking boots in the year 2012 or 2015 ? Think they are somehow going to become cheaper ?

And socks ? They don’t last forever, you know. Years ago before Y2K I bought more than 200 pairs from The Wal Mart. They were Hanes socks in the 6 packs for about $6. I’ve used some of them through the years and need to restock. The price hasn’t gone up much and I think they are more of a bargain than ever. I wasn’t as interested in the future price increase as much as their becoming unavailable at any price. Having plenty of new shoes (socked away) for the future wouldn’t be as satisfying without socks to cushion the blow. A little junk food for thought here.

And there are the thrift stores. But that is a story for another day.

Best wishes,

Agnut

Hi RandyMatt. Pasta is sooooo cheap right now that I feel like a thief when hauling away 50 pounds. The 2 pound packages are sold out but I noticed the other day at my Dollar store, they had two one pound packages for a dollar. Same deal so I picked up another load of pasta; 36 pounds but that is all that would fit in the box.

With about 400 pounds of pasta in our preps, this has to end somewhere. But what is enough ?

When there is no longer any pasta offered for 50 cents a pound, the price will jump to $1 per pound. Seems insignificant but I consider this to be making a 100% profit on my investment. This is beside the security of having in possession food stocks and not having to pay taxes on the profit.

So will the price of pasta double in the next year ? I fully expect my 50 cent for a pound to end any time. Ponce said that the typical markup is 33% at his Dollar store. That means the wholesale price is about 34 cents. Just how long can pasta continue to be processed from wheat, packaged and shipped thousands of miles at 34 cents a pound ? It seems a crazy anomaly to Randymatt and me and as long as it can be had, we will continue to add to our preps.

I was in a local supermarket the other day and saw pasta at $2.19 for a pound. That’s 338% higher than what we pay !

Look, I know all this talk about pasta prices may seem trivial in the scheme of things but it is not only an important staple in preps but also an excellent example of perceiving a bargain and pursuing it to the max. It is not often that we can find a screaming deal AND continue to buy that deal to our heart’s (and stomach’s) content.

And as you said Randymatt, the spaghetti sauce won’t last nearly as long as the pasta. Even if it were only good for two years, I will be stocking up on it anyway. After it is gone, maybe growing tomatoes will fill in the gap. I don’t know; it’s like trying to outfit Noah’s ark for an unknowable time period. Seems that we may have to endure for many years like in Cuba.

What I can see of the future tells me that acquiring certain items will be in demand after things turn bad. Food, clothing, shoes, gardening tools, and many other items. What should be sold now are items such as art, collectibles, poor MPG vehicles, grand pianos, pool tables, and many other maybes. It’s hard to be sure but I can do my best and be willing to suffer the consequences for any miscalculations.

Ponce says, “To be prepared is not”.

So true. We can never be fully prepared; it is a process of getting ready. Like the saying, “Life is a journey, not a destination”, preparation is also a journey, not a destination. As long as we are headed in the preparation direction, we are coming closer to but never reaching out destination. So we should be content with what we are capable of doing; it is different for each one of us. We live different lifestyles, locations and financial situations.

This isn’t a contest who can be the most prepared but more a migration toward self sufficiency and increased awareness. Preparations were standard procedure for past generations and anyone who didn’t act this way was considered negligent or possibly stupid. With the last decades of the cornucopia of easy money and easy lifestyles, America has gotten fat and lazy. We are about to be sorely tested and those who are oblivious and unprepared will join the unwashed masses at the bottom. I don’t see any other option for them.

Anyhoo, didn’t mean to go off on a rant. Hard not to with so much insanity posing as wisdom these days.

Best wishes,

Agnut

Hi Haystackneedle. Congrats; smart moves there with the Craigslist buying technique.

Some people make things happen, some people let things happen and some people wonder what happened.

If you want to go somewhere in life, you have to take the reins yourself. Nobody but you should be trusted with your life and future. So Ponce’s famous quote, “If you don’t hold it, you don’t own it” especially applies here. If you don’t hold the control of your own life and its direction, you are trusting others to do the job for you. Does this make you mad ? If so, I have struck a nerve. Good !

Because being jarred from our comfortable complacency into a sense of unknown territory, we can change if we have the courage. I know, its not easy to change but we who want to succeed in life must learn to accept, nay embrace change, for it is this change in our perceptions that open the doors to growth as human beings.

Some people would rather die than to have to think. This is one of the principal reasons that it is so easy to become a deal maker. The great majority of people would not venture into the unknown even if it could dramatically change their lives for the better. With this bartering and horse trading thread I am appealing to the few who have the desire and the guts to take the reins of their lives and to run free. And believe me, it is a freedom that is hard to put into words. As I have said before, this is life changing stuff !

I know we have a lot of new members on GIM and I hope they will take this thread to heart. Change does not come easily for humans. We get set in our ways and therein become our own worst enemy. It is an old saying but all too often true.

I heartily recommend that we take the time to find a quiet spot and contemplate where we have been, where we are, and where we want to go with our lives. Taking stock can be rewarding and sometimes calming. In my case, sometimes I sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits. Watching nature happening all around us really helps me.

Who knows ? Maybe most everyone is already aboard and I am preaching to the choir. But if you know me by now (forewarned is forearmed), you know my penchant for running on at the keyboard.

Life has been crazy busy lately and this is my halfassed apology for not writing more. So there. My guilt has evaporated. Ahhhhh.....

Best wishes,

Agnut

Here's a report from an auction I went to this past weekend. Hopefully it will inspire others to let us know about the deals they've found recently. Saturday I went to an auction where they sold at least three different estates. I personally bought two antique "monkey wrenches" for $7.50, found one of them on e-bay later for $10, so I figure it was a good deal. I bought an old battery charger for $1, two gas cans for $1 each, and a pair of hedge trimmers for $1. All things I can use that would have cost a whole lot more at the store. I also paid $6 for an old railroad lock that I'll try to sell for a profit later on.

I had to kick myself for not having a truck at the auction. I watched a nice gas grill with the propane can sell for $25 and an almost new 6.5hp self propelled mower sell for $35. There were many other great bargains at this sale. I just hope they continue to be this good in the future. Looking forward to hearing about the deals you all are finding out there.

i think this may only be the beginning, buckeye
with all these people walking away from their mortgages
and with no guarentee of the same living space in the future
people may be letting go some interesting items for a % of what they bought them for
and being an avid yard-saler, i'm looking forward to this years buys

although this year, i have to yardsale with a different mindset
items with a practical and future use, before, during and after TSHTF

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Hi buckeye and welcome to GIM. I noticed that this is only your second post but you already sound like an old timer here. That’s a compliment (I think).

The quality of your monkey wrenches, battery charger, hedge trimmers and gas cans are usually noticeable better than what we find in stores today. I am always looking for older American made tools. Also I look for old American cutlery like Chicago cutlery knives. Some I find for as little as a dime and they are good for a lifetime. Trouble is, I now have enough good knives for several lifetimes and mine is mostly shot to hell by now. Oh well, I suppose I could put them in the will for my children.

And this brings up a thought. What will we leave our children ? I mean besides a screwed up political and economic America. I know that a paid for property looms large but I also know to put emphasis on developing their skills while I am still healthy and able. My older son is learning the transmission rebuilding trade and my younger son is sort of on the back burner as I take him to garage and estate sales as time permits. My older son is already an accomplished deal maker and in time my younger son will play catch up. I expect that there will be some comparative deal making results in the future. It’s always fun to show off deals you drag home. Bragging rights, ya know.

When buying a gas grill, pay close attention to the burner and shield. They seem to go bad first. I have seen several used gas grills for sale and some were like new but a few were scrap aluminum in disguise. Buyer be forewarned.

Buckeye, having a pickup truck is a good idea when garage sailing. A Toyota pickup with an 8’ bed is what I like best. Good mileage, runs about forever and can handle a medium trailer when you have a bulky load to haul off. I have a single axle tilt trailer that handles 1,000 pounds with no problem. I bought it at a garage sale for $300 and everyone wants to buy it from me for much more. But we use it all the time so no dice.

By the way, I would not have this trailer if I hadn’t asked a garage seller, “What else do you have for sale ?”. The trailer was hiding behind a high wooden fence. So for cryin’ out loud, always, ALWAYS ask this when out there buying. I believe this will become even more valuable in the coming months and years. Why ? It has a lot to do with our deteriorating economy. As people have to sell their items, they will be more than anxious to have a potential buyer, with cash in hand, in their face asking to buy anything that is interesting. Believe me, if you do this you will stand out like a sore thumb. And this is one time you want to stand out. As I have said before, I expect many, many sellers and few buyers with cash in hand. In other words, lots of merchandise and few dollars. Huge supply and tiny demand. An imbalance that we all must be prepared for. And the major preparations are having cash available, some experience in deal making and some knowledge of where these deals are. Also, an ability to spot a steal when you see it.

In my local newspaper classifieds I am seeing several garage sales listed. This is the first time I have seen so many this early in the year. Remember that what you buy, you must either use yourself or sell for a profit. And I want to caution you that items you buy may not be either easy to sell or as high priced as you may think. Therefore, buying items at prices below what may seem ridiculous could in actuality be in proportion to what you sell them for later. In other words, if you will be buying and selling in a time period of falling prices, you must take this into account. And don’t feel that you are beating up the seller; he won’t be there to compensate you when you sell if you had earlier paid him too much.

Gotta go, best wishes,

Agnut

Hi Canadian Guerilla. So true; some big items like grand pianos, furniture, big screen TVs, boats and big boy toys will go on the chopping block.

Here’s what I have been talking about for us to get ready this summer :

ECON - America's Coming Garage Sale

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=282699

Although much of the post concerns large deals and international buyers, I don’t expect any competition from them with what we will be looking for. So items that we can either use or ones that we can sell for a quick profit are fair game.

This morning I saw a Case backhoe for $1500 but it needed a motor overhaul. Might be a good deal but the engine block may not be repairable. Too many unknowns even for me. I have too many repair projects as it is. Sometimes it is best to pass on deals that require parts and labor and unknowns. So I called the seller back and said that I was too busy to buy it. You know that you did the right thing when you feel a sense of relief from refusing to buy.

Deals are like busses; there will be another one along soon. It’s important to know when to say no. Besides, a better backhoe deal will probably come up this summer; newer and more easily repaired. I’m not in a hurry for anything and the longer I look, the more I will know what I am doing and what is really a great deal.

Cash in hand can buy a multitude of items. However, an item can only “buy” cash from a potential buyer. See how one way street this is ?

And this is the reason we need to look most for the screaming deals. Once we have committed ourselves and bought an item we must now sell it. I look at many items but buy very few. There are awful deals, bad deals, fair deals, good deals and screaming deals.

Many of the screaming deals are when the seller is moving and has to sell in a hurry. Another reason is that they need the cash because of insufficient funds or a family emergency. And another is when the seller just wants to be rid of the item, like in an estate sale. This summer and beyond many people will find themselves in financial trouble. They simply neglected to save for a rainy day and spent foolishly. This is not your problem so don’t try to make it so. You are merely buying at current prices. Just because a new truck cost $35K and the Kelly bluebook says it is worth $18K two years later is no reason that you should offer anywhere near that price. The price sellers are asking is far different than what their items are selling for in a falling market. This is why home buyers hold back in a falling market; they are waiting for the bottom. At least if they have a brain in their heads.

And here’s an interesting thread :

ECON - The Fed is Deflating: 10 Reasons Why

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=282707

Best wishes,

Agnut

Good morning all. It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Would you, could you… be my neighbor ?

Not too friggin’ likely unless you were one of the one in a thousand who have wakened up and smelled the coffee. If you are still one of the oblivious masses, you are a potential danger to me and my family. There I said it !

I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here but this bears repeating until we all know to keep silent in telling others. This needs to be a habit before we open our mouths. Our preparations for the future, whether they be grub, guns gold all need to be kept to ourselves. Additionally, our bartering and horse trading knowledge is to be kept to ourselves.

Once you tell someone else, you can’t take it back. And THEY WILL REMEMBER !

Sorry for others but we have to protect ourselves and our loved ones. It has always been this way for the wise but has been become an absolute necessity in view of where our economy is heading. Crisis has a way of stripping away the thin veneer of civility, if you get my drift.

I would love to write more but am crazy busy lately. Don’t know if I an bragging or complaining.

Best wishes,

Agnut

I gotta share this with ya Agnutcase. Saturday I went to dump 2K in halves and my favorite teller couldn't help showing off 20 Ben Franklins she had rescued from the coin counter hopper a few days before. When she mentioned taking them to the coin shop to sell them I said OK but if he won't give more than $5 apiece for them don't sell them cause I'll pay that much. The coin counter kept jamming up so we had plenty of time to chitchat. Finally when my transaction was done she says you can come back Monday and buy them. So Monday I go, hand her $100 and she says what's this for? $5 apiece thats what I said I would pay. Thats too much! OK I'll pay $90, she says really? I had wrote on the back of one of my business cards- "Silver I buy, 1964 and older dimes, quarters, halves and dollars. 1965-1970 half dollars. Gave her the card and she starts talking about this lady that came in with all these halves. She was estatic about her payday and says she could have got more as there was a bunch of them but didn't know if they were really worth anything. Now Saturday when I was there I really wanted to buy the first bag that filled back but just couldn't bring myself to ask. Last thing Monday I said "Is that first bag still here?", yep, "Can I buy it?" Sure. Aside from having to go through my own dumps again I got another 69 Bens and 52 1964 JFK's! Well over 1000% profit on those and I did alright on the ones I bought too. Nice begets nice and now I have a few bank tellers looking for silver to sell ME cheap.
HH Mark

Hi Me Co. Congratulations; sounds like you hit the mother lode !

I just finished a very long post and went to copy it to this thread when it suddenly totally disappeared. I’m fit to be tied. It was saved on a word processor document (thanks Micronitwit) and I can’t retrieve it. Maybe this is telling me to spend more time in the real world, for that’s where I expect to be spending the future. Maybe no more internet or instant communication. Chores, board games and storytelling. It’s beginning to sound better all the time.

Best wishes,

Agnutcase

Agnut, I do hope you continue to write here. As I have said previously, I have found your thread here in particular to be an inspiration. I enjoy not only what you write, but your style - the way you write it - as well.

I'm sure with the warmer days coming you'll be increasingly busy with the yard sales - but do please share your wisdom. It is a gift that many more than just you will benefit from!

Hi Saoirse. Don’t be concerned; I will continue to write as long as I am able. I was referring to someday if we go back to the horse and buggy days without electricity or computer access. By putting thoughts on my computer screen I can see other implications and reasons to expand further. Also I can more easily discern what is more important as well as what needs to be shared first. Right now I feel that food preps are high priority; not just for coming huge price rises but for possible availability problems.

I saw a United Nations article that warned of food prices rising 60% in the next year. In some food items it has already exceeded that in a few months !

If you haven’t been actively adding to preps, this article should light a fire under your butt !

FOOD - Heads up on price increases.

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=284004


So if prices are heading up as much as 70% soon, just think of how you can take advantage of this “opportunity”.

And make no mistake that this is an opportunity that should not be ignored or delayed. Knowledge is extremely powerful if used, especially before others become aware.

RandyMatt and I have been writing about pasta prices being a bargain at $0.50 a pound. I know many of you can’t find this price in your area but I would urge you to get the best price you can and stock up in a big way. Bulk bags of rice are also wise to stockpile.

Both RandyMatt and I know that when pasta prices go to $1.00 per pound, we will have made 100% on our investment. So every pound we buy now will have been converted into something we will need for survival later. A long time ago (seems like ages) I recommended to hold a $5 bill in one hand and an ounce of silver in another. Of course, the dollar in the left hand, the sinister hand. HaHa. And to consider which made more sense for their future valuations. And now look what has happened in those years. It would be a $5 bill in one hand and little over a quarter ounce of silver in the other. The same applies to buying food right now before the prices skyrocket.

By the way yesterday I was in my local supermarket and saw a sale display of a name brand pasta for $2.00 a pound. If I didn’t already have so much pasta, I would pick up another 100 pounds. But there are other food items I still need to balance out my preps. For instance, spaghetti sauce is still $1 a large can and it goes well with pasta or rice. Even though it has an expiration date of a couple of years, I expect that I will be needing it sooner than that.

Rice is experiencing a worldwide shortage and prices are skyrocketing. Costco still has 50 pound bags of rice for $15 to $17 per bag. A heads up.

So let’s see, no brokers, no time delay in buying, no competitive bidding, holding the goods in hand (If you don’t hold it, you don’t own it. Ponce quote), incredible profit, NO TAX ON PROFIT (I just love this one. Can’t you tell ?) and an absolute necessity for survival.

If food prices double in the next year, your profit on investment would be 100% !! I say “your profit” because I can’t imagine anyone reading this not ACTING on this great opportunity. And the bank is paying you what ? What, 2% ? And THAT is taxable too while the profit on food stocks is not !!

Look, I’m not being alarmist here but if you have precious metals and don’t know what else to invest in, food is a win-win situation all around.

Here’s a good thread on the general employment situation :

ECON - Something big is coming

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=283864

For many years, wages haven’t been keeping up with inflation and I believe that it is going to get worse in the near future. Also, decent paying employment will become scarce. Supply and demand in labor. Too many people and too few jobs available.

This is another reason we must become sharp deal makers. Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves is an old saying on frugality. We need to be “as tight as the skin on a sausage“. Buying food bargains right now is the best way I can think of to beat the fiat dollar’s inflation at its own game.

My daughter bought a late Volvo wagon and the payments are about $600 a month. This is not unusual for someone making about $80K a year but looking at it deeper reveals just how damaging it can be to personal freedom as well as future wealth accumulation. In the book “The Millionaire Next Door”, these people typically drive a 5 to 7 year old car. It has had most of the sticker shock shorted out and is safe to pick up now.

I have recommended that my daughter sell her Volvo, even if she had to add some cash to get out of it. Next I recommended that she buy a car for $3-5K for cash and to only get liability insurance. I know she won’t do it but that stands as my best advice. The other day I heard that the car dealers were offering loans for 84 months. That’s 7 years. Yikes !

Looking into where we will be the next couple of years (ugh), my daughter will still be paying $600 a month while the economy may well be in crash mode. If she were to try to sell her car in such a scenario, it wouldn’t fetch anywhere near what she still owes on it. Having debt payments in a collapsing economy is like having an anchor around your neck instead of a lifesaver. You’re going under !

I have no debts and own a couple of old beater pickup trucks. I haven’t bought clothes for years, except shoes and socks. A friend visited a while back for the first time and said that it looked like I didn’t have hardly anything. I said “Great ! That’s just the impression I wanted to give to strangers”. I told my friend that all I needed to complete the picture was an old refrigerator outside with the door missing and a lazy bloodhound.

Debtors are owned by money while those not in debt are still free. Someday those not in debt may be considered rich. It’s all relative and with so many millions foolishly deeply in debt, there will be few who remain free.

In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.

Best wishes,

Agnut

Great thread Agnut. I have always loved to negotiate, but never really got into buying or selling for profit. I'm trying to put aside a few FRNs to start going to auctions and yard sales and see what's what.

Thanks again for all the work here.

PS. I don't remember you posting what became of the motorhome you bought. I'm looking to buy one myself and am going to try the technique of calling the 30 day old ads on craigslist and getting a smokin' deal.

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I came to GIM for the Gold & Silver. I'm staying for the crazy.

Know what you mean Agnut, I still see it at the $0.99 for 2 lbs but I got over 400# now.

I need to get some more, got 300# now.

Like Ponce said on another forum...

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The president of a socialist nation (America)..
has to give a convincing speech saying essentially..
“We are not going to do.. what we are doing”

"No exports, No recovery"... Ponce

Hey agnut and the rest,

I have a 1993 Toyota Corrolla with only 80,000 miles on it. The car has some rust around the back wheels and the paint is coming off. I was wondering if there was any easy/cheap way to get rid of it or stop it? I am afraid the body will rust out before the car goes.

is your Corrolla mechanically sound ?

IMO
i would leave the rust on as camoflauge to road worthyness
speaking for myself, i could care less what a vehicle looks like
as long as it is mechanically sound - (engine/understructure)
and if any bad guys were to look for something to steal
i would hope they would bypass a rust-bucket, and steal something " pretty "

or you could make some minors repairs to the inside rust spots
but leave the outside rust/bad paint as is,

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