"Garage sale America"....I like that....
For Agnut...some historical cartoons.....and a favorite photo

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At least the kids had some fun.

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I was certified as a Forum Master by my score in the GIM Aptitude Test (Score: 72)
With one caveat, the score result stated: Other members immediately recognize your avatar and actually seek out your posts to see what your opinion is on any current subject.
I find that highly doubtful!

This seems to fit in with what we've been discussing here about coming bad times.

So I don't take up the whole page with his letter you can read the rest here

__________________
I was certified as a Forum Master by my score in the GIM Aptitude Test (Score: 72)
With one caveat, the score result stated: Other members immediately recognize your avatar and actually seek out your posts to see what your opinion is on any current subject.
I find that highly doubtful!

Hi silverbullet and thanks for the finer points from an expert. You must have a smooth lawn; mine has indentations ( abrupt holes) and whoopdedoos. If I were to ride my mower with one hand, it would look like I was in a bull riding contest, with the other hand waving a beer wildly over my head, foam flying everywhere.

I guess what I need is a bikini clad babe (bodacious of course) holding my beer at the end of each lap. Wouldn't get as much mowing done but life ain't just about grass now is it ?

Mustn't forget to trim afterwards.

Hmmm.... Cool hand, huh ? Anything to do with Cool Hand Luke ?

Best wishes,

agnut

P.S. Central PA ? Anywhere near State College ?

Hi everybody. My computer is working but has some terminal viruses. I've had her for several years and she is pulling up lame with congestive heart failure. Poor old gal. Can't use printer and Microsoft cookies pop up, sometimes 10 at a time. To add insult to injury, all I have is dialup.

'Bout time to take her in the woods and put her down. A bullet through the box or a hatchet to the hard drive ? Hmmm.... decisions, decisions.

Interesting week in the markets. Seems like the perfect storm impending. Although cash may be king at some time in the future, it still is a retarded king. So hold and use it with kid gloves. Right now the dollar is at about 72.5 on the basket (case) of currencies. I read that it needs to fall 35 to 40% in order to reach equilibrium. But let's not kid ourselves. If it falls that much, we will be in a world of hurt.

I continue to hold cash as one diversification but it's only of value as long as a seller has confidence in it. Some say we will experience hyperinflation or hyperdeflation.

I tend to think we will experience what I call hyperstagflation. Wages going nowhere while unemployment increases. And at the same time, prices of necessities going through the roof.

A family member and I went garage sailing last Saturday. Got a three DVD set of the first season of "All In The Family" for 50 cents. Hard to say no at that price.

Lots of junk out there for sale, sellers hoping to get something for it before they have to haul it to the dump. I did buy a wood burning stove with three stainless pipes. The new price would have been about $1,500. I got it all for $50. A 30 bagger ? Not really. What is important is what I can sell it for immediately, hold and sell as winter approaches or use it myself. And the third option seems best. I can use it to heat my workshop this coming winter. The funny thing about this wood stove is that several people had looked at it and had passed on it. I guess booty is in the eye of the beholder.

Gotta go before this message self destructs.

Best wishes,

agnut

+1

when TSHTF, people are going to re-evaluate what has value or not

__________________

I suggest a Linux LiveCD. Once the Kool-aid kicks in you can just install from the running distribution.

Don't waste that computer or your lead.

__________________
Illusions occur when our brains attempt to perceive the future, and those perceptions don't match reality

Here’s a rather interesting story I came across :

The Tables Turn

It was 1949 and Buddy was the Southern California swimming champ. He held swimming records that stood unbroken for many years. This was his senior year of high school and one day Johnny Weissmuller came for a visit. Many know Johnny Weismuller as the star of 6 Tarzan movies. But in 1924 and 1928 he won an unprecedented 5 Olympic gold medals in swimming. Born in 1904, he would have been 45 years old in 1949; no spring chicken then.

When Johnny visited Buddy’s school that day, Buddy took a look at him and thought to himself, “I could beat this old man”. Some of the swimming team began urging Buddy to race “this old man”. It was a 25 yard swimming pool and the race was to the end and back. So they stood at the starting gate and the gun went off. Buddy gave it all he had and as he turned at the far end and surfaced, his first vision was Johnny getting out of the pool at the finish line ! Buddy had gone only little more than half the distance that Johnny had.

So much for overconfidence. Needless to say (but I will), Buddy had had one of the most humbling experiences of his life. An 18 year old being blown away by a 45 year old was nothing to wheeze at and the memory stuck for a lifetime.

But the story is only half over and nobody reads a half story. So gather round and see how the table turns.

It was a couple of weeks ago (June 2008) that Buddy had a visit from some of his students. Not the kind of students we usually think of; these were martial arts students. Black belts of the Aikido discipline. The purpose of their visit was to ask Buddy to help teach a class being held nearby. Buddy has been involved in Aikido off and on since 1966 and had been the sensei for his own dojo in the recent past. He had achieved the 4th degree black belt of Aikido in two separate disciplines.

Buddy consented to attend and watch the class. There were about thirty people there. He agreed to teach and the third week three black belts, between 35 and 40 years old, who put on martial arts demonstrations showed up. Buddy’s students urged him to have a test with them. The way this test works is that all three black belts attack one black belt in various ways. Nice odds. They are to try to take this one black belt down in as little time as possible. Knives, sticks and clubs, Jo sticks were all part of the test. The test went on for a furious ten minutes or more but the three were unable to take Buddy down. Not bad for 77 years old.

After the test was over, the black belts asked buddy “Who was your teacher ? Who did you learn those defenses from ?” Buddy has had 7 teachers over the years, all of whom were 6th degree black belts and above. They invited Buddy to join them for dinner which he accepted. At dinner the waitress came to their table and looked at the bruises on Buddy’s arms and commented, “What are all those bruises from ?” Buddy said they were from an Aikido demonstration. One of the other black belts piped in and showed her their many bruises down their arms and chest. They were all in worse shape than Buddy.

****************************************

So what lessons are to be learned here ? You are never so good that you can’t be beaten. Overconfidence can be a fatal flaw. Know your adversary whenever possible. When you’re scared shitless, it helps you to be a good fighter.

We are fighting an economic battle here. The bruises don’t show up the same way but they can be more painful and long lasting. A wallet may be leather but its emptyness hurts 24/7. Knowing the right moves and positioning are vital in coming out a winner. In bartering and horse trading, skillful negotiating, self motivation, open mindedness, presentation, research and financial maturity all contribute in some proportion. It varies with each deal.

It is important to be an early bird. This is one thing I am deficient in and intend to improve as soon as possible. I usually go garage sailing about 10:00 A.M. when I should be at sellers’ doors before they open. I have been treating it as though It was a hobby and not a business. I still continue to find some screaming bargains even with my lackadaisical attitude. But I am curious and want to know what I am missing by not being there as the sellers open. Are most of the best deals gone before I get there ?

One time my son and I actually were waiting at the gate when a garage seller opened. I got 20 pairs of Levis for 75 cents each. I also got a beautiful antique oak icebox for $60. I know, I have mentioned these items before but there is an important point here. It wasn’t a minute after I had paid for the icebox that another buyer was stroking it lovingly and asking if she could have it. You should have seen the look on her face as the seller told her that it had just been sold.

You can turn the tables yourself if you will follow the experiences I have shared in this thread. I don’t know everything (that’s part of the fun; being surprised) and I never will know everything. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Segueing clumsily to our current economic Titanic voyage, it appears that last week’s Freddy and Fanny suicide pact has acted as the iceberg ripping open the side of the vessel, exposing the vulnerable underbelly of the oblivious passengers‘ hopes. Kinda poetic in a macabre sort of way.

Bad enough that we had the subprime debacle hit last summer. But next we had the real estate prices headed south at around the same time the stock markets rolled over. This last week we had the Freddy and Fanny story barfed up in front of the public. And later Friday Indy bank (or something like that) was seized by the govt regulators right after the market closed. Hmmm….good timing guys.

Next week should be interesting.

We are on a death watch for our economy and way of life. Things are about to change in big ways. No one will be left unscathed. Even Ron Paul recently warned of big changes ahead. Does he know something from the recent closed session of congress and can’t say it ? Don’t know but it is worth noting.

Are we bartering and horse trading for our lives ? Seems so. Stocking preps that we may not be able to afford later or worse, that isn’t available. This has been the focus on this thread for some time. I feel that the best and first deals should to make us and our loved ones as secure as possible. As I have written before, this thread began with the purpose of opening up possibilities for making and saving money in order to buy more precious metals. And boy, have things changed in the last year and a half !

Next we have the ongoing Freddy and Fanny mess (might even crash the markets. Ya never know). After that, the Chinese Olympics. Then the revealing of where Hillary fits into the Obama ticket. Then the Sept/Oct market crash season. Then the general election (and it should be a doozy). After that comes the Christmas season and New Year’s. Finally, the January inauguration which some feel won’t happen. If we don’t get into it with Iran before then, it will still have to be dealt with by the new leadership.

And this is only what we know or think we know. Things are devolving pretty fast and the fear level is increasing. As a consequence, the herd of stock and bond folks could spook any time. I don’t know what will set them off but being prepped is a smart bet on more than one level. Things will continue until they suddenly don’t. The nature of a crisis is that it catches almost everyone unaware and unprepared. Just think of all the insider selling that has been going on. It should be obvious.

And lest we neglect the stock dealers and advisors; aren’t they still touting the herd to stay in the market ? Any mention of the wisdom in having some precious metals in hand ? Any mention of the ongoing PM bull market ? It is no wonder why. Once investors buy precious metals, they hold onto them as a reliable form of money. A last bastion of stored purchasing power.

Possibly saddest will be all the 401Ks, bonds, pension fund money and life savings sitting there like the fattest plum in history. I’ve been watching it and wondering just how much its purchasing power will be in the years ahead. Millions of ordinary folks are depending on these trillions but I don’t see it as being there for them when they need it most. The last years of their lives when they are the most frail and vulnerable.

Something big is coming; I can feel it in my bones. In your preparations I implore you to treat every day as the last. Not grimly but in a spirit that we who know how precarious things are and it is a gift or a luxury of sorts.

If you don’t hold it, you don’t own it (by Ponce).

Best wishes and JMHO,

agnut

Hi Canadian-guerilla. Funny but after all these years of prepping and thinking about what will be needed in the future, I have been rethinking things. Because as the future unfolds, alternate possibilities also come to consciousness and redirects become necessary.

It wasn’t too long ago that I was focused on food preps and odds and ends I would need. Lately however, I have bought pipe fittings and used clothing (ladies‘ Levis). Bartering items.

Right now I am waiting to hear of a metal working lathe. With this lathe I may be able to trade my labor for items I need. There are many other assets we may acquire that will facilitate our ability to financially interact with others. It’s still a guessing game as to what will be more valuable and our moves in the right direction are the best we can do.

Either we envision a Matrix world or a world in which people cooperate in ways we are familiar with. Much depends upon the umbilical cords of money, food, power, security and others. Starting to look like the suspended animation bodies in the Matrix; life energy being tapped out for the benefit of those in control. Probably be some Mad Max in the beginning of a breakdown; just to make it interesting.

Tn…Andy’s having a lumber mill is a good example of a work prep. Not all work preps take as much preplanning and investment as a saw mill. We should be thinking of what we can offer as our side of future bartering and horse trading. Maybe a backhoe for hire would be a good idea.

Me ? I’m collecting things to trade with. I’m a transmission builder but also a general auto mechanic. Maybe buying gaskets now will look like a wise idea when I am doing patch jobs on transmissions to get them functional and back on the road. Full rebuilding will largely be a thing of the past. Actually this is how Mexico and Latin America have been for many years. And think of Cuba where there is a shortage of all kinds of materials. Is the U.S. heading this way ?

By the way, I was in the local Dollar Store and the 2 pounds of pasta for a dollar is history. Guess what pasta is now. A dollar for 12 ounces ! What happened to a dollar a pound ? They shot right past it. Wow ! Are we slip sliding away that fast ?

Ponce told me that his food and most preps have about tripled in price since he bought them. So a 200% return on investment would sound phenomenal to a stock or bond investor, right ? But stock “investors” have been losing their shirts and bond “investors” have been losing real purchasing power for a long time.

Gold and silver have been great investments for several years but the mainstream media hasn’t talked much about it in comparison to stocks and bonds, have they ?

Millions of “investors” looking more ridiculous by the day. I can’t imagine how they will feel after losing all and realizing they were chasing an illusion.

A stockpile of precious metals or numbers on a computer screen. Now which is a retirement reality and which is an illusion ?

Daniel Webster said, “Of all the contrivances for cheating the laboring classes of mankind, none has been more effective than that which deludes them with paper money.”

To add insult to injury, people these days wouldn’t even be left with worthless paper currency in a collapse.

Like it or not, the world as we know it is going to change. And if we are to succeed, we need to be adaptable to match these changes.

Best wishes,

agnut


I’m the wrong gender but I suspect that “shaking your booty” will be a growth industry (pun intended). Sorry, couldn’t resist.

Howdy Agnut (and to your youngins). You are a silver nugget at the mine that is GIM. :D

__________________
Our Wizard of Oz Congress - looking for a brain, a heart and some courage! - AgAuGal 2007
Love my country but my government is out of control, courage and common sense (legislative, executive and judicial). - AgAuGal 2008

Read my lips Geithner…
-WE DON’T WANT TO REGAIN CONFIDENCE IN YOUR CORRUPT SYSTEM
WE WANT :
-HONEST MONEY THAT CAN’T BE CONGERED FROM THIN AIR
-THE CROOKS THAT CAUSED THIS TO GO TO JAIL
- FREE MARKETS NOT RIGGED ONES
- OUR COUNTRY BACK by Bix Weir

Hi Agnut,
I just celebrated an anniversary on the 17th of this month last year I picked up my first box of halves as per your advice. It is hard for ME to believe how far I have come in one year, right now I am at about 940 ozt. collected from CRH. Right now I am in shut down mode cause I have been going way overboard lately and have made this like a second job, the finds have been falling off too which takes alot of the pleasure out of it. It is taking ME this week to shut down as I have commitments, I been spending so much time on this that I don't know exactly what I've got haha. I do know what I've sold though and I am way ahead though from where I would have been :D. I'm getting ready to take my gold dredge out and see ifn I can make that pay a little bit for a working vacation. Last time I tried to make money dredging gold was worth half as much and the economy was booming, now work is slow and gold is high- might just be profitable for awhile.
Anyway just wanted to say Thanks for the sage advice. All the best, Mark

Hi and thanks AgAuGal. I’m a nugget alright, butt not all would agree what kind.

Here’s a significant article describing what I suspect will be in our future. Prices rising at a fast clip while our wages go nowhere. All in a scenario of increasing unemployment which of course is at cross purposes to wage increases. Heck; it looks like we are already in it now.


The Formula For Hyperstagflation

Bob Chapman

http://www.theinternationalforecaste...perstagflation

It may be best to take some time and read it slowly in order to absorb the implications, of which there are several.

The first thing I thought of was that food prices would continue to increase and I should stockpile more long term food items. My Dollar store has El Paso soups for $1 a can and it goes well over a bed of rice. A cheap meal. The same can costs about twice as much in local markets. Cheap and easy to make meals are high priority.

A food investment right now may be the best deal making we can do. It’s so obvious and easy to do.

This morning I read over at Timebomb2000 that Mountain House food preps company is backordered until the end of 2009. Is this a heads up to buy prep foods while we still can ? I know what I am going to do.

Look, it would be nice to see silver double from $18 to $36 in the next year. But what if $18 of food right now were to also double in the same time period ? Which would you rather have ?

I don’t mean for us to run out and dump our silver and buy food. What I do mean is for us to look at the BALANCE between our preps and think long and hard whether we are too heavily weighed toward something we will later regret our not having rebalanced before it is too late.

I use myself as an example often because I make mistakes (lots of them) and I hope you can learn by simply reading rather than by peeing on the electric barbed wire fence.

Like any historically significant “interesting times”, we don’t get a cohesive overview or perspective until the times are well past. We are not in the ending or the beginning of the ending. Oh Lordy, nowhere near there ! We are not even in the middle but only somewhere between the beginning of the beginning and the middle of the beginning.

Sometimes, like this morning, I am watching CNBC financial channel while at the computer. Earlier, the futures portended a really bad opening while gold and silver were up a good amount. As the markets opened, this all reversed. I have seen this happen ad nauseum. I used to wish it would all come crashing down on the heads of the paper pushers but realized that like it or not, we are all in this together. I don’t mean that I approve of their fantasy world. I mean that I want to be nowhere near their fantasy world when it collides with the reality world.

So we should watch what we wish for. Ponce says that he would be content if he never had to use his preps because that meant we never went into a collapse TEOTWAWKI.

In the meantime, we can still buy food bargains whether the Apocalypse is around the corner or not. The business of wisely shepherding our money goes on no matter what.

Best wishes,

Agnut

P.S. I used to wonder if we will experience a time similar to hyperinflationary Germany in which citizens were buying anything and everything in order to get out of holding rapidly devaluing German paper Marks. For this to occur, fiat currency would have to have been created on an exponentially increasing scale. And I don’t see that happening since our dollars are created as a result of demand for credit or debt as it were. See any thousand dollar bills ? Or million dollar bills ?

If hyperinflation were a definite possibility, I would want to hold items that could be sold for a great number of fiat money and then that money could be used to pay off past debts on the cheap. But since I have no debts, I couldn’t take advantage of this possibility. Big boohoo

I’m tending toward deflation on a personal scale and mucho inflation on a governmental scale. In my simple thinking, this would be fertile ground for a scenario of hyperstagflation which is the subject of the aforementioned article.

Funny that I posted #548 on 8:35 AM 7/10/2008 that I believed that what I called hyperstagflation was in the cards. Now I’m not such an egotist that I think financial writers are mining my insights (after all, they are so outta sight, right?), but it just goes to show ya that if an ordinary working stiff like me will read and think about goings on, he can sometimes run with the big dogs. Or at least bring up the rear (a dubious position).

A couple of recent articles I thought might be helpful :


Technical Musings
By: Brian Bloom

http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials...oom072308.html



A GOLDEN PARACHUTE WITH A SILVER LINING
AN ESCAPE ROUTE IN A TIME OF DISASTER

Darryl Robert Schoon




http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials...oon072208.html


It is so important to keep an open, inquiring mind. Anyone who won’t do this for themselves has slammed the door to further growth and opportunity. I offered Bloom’s Technical Musings article to show what cognitive dissonance can do to good decision making. I can recall in the past some situations in which I could have rejected the possibility/opportunity as being too good to be true or too unlikely. But I did not reject them and as a result have a significantly different life. Call it the butterfly effect; a seemingly insignificant decision made one day can have the power to change the rest of one’s life.

I’m sure all of us have experienced the feeling that a positive event happened to us because we were serendipitously in the right place at the right time. And conversely, a negative event resulted from being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Bartering and horse trading is largely involved with placing ourselves in the right place at the right time. A Saturday morning estate sale on 777 Fortune Drive as opposed to sitting at home in our skivvies watching Saturday morning cartoons ? Reminds me of the marijuana ad where these two guys were sitting in a ratty basement sharing a joint. One says “I’ve been smoking pot for years and nothing has happened to me”. Then a voice says “That’s right, nothing will happen to you”, implying that if you smoke pot, your life will go nowhere. The same applies to sitting at home rather than getting off our collective butts and sallying forth to see what is out there, just waiting for us to discover it (and ourselves at the same time). Oh, did I mention that getting out and searching around will change us inside ? They say that once you lose your ignorance, you can never get it back. The same applies to learning to make deals; you will not be able to go back to your former life


The Golden Parachute article by Darryl Schoon is well worth the read. I know, we are already invested in the precious metals but it is always nice to read some heartening writings. With his reference to the Kennedy assassination and “Just six months after authorizing US dollars to be backed by silver bullion instead of debt-based money from the Federal Reserve, JFK was killed by a “lone gunman” whose bullet followed a route almost as circuitous as the Warren Commission’s pathetic attempts to explain his assassination to a grieving and unquestioning nation“, Schoon makes a point that the real power lies behind the curtain and isn‘t what we have been led to believe.

And now look at the legislators saving the banks and Wall street at the expense (overly burdensome debt is more accurate) of the taxpayer. Just when I thought the leadership(sp?) couldn’t drive us over the cliff any faster, they kicked in the turbos and JATO system.

Could Atlas Shrugged main character John Galt be far behind ? In my own way I opted out of the system many years ago. Why drive ourselves stark raving mad in the pursuit of some marginal junk that we didn’t really need anyway. Such foolishness, sacrificing our sense of sanity and peace. One of the worst tradeoffs around and I have been guilty of it myself. That’s why I still have so much useless junk around. Leftover from a mindless past.

In “A New Earth, Awakening To Your Life’s Purpose” by Eckhart Tolle, the author makes the point that our ego gets us in all kinds of conflict and suffering. Look around and see all of the neighbors and friends who have the toys but also the debt since they wanted things before they had earned them. Like spoiled children. And the toys are getting older and becoming broken and devalued through time while the debt is still there, perhaps growing more onerous as the economy worsens.

Extrapolation has been a useful mental tool in decision making. For example, considering a vacation to Hawaii would be somewhat costly. But if we were to take it up several notches and consider a vacation by acquiring a ticket on Russia’s space shuttle, in the millions of dollars, it now borders on financial insanity/suicide. And after this mental vision, taking it back to ground level, this vacation to Hawaii can possibly be viewed as extravagant as opposed to saving the money and taking a vacation that doesn’t cost anything.

Money comes as a result of our efforts, our time spent in trade. Trading our invaluable time on this earth for mere money, especially fiat currency, seems a rotten deal. But we have to eat so off to work we go. The point here is that we should examine what work we do in order to satisfy our needs and wants. Life is too short to be in a miserable occupation. Either it must be exciting and challenging or mundane but highly rewarding to compensate. I have been employed in challenging work but the tension level was too high. So I quit.

The mundane or boring work can sometimes be made interesting by making it a game. That is, if it pays well enough for you to want to stick around. Boring AND low pay; those jobs are all around. An indication of how unimaginative the general population is is that there is so much competition for these jobs. Most people would rather die than think; it has been said as well as sad. And finding a creative way to make money is alien to most folks’ thinking. But God bless ‘em; if they knew what we know, it wouldn’t be so easy to make the deals we do.

Look, I have a lot of “stuff” as George Carlin once joked about. But all my stuff is for sale at the right price. That is something most people don’t know. With the economy in bad shape and getting worse, some of my “stuff” may be sold for less dollars than I had paid for it in the past. Why, you ask ? The dollars from a sale would have a higher and better use than to continue holding the items. The nominal dollars aren’t as important as the relative use of them. It is a sort of mental weighing and balancing. For example, a boat and trailer bought a few years ago for $2,500 and now for sale for $3,500. A buyer offers $2,500. Should I counter with a rock bottom of $3,000 ? And if he refused my counteroffer, should I give in ? Depends on how much I want to get rid of the boat, its costs, and how much use I have for the dollars. My $2,500 spent in purchasing the boat three years ago would need to have grown to $3,000 today in order to maintain purchasing power. So $3,000 makes sense to me as a break even price. I’ve had my fun with the boat and it has been a learning experience. Two reasons I would accept the $2,500 offer are first that I really need the money and second that I have a deal that requires more investment in order to complete this profitable deal. Either reason is a higher and better use than to let the boat sit around on my watch as entropy does its dirty deed. Another monkey wrench thrown into the works is our unstable economy. What would sell if there were a crash tomorrow ?

Lots to weigh and it is all an individual decision. We are all different and our priorities can vary greatly so it isn’t so much that a decision is right or wrong but rather whether it is right for YOU.

Gotta go,

Best wishes,

Agnut

Yep ,for the past year I have thought Schoon worth the time to read.

Did you get your computer working or is Microcrap still messin with it?

Also I can relate to lower salary but still employed so will count that blessing until I can't.

My best to you and yours.

__________________
Our Wizard of Oz Congress - looking for a brain, a heart and some courage! - AgAuGal 2007
Love my country but my government is out of control, courage and common sense (legislative, executive and judicial). - AgAuGal 2008

Read my lips Geithner…
-WE DON’T WANT TO REGAIN CONFIDENCE IN YOUR CORRUPT SYSTEM
WE WANT :
-HONEST MONEY THAT CAN’T BE CONGERED FROM THIN AIR
-THE CROOKS THAT CAUSED THIS TO GO TO JAIL
- FREE MARKETS NOT RIGGED ONES
- OUR COUNTRY BACK by Bix Weir

when TSHTF
ingenuity and creative thinking may make a comeback more from necessity than curiousity



always thinking about possible post-SHTF trade/barter items,
and everytime i go into a dollar/hardware store, maybe this ?
i try to think about items that people take for granted right now

__________________

Hi ME CO. Congratulations; a successful year of silver half mining has netted you a considerable stockpile of real money. I understand that the falling off of finds has taken a lot of the fun out of the searching. Reminds me of the days when I was searching for car parts for a corporate rebuilding program. At first these parts were laying all over the country. At the end, I had to pay more for less parts and range a much larger area. Finally, the demand ended and it was a good thing because I was quickly getting to the point where the risk/reward ratio wouldn’t make it worth my time anyway. At least I had my fun, made a bundle and got out when the writing was on the wall.

Like a precious metals mine, the “mining” for 40% and 90% silver halves will taper off in their percentages until the mine plays out. All that will be left are the tailings; a much less profitable avenue. That is, unless the price of silver goes sky high. I would expect silver halves to practically disappear in bank rolls and boxes as time passes.

I think anyone who has looked at boxes of dimes and quarters for 90% silver has been disappointed. The per hour pay for such “mining” has been waaaay below minimum wages.

So what’s next ? That’s going to depend on you ME CO. There may be some great opportunities right under your nose. Scrapping out cars, refrigerators, air conditioners, catalytic converters or any number of items for which there is a buyer who wants what you can find. One of my sons takes in scrap aluminum. He also finds lawn mowers and fixes them up for resale. Not a lot of money but worthwhile to him.

Dredging for gold has always been something I wanted to try. I’ve always wanted to make some suction ends that could get into some of the smallest crevasses between rocks and boulders. Some innovative engineering here may net some gold that others would miss. Good luck to you and please let us know of your successes in dredging. Heck, if I could make a go of it, I’d dredge for gold myself. An old friend recommended that I get a good metal detector and use it to find meteorites. Check on Ebay; they sometimes sell for a bundle.

Machinery sales might work for you. I know a man who attends all the machinery auctions and knows the value of each piece of machinery for sale. He owns a machine shop and has been a machinist for many, many years. So this makes him extremely knowledgeable when bidding. Most important, he knows when NOT to bid. HaHa

Maybe estate and garage sales would be your cup of tea. Depends on your area, of course. Each area of the country is almost like a different world. In the early 70s I lived in Erie, PA and I remember that much antique wood furniture had been broken up and used as firewood. The resale price of these antiques was below firewood. Hard to believe with antique prices these days, only some 35 years later.

As an aside, I began to prefer antique furniture because of its quality craftsmanship, durability and beauty. Also it increased in price over the years whereas if I had bought new furniture, it would have gone down in price. Of course, this assumes that I had bought this antique furniture at the right time and price. They aren’t making any more antique furniture and as the years go by, it should become more desirable. Have you seen what passes for furniture today ? Pressed board, veneer, cardboard, plastic, pine, stapled, glued, and cheaply painted. Solid hardwood and dovetailed drawers have become a thing of the past for all furniture but the most expensive borderline art pieces.

I distinctly remember having a cello playing chair; it had an inlaid woods and mother of pearl floral pattern. Made in Ireland about 1885. I bought it for $50 back then and it would be a museum piece today. Very delicate and refined. It was a pleasure to have had around and just admired for the craftsmanship.

If we weren’t in such a financial disaster in the making, I would heartily recommend collecting some quality antique furniture. I hesitate myself because having money tied up in fine things will be a drag in a prolonged depression environment. I think that there will be a time to buy these antiques but only at the bottom when nobody wants them. And only smaller pieces. An 8 foot high dining room china cabinet won’t have the potential buyers that a small washstand or oak pedestal might. The future will be downsized in expectations and therefore demand. At least this is the way I see it.

And my mind often wanders to antique and classic cars. I have owned a few but believe we are headed into uncharted waters and as a result, the future will be very different than what I have known in my past. I will need new thinking and not reliance on experience here. For instance, if gas gets to $10 or above per gallon, what will be the demand for a muscle car that gets 8 miles per gallon ? Will anyone want it ? Will it be admired or shunned as an example of an age of foolish excess ?

How long would a depression last ? And what would get us out of this depression ? Our manufacturing has been sent overseas and as I understand, this is absolutely necessary for a recovery. So how will it be possible to recover without a manufacturing base ?

That being said, I don’t think we are going to recover. At least not in the ways many assume from their reading of the past recoveries.

If, as I believe, the world is going to be quite different soon, I would like to know the lay of the land in order to fit into it as well as possible (there’s that “adapting to change” I seem to be incapable of avoiding writing about).

Will I continue to repair transmissions or will I be fixing bicycles ? What will be a growth industry ?

This bartering and horse trading thread is for those who want to preemptively ACT rather than be forced by finance and circumstance to behave in a financially sound manner. This way we get the jump on those who will act later as they have to in order to survive. This is all part of being a futurist.

If you are not a futurist, what are you doing here, reading this thread, on the GIM website ?

That’s right, we here are ALL futurists, like it or not. We want to know or at least have an idea of what the future holds in order to best adapt (there’s that word again) in order to make it work for us.

Best wishes,

Agnut

P.S. Got a bit aggressive and started writing predictions for the next few years. It’s a good mental exercise but not as easy as I had imagined. You might try it yourself and see what you come up with.

Agnut,
Thanks for the Kudos- I am rather proud of what I was able to accomplish myself. If I had known the end of last year what I learned this last few months it could have been many times more. As I said though I rather turned it into a "JOB" from a hobby and that took some of the fun out of it. I am looking forward to getting my dredge on the river and working that like a job and see how I can do with it. My vacation time may be pretty limited if I don't have good success. I had planned on dumping my half dollar hunting money into PMs before going but I think I will hold the cash and pick up where I left off when I get back- going through withdrawals already LOL. So if you don't hear from ME in a couple 3 weeks means I'm doing good and won't quit till the season ends end of September. HH Mark

Hi again AgAuGal. I read several articles daily and some just seem to stand out in their forthright style as well as that they add several facts together and can come up with logical conclusions. These articles I reread and sometimes copy for future reference.

Here’s a current article by Darryl Schoon; quite cutting to the quick and a treat to read slowly as we absorb its content.:

The Con In Central Bankers’ Confidence

http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials...oon073008.html

My computer still has some problems but I have learned ways to work around its idiotsyncrasies. Thanks for asking.

Sorry to hear of your lower salary. Are you getting any more hours of free time or are they paying you less per hour ?

This may be an opportunity to find other income producing areas. Yeah, I know this sounds like the pain in the butt advice a neighbor or relative may give but it is still a valid piece of advice.

When we have time to explore other possibilities we should at least consider whether we are happy enough where we are at or where else we could put our energies. Life is too short to put up with a bunch of crap from those who would control our lives. Sometimes, success is the best revenge. And that includes getting out from under the thumb of those above us in the company structure.

Gotta go; lots of stuff to do.

Best wishes,

Agnut

Hi Canadian-guerilla. Yeah, keeping an almost childlike curiosity and open mind to possibilities is key to successful bartering and horse trading.

For instance, there may be an item for sale that you have no use for. Additionally, you may know nothing about the value or demand for this item. All you have is this gut feeling that what stands before you is a screaming bargain. The sandblaster machine was an example I wrote about a while ago. I had no use for it but it was in such good condition and I could only guess at its demand. What could I lose ? What was the worst case scenario ? I could lose $300 and be stuck with a big piece of machinery in my barn. But the upside is that I could make several times my investment within a short period of time. The risk/reward ratio was at my backside, pushing me into the deal; it was so strong. Greed never entered the picture. Neither did ego or personal desire. This is, as in the Godfather movie, “only business”, nothing personal.

So what’s going to be in high demand in this post-SHTF scenario ? In the first place, most folks won’t have much if any money and therefore money will be tight. The necessities come first and things like toys, grand pianos, pool tables, big screen TVs drop in their prices. A lot, I would expect.

Assuming this is valid thinking, what are these necessities ? Food is the first that comes to mind. Food is an absolute. So is water. But how could we benefit by having some form of food to offer for sale or barter ? Well, I have 300 pounds of chicken feed but no chickens ? Crazy, huh ? My older son thought it would be a good idea to get some chicken feed and put it away for when we finish the chicken coop. Good thing I agreed and gave him the money to get the feed because the price has risen quite a bit since then. By the way, there is a thread on Timebomb200 that is about alternate ways of feeding chickens and what types of chickens to have in the first place. I just looked for it and it’s not on the first 4 pages.

Anyway, food may be one option but it also may be dangerous since the stomach is so close to the panic button. I wouldn’t want to be selling food I had grown if we were in a desperate, aka starvation, scenario.

Offering services like repair work, machine work, tractor work could be good as long as the times were supportive of these activities. Chaotic times are times to hole up; not times to reach out. There will be plenty of time to reach out after things settle down. I expect that we will be in a different world but dealings between citizens will continue. In fact these personal one on one dealings may increase since much of the old infrastructure will have failed by either having had to shut down or being too pricey for most citizens.

NOW can you begin to see the necessity for becoming proficient at bartering and horse trading ? This is what I have seen for some time; I didn’t start this thread with a TSHHTF in mind but it came about as events have unfolded in the past year and a half. Anyone who thinks events aren’t changing at an accelerated pace must be in a coma !

Anyone remember that I wrote I had a Datsun diesel pickup truck that needed an engine and transmission overhaul. I’m talking about “old smokey” Well, I sold her yesterday. I was asking $1,500. I got several calls but the first person who came by had cash and a spare engine at home. I accepted $1,400; he was such a nice person to deal with that it was hard to refuse him. See, it works on even the most hard bitten SOBs like me. Actually, I know that the first offer is the best offer. And this buyer seemed tailor made for this truck. I bought the truck a couple of years ago for $500 and only put front brakes on it (under $100 in parts). I drove the heck out of it and enjoyed its Spartan accouterments (weird word, huh ?) as well as its frugal fuel consumption. For a while there I thought the fuel gauge was broken.

So my $600 I had in the Datsun truck sold for $1,400, netting me $800 profit as well as my having driven it for a couple of years for free. No payments and a profit in the end. That’s the mindset we should have in purchasing a car. It is a big financial decision and should be an opportunity if we will treat it that way.

So what’s next in my car corral ? Well, I have the engines and transmissions out of a diesel VW Rabbit and a diesel VW Caddy pickup truck. After they are rebuilt I’ll be driving them around for a while. Right now I plan to use my ¾ ton Chevy 4X4. Yeah, I know, it’s a gas hog. But here’s where I think I can use it to my advantage.

Town is about 5 miles away and I can load the Chevy with wood pallets for firewood this winter and next. There is a reason I just mentioned “next” and we all should understand it for our advantage. Right now the weather is warm and folks aren’t thinking about the coming cold in a few months. So these wood pallets are laying around free for the taking. That’s why I’m picking up all I see. But this winter I expect our economy to get much tighter/worse. And this winter folks will be looking for ways to cut costs which include heating their homes. Free wood pallets disappear every winter here as people take them right away. I don’t know what the heck they are thinking in the summer (nothing as best I can figure). Anyway, if things are as bad as I expect this winter, folks will become aware of the necessity to have free wood for the next winter and therefore I expect that next summer, folks will be scrambling for wood pallets that right now are laying around, begging for a home. Come to Papa !

Whereas I could only get 5 or 6 pallets in the Datsun, I can get up to 20 pallets in the Chevy. And that is where I plan to more than make up for the decreased gas mileage; more pallets while I am in town anyway. And when I don’t think there are any pallets laying around I will either use my son’s Toyota truck or one of my diesel VWs.

Best wishes,

Agnut

Hi again Me_Co. You should be proud of what you have done. Some opportunities work for a while and fade through time. The silver halves is a good example. But with the money you have made, you can afford to move to the next hot deal. I hope the gold dredging works for you. I have often wondered if a smaller snout hose end might get into the tighter crevices and be able to pick up the tinier pieces of gold, especially with the higher suction. Oh well, I can only dream of what you are doing. Please let us know how it works out for you. We can at least bask in the light of your successes.

Okay, here’s an interesting tidbit for the future. An article Ponce told me about appeared on Timebomb2000 the other day. It was about Zimbabwe and that the earlier Zimbabwe coins were being used also. But the value of the coins is 10,000,000,000 times the purchasing value of the paper Zimbabwe paper dollars !

That’s right , the coins kept their purchasing value while the paper money went to Hell in a hand basket.

Old Coins Cause Chaos In Zimbabwe- Made Obsolete in 2002, Old Coins Reappear

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=296529

With this in mind, I wonder what our coins will someday be worth as opposed to our paper dollars. As we know, the metal content of our pennies and nickels are already higher than their face value. But I see a larger issue, and possible opportunity here.

For 31 years Ponce has been saving his change. He has 5 five gallon water containers full of coins with dollar bills crushed in among the coins.. They are so heavy that he wrapped them with duct tape in case they break under the weight. He also has 40 bricks of nickels. That’s $100 per brick face value. And several ammo cans full of coins to boot ! Is he ready for a Zimbabwe coin bonanza ?

As I recently wrote, only 5% of our money supply is in physical coins and paper dollars. And 80% is outside the country, held as reserves by foreign banks and private parties. Which means that only 1% of our money supply in the U.S. is physical coins and paper dollars. So it isn’t a leap of imagination to see what this implies. Time to sit back and ponder of we would be better to have some of our money in hand in the form of coins rather than in paper dollars.

I must mention also that the coins are a small percentage of the paper dollars. So getting money out of banks is one thing but getting the money in the form of coins is another.

As part of bartering and horse trading, we all have to have cash for trading. Wouldn’t it be wise to hold some in coins ? I think so and have a few bricks myself, although nowhere near as much as Ponce does.

AndreaGail, bless her heart, dredged up an old Silver Musing that I had written February 2007. It was entitled “The Mighty Penny (or The Emperor Has No Clothes) (or A Penny For Your Thoughts) Or…”

t=113169

Funny thing is that I rarely reread my old posts. But this one sure hit the nail on the head. Maybe I should take the time to review my past assertions. Hell, I could be repeating myself like an old mental defective and losing readership. Wipe my chin and change my Depends please.

Anyhow, I thought this Zimbabwe coin event was significant enough to post so that we all could think about our money and in what form it would be best to allocate.

Of course, many are probably wondering why someone like Ponce shouldn’t turn in his coins and next buy more silver and gold. Well, it is a matter of being diversified and in Ponce’s case these coins are in proportion to his total wealth. The question we now should be asking ourselves is what we should have in proportion in coins. After all, what is the downside of having coins rather than paper dollars ? And what is the potential upside ?

It’s not our fault the government has printed so many paper and electronic dollars that the physical coins metal content value exceeds their face value. But we can at least protect ourselves and maybe benefit in a monetary crisis. Does anybody think we aren’t headed for a monetary crisis ?

And finally, Ponce said that he hopes that he never has to use his coins and PMs because this would mean that we never went through a worldwide crisis. But at least he is, as he puts it, “prepared for all, worried about none”.

Darwin’s survival of species due to “adaptability to change” applies in financial stress scenarios as well as in the wilds. The few of us who know the score and can readily adapt will fare best in crisis/chaotic situations. The rest, sadly, are sitting ducks.

I think it was about 5 years ago that I wrote about the Olympic gold medals. Did you know that the “gold” medals are actually silver medals plated in gold ? What a travesty that the best athletes in the world would be given medals that are analogous to the sandwiched U.S. coins of 1965 and later. Passing off gold plating for solid gold is like passing off silver plated dinnerware for sterling silverware. That’s a crimeing shame and in my opinion, this “gold” medal should be rectified as soon as possible. Sorry to have to let you know about this just before the Olympics but it does point up that things aren’t what they appear to be. Duh !

Gotta go; lots of work waiting to be finished.

Best wishes,

Agnut

P.S. picked up 10 wooden pallets a couple of days ago when I was in town anyway. I intend to do this every time I’m in town. The extra gas I use to go and pick up the pallets is almost nothing since I am already in town anyway. They will pay for themselves this and next winter. And who knows when the locals will wake up to what I am doing. As I said, they may wise up this winter and there won’t be much laying around next summer. So I am doubling my efforts now. Also gonna need more wood for the wood stove I picked up the other day for the garage workshop.

My older son saw an ad for a free chain saw and picked it up. Was about 4 miles from our place. It was only used for an hour and looks brand new. Unbelievable !

How much would the following go for?? It's a gold plated samovar. How much would you buy it for?

Hello Agnut !!!!
You mentioned da magic word my fine friend !!
PALLETS. !!!:D
Not only are they f-r-e-e, but they are beeeuitful.
And to show you the proof that they are very useful in many endeavors I offer the following photos.
I have a neighbor and we both collect various items for reuse.
He is big, big, big into pallets.
The entire carport ceiling here is done with all pallet wood that he has acquired.
Many regards, and thanks for a fine thread, one of the best on GIM.
Haystackneedle

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I guess you guys would be all over this one..if you lived in Arizona! Hope the ad is still on craiglist so the link works!

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/cph/zip/801100161.html

FREE LUMBER, WOOD, PALLETS, FIREWOOD, FENCING

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to: sale-801100161@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-08-17, 4:53PM MST



TAKE AS MUCH AS YOU WANT.

PICK UP BETWEEN 7AM AND 3PM M-F.

CHECK IN AT THE FRONT DESK AT 2902 E. ELWOOD ST, PHOENIX, AZ 85040.

THIS IS NEAR I-10 AND 32ND ST. YOU CAN SEE THE WAREHOUSE FROM THE FREEWAY.

Hi Sinabl. I’ve been looking at the samovar for several days and wondering how to answer your query.

Let’s approach this from a strict bartering and horse (sense) trading philosophy.

1. Is the gold in the samovar worth anything ? Can it be melted and sold ?

2. Is the samovar going to be used by you ? Is it a necessary item for your future needs ?

3. What is the asking price for the samovar ? Of course, it is relative to what you could sell it for or use it. Even if it is for free, it takes up space and another item, more useful could be had in its place. Oh, I don’t know; maybe a food dehydrator or canning equipment.

Because this samovar is gold plated and all beautiful, it may be useless if you have no use for it yourself or can’t sell it for a profit. You might look on Ebay for a comparative value.

A while ago I wrote that everything I have is for sale. It is an attitude that frees up my ability to maintain liquidity and flow rather than trap myself with a huge quantity of things cluttering up my life. Doesn’t mean I don’t have a lot of stuff around; I’m a packrat and collector by nature. It just means I’m not attached to possessions.

I don’t mean to sound negative about something that looks as attractive as this samovar but we are moving from form to function in our world. There will be hoards of luxuries that will come up for sale in a bad economy.

Luxuries like pianos, organs, jet skis, boats, big screen TVs, sports cars, SUVs, paintings and other art, antiques, jewelry, designer clothing, DVDs, CDs, records, electronics, and a multitude of other things we can live without. Question is, will you want them ?

The supply demand equation for used items will take a flip flop in a crash or even a downward spiraling economy. Too many sellers and too few buyers would drop prices to what the market would bear. And what a bear it would be with a glut of items for sale and no one to take them off sellers’ hands. I feel that we are at the starting gate of such a scenario. So keep your powder dry and watch and wait.

Have you noticed the ads about buying a house because they are a “bargain” now ? The ignorant parties who had believed this and been enticed to buy a house since they had fallen in price 20% or so are examples of the old cautionary quote of avoiding catching a falling knife.

Let’s see where house prices are in a year or so as the alt-a loan adjustments become due. I understand they are greater than the subprime mortgage debacle we are seeing right now. And even the subprime loan debacle isn’t anywhere over yet. On the charts these two lending schemes overlap and the double whammy hasn’t even got going yet. I suspect that by the time the alt-a loans default, we will be in a recession, if not worse. You see, the subprime loans (or NINJA loans, No Income, No Job or Assets ) will have so greatly weakened the real estate market by that time that the following alt-a loans foreclosed upon in a low enough resale market that the down the buyers had put in (20% or more) will have evaporated. Heck, what am I saying ? They have already evaporated in many cases, judging by the recent price drops.

Always be aware that even though this real estate mess is dangerous enough to the economy, there are several other black swans lurking out there waiting to come home to roost.

Here’s an article from Reuters May 2008 :

Subprime, Alt-A mortgage delinquencies rising: S&P

http://www.reuters.com/article/gc03/...49493920080522

Note that it says that subprime delinquencies are as high as 37 percent while alt-a delinquencies are as high as 17 percent.

Can you imagine if everyone had bought their houses with cash upfront ? And if resale prices were to drop 20% or more ? Would people be upset ? They could sell their house and buy another for the same lower price. Well, this is all things being equal which ain’t how real estate works. Different locations as well each house’s particulars affect market price. My point is that things would be more fair and less volatile. The root of the problem is that house buyers have mortgaged/leveraged and this seems to come from thinking that the next 30 years their income will somehow continue as it has in the past.

Do you feel what I’m saying ? They obligated their future for most or all of the rest of their productive earning years. And with no surety that the house would be worth anywhere near what they had plowed into it. They say that a boat is a hole in the water into which you pour cash. I’ve owned boats and can attest to the truth of this. A house is beginning to look like a boat without the advantage of mobility and possible fishing for food. Both a boat and house share the saying that the best two days of ownership is the day you buy them and the day you sell them. Sometimes I wonder if a large boat would be better for some as a live aboard home. Property taxes ? Space rental ? Maintenance ? And no yard to attend.

While I’m thinking about it, what about a large motor home ? It could be parked on a country friend’s property and used as a vacation spot. You wouldn’t even use any gas unless you wanted to travel. And why travel if it is parked in a beautiful location ? You wouldn’t even have to register it for years if you didn’t move it. And in the event of a crisis (yeah, like that’s NOT going to happen), you would have a bugout place all ready to go to. I believe that this is a relatively inexpensive answer to the bugout place.

I urge you to think about where you would want to be in a crisis situation. Prior proper planning prevents piss poor performance.

This morning I caught this over at Timebomb2000. It’s unsubstantiated but gives some idea of what is on some members’ minds. Not to be alarmist but we should be aware and when we smell the smoke, to be already exiting the burning theater. Those aware can leave in an orderly fashion. Think about it; have you ever seen a burning building with people trapped inside ? Are the first to leave standing along with the crowd, watching the tragedy ? Of course they are ! Darwin’s Law in action.

Major City Center Dwellers: Leave Now

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=298181

So why am I yammering on about bugout locations in a bartering and horse trading thread ? Well, think about it; it is probably the most important thing for which you may barter for yourself and your loved ones. Your safety and security. What is the relative value of that in comparison to a fistful of dollars ? Love those old spaghetti westerns.

I’ve seen this very thing done and admittedly it is some work and investment. But think of the pluses and minuses. A vacation spot and a bugout location rolled into one. A large motor home can be found for less than $15K and if you can handle a smaller motor home, about $3 or $4K. Don’t go by my Itasca 21’ motor home I got for $150; it’s pretty rough and I wouldn’t recommend an early fixer upper unless you had the time and skills. Even a medium sized travel trailer would work.

It’s funny; many folks will spend thousands to go to some vacation place like Hawaii or the Caribbean when they could buy a motor home and plunk it down somewhere in the country and use it year in and year out. Whereas there are only memories after a vacation, a motor home will still be there as an investment and will be useable as much as time permits. I’m writing this to not so much show what a great investment a motor home may be but rather to illustrate that there may be a better alternative to the larger expense of actually buying a bugout location.

Right now motor homes are for sale all over the place. But if you have the situation in which they may be useful to you, they may be a bargain. I would caution you that since motor homes are a luxury, they are being dumped by those who have no ability to see that they may would need them in a crash scenario. I think that if/when the markets crash, there will be much better opportunities for a steal deal. Motor homes have a “stealth value”, most owners won’t recognize their error in having sold them until they have lost their homes.

Can you imagine what house prices would be if people had to pay in full ? Well, we may get to see some of that if the lenders stop lending. I think they have already tightened lending standards significantly and may be forced to further tighten as foreclosures mount. Interest rates may be rising and this will put a further chokehold on sales and liquidity.

Let’s call a spade a spade. It’s UNREAL ESTATE, folks. When a house price realigns with what I could get a decent monthly rent for it, I might be interested.

My opinion is that now is a precarious time to buy property. Best to break out the popcorn and watch events unfold. Rent a place and pay less than “owning”. No taxes, insurance or maintenance. Or a heavy mortgage hanging over your head. Even if you didn’t have a mortgage against your house, try not paying property taxes and let me know how that works out for ya. “Owning” property could better described as glorified renting. Sorry but when citizens can be thrown out of their homes for past taxes or sued and lose their houses or eminent domain bulldozers fire up, I have to look at “owning” a place and think most of them are grossly overpriced. Too many were fed the American Dream of home ownership only later to discover that dreams and nightmares both happen when they are asleep.

There are foreclosures and then there are TAX foreclosures. Big difference. In my state, tax foreclosures supercede all other liens against the property and the tax bill against a property is the total price you will pay. It may be as little as a couple of thousand dollars, maybe even less. My mom is a retired real estate broker and said these are the ones to be on the look out for. They will probably become more offered as the real estate market deteriorates. Of course, you would have to fix them up; could be a big expense. So be careful. And the big thing is whether or not you could rent them out for a decent return. So much depends upon how the future unfolds.

As Yogi Berra said, “The future ain’t what it used to be”.

Best wishes and JMHO,

Agnut

P.S. Last Saturday I had absolutely no intention of going garage sailing. That is, until a friend called and told me he was going out himself. Well, that lit a fire under my butt ! I checked the local papers and there was a sale just three miles down the road. A potential for the lazy man. Me, of course !

So my son and I jumped in the rusty (yet trusty) ‘73 Chevy ¾ ton 4X4 (imagine huge tires here, balding like me though) and sped down the road. The sale ended at 2:00 and we arrived at 1:54 P.M. Glad we got there in time; I hate to arrive late.

They were already beginning to box up unsold items and stopped when we arrived. They were probably thinking “One more sucker to save us a trip to the dump” I got to talking with one of the sellers who turned out to be the fire commissioner. Very interesting guy. Anyhow, he had a Craftsman tiller, a powered mower and a big wheeled yard trimmer He said that they all worked but needed some attention. The total price for all three ? How about six bucks ?

He also had rolls of new plastic yard divider for 25 cents each. Got ‘em. Probably 20 bucks a roll at the store. An 80 bagger ? Who knows, but still a gut feeling bargain. Before we left I asked him if he had any vinyl records and he dragged out a box. I asked how much for each. He didn’t know; probably didn’t anticipate a total dirt bag like me showing up. I told him that I had paid from 5 cents to 75 cents. He said, “How about a quarter ?” I got 13 albums. Left the Montavani and 101 Strings albums (finger down the throat gagging). Who could listen to that nowadays probably is a Slim Whitman fan too. Prejudiced bastard that I am.

I would have bought more but that was all of the screaming deals he had. Funny sale; some items were very high priced and some were next to a giveaway.

And now days later, I think about what would have happened if I hadn’t gotten over to that garage sale at the last minute. You know what would have happened ? NOTHING ! No equipment and or future trading material. All I lost was a total of $9.75 for everything. Depreciating fiat currency at that.

And by the way so’s you all don’t think I’m crazy collecting vinyl records, Ponce tells me that there is a resurgence in interest in bringing back this form of music recording. Last year, vinyl records sales were about 750K and in the first half this year they were 1,850K! If this continues through this year that would be a 393% increase. Now why would they increase so much in so short a period of time ? Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and other artists are putting out record albums may have something to do with it. Maybe a way to get around all the CD music pirating and free listening. Hmmm…

Have you ever listened to a CD ? Digital, right ? And then have you really sat down and listened to a record ? To my ears, a CD is like watching a TV through wax paper while a record is like viewing a high definition TV. There is a cruder simile that may make you smile but I am too much of a gentleman to post it here. If you ever get to listen to a double speed recorded vinyl record (they cost about $30 each. Ouch) played on a quality stereo system, you will be astounded. It is like being there in the front row of a live session ! So there may be some hope for vinyl’s comeback. My 5 cent to 75 cent record collecting may pay off after all. Remember that they aren’t making the old records any more and someday the ones remaining in good condition may be in high demand. I have lots of duplicates that I pick up for possible resale/gifts someday. At these prices I would rather hold them than paper dollars. And it’s my hobby and an inexpensive one at that; so I don’t think it makes much of a dent on my budget. A little rationalization here; I’m not fooling myself for a second. But I gotta have some fun besides just scooping up the screaming deals. HehHeh

Parting comment for those still awake. I’m putting away a few bucks explicitly for when folks have to sell their DVD and record collections. Hey, I’m only human. But when that day comes I will likely have better uses for that money I have been socking away. With times changed I will have to adapt. But I can still dream, can’t I ?

Hi Haystackneedle and thanks for the amazing carport photos. You know, some pallets are made of oak rather than pine. If I had a wood plane I could make pieces of oak for fine work like a jewelry box. And that oak is tough. Probably stable too from sitting around for years. Just a thought. I do have mixed feelings when we cut up an old oak pallet for firewood so I’ve been setting stacks of them aside. I bet that in the next few seasons we will see a lot less of the oak pallets since I don‘t think they have made them for years. Just another thought from a total dirt bag.

When I look at pallets I see free heating for my home. If I were to pay for cords of wood at $200 per cord, I would have had to make about $300 before taxes. So this savings is considerable as well as preparation in downsizing my expenses. This is something we all should be doing; living small as opposed to most folks living large. Free wood is but one way. And as I said in a previous post, things will be hard this winter and many will wake up to their necessity to cut back. So I anticipate their picking up all this free wood which means it will be harder for me. I’m getting all the free wood I can find right now and putting it away.

Everybody can recognize and get excited about seeing a $20 bill laying on the sidewalk. But I get excited every time I see a considerable saving. To me, it is like I’m picking up $20 bills all the time. Funny that few look at saving money this way. Not to complain; more for me !

The other day I drove by the moving company and they have many 4X8’ shipping boxes sitting around. I have 8 now and need another 8 or so for storage. They are great and increase my ability to put away loads of future trading material, much of which I get for free or for a song. I’ve been watching for months and this is the first time these boxes have been available. My son picked up two of them and broke them down for the chicken coop he just finished building. Nice outdoor plywood panels good for siding or roofing. He Googled and got the plans for the chicken coop. We had to buy a few sticks of 2x4s but the rest has been free, I tells ya; just about anything you want to do can be found on Google.

By the way, watching my son break down those 4X8’ containers gave me an idea. We are beginning to get extra containers and break down some of them and stack the plywood sheets inside the other containers. Not good for firewood but great for future projects. A new idea. Imagine that.

The manager of the moving company where we have been getting the 4x8 boxes and other wood said that we could take what we wanted for free. That was over 6 months ago. I have a case of beer and plan to give it to him and thank him. Also to ask if it is ok to take more in the future. I want to be sure that he is still agreeable since my son and I come like a thief in the night when they are closed. Don’t need any SWAT team descending on us and having to explain. Everything in bartering and horse trading should be on the up and up and it is most important to maintain a relationship with those we deal with.

These plywood sheets may solve a problem I’ve been having. For at least 6 months I’ve been searching the newspapers and Craigslist for shelving for the barn. Nothing, zip, nada. So why spend a thousand bucks or so for metal shelves when I can make wooden ones for the price of some 2x4s ? Part of the reason I’ve been waiting so long for shelving is that I was hoping to find some company either moving or shutting down. In that circumstance I may have been able to get metal shelves for free. So I did what ? I adapted my thinking. Wood shelves may take a bit more work to assemble but the dollar savings and availability have revealed themselves. Why say revealed ? Well, it comes from not being in a hurry and letting things tell us what to do.

I’m not a “wonder what happened” but more a “make it happen” type of deal maker. In the middle are the “let it happen” folks. Making it happen and letting it happen can work but in different circumstances. With the ongoing list of things I want to accomplish, some just sit there until I either get the time or an easy (and often cheaper) solution presents itself.

There is a great deal of satisfaction in finding new opportunities. Some come about by merely watching and thinking about future needs and possibilities. This bartering and horse trading lifestyle has opened my mind to seeing everything as a possibility. Even if I saved loads of these plywood sheets and put them away, they are there for resale or use. Part of Ponce’s “If you don’t hold it, you don’t own it” philosophy.

Bartering and horse trading involves being a futurist to some extent. What will disappear or become in demand in the future ? Will there be a breakdown in the division of labor ? I’ve been planning for this in my business. If I can’t get new parts for my rebuilt transmissions I’m out of business in short order. But if I stock a large quantity of what I have identified as two critical seals (about $5 for the pair), I could continue with building what I call reconditioned transmissions. I have bucket loads of good bearings and other parts and they are perfectly useable. I have to replace them because my customers expect these new parts. But a deep recession (yeah, that’s not going to devolve down the crapper) would be the right circumstances for customers to want to save as much money as possible. I already have a reconditioned transmission on the floor for when a customer says that he can’t afford a full blown rebuilt. It is almost half the price of a rebuilt and $200 cheaper than a used one from a junk yard. So who ya gonna call ?

So what have I done here ? Set up prices that are irresistible to buyers as well as prepared for the future. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a hotshot salesman but actually a “presenter”. I will only present something that sells itself; either by price or uniqueness. Oh, did I ever mention this uniqueness ? My bad.

There are times when we can create a unique product. I have done it a couple of times and it has paid off hand-some-ly (as in putting some gobs of cash in my hands). Products for which there is either no substitute or relative price will have the market to themselves. My unique products were improvements on already existing items.

Most of my business is in selling modified gear ratio transmissions. I believe that I am the only rebuilder in the country doing this. And I figured a way to do it for no additional cost to the customer. My past experience in calculating gear ratios in building off road race buggy transmissions has paid off once again.

I have to laugh when someone says that they might rebuild their own transmission instead of buy one of mine. Yeah, let me know how that works out for you !! They have no idea how many specialized tools are needed and specialized knowledge and investment. It would be like me going to the computer store and telling the salesman that I’m thinking of building my own computer from new and used parts. Like there is some kind of advantage there. And you know what would happen after I left the store ? That salesman would be telling all his associates and friends what a complete ignoramus had just walked in the store. Seriously, I’m old enough to know that youth and enthusiasm is no substitute for aged experience and conservatism.


Here’s an article worth reading and thinking about. The author is senior director of strategic planning, the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. My grandfather taught here for many years; a very conservative graduate business school and I think we all should take the time to read and fully understand its implications. I believe that it is an accurate assessment of what we will face next year.


The Great Consumer Crash of 2009

http://www.prudentbear.com/index.php...y?art_id=10098


If you have read the above article and not died from falling into its length and depth, I congratulate you ! There is hope for those determined enough to slog through pages of graphs and reality.

What the heck does an article about next year have to do with bartering and horse trading ? Everything. Looking into the future and having a pretty accurate assessment will guide our buying and selling and more importantly tell us when to hold some cash in reserve for when the good (buying ) times roll. We may slide down the slippery slope or unexpectedly fall off the precipice. Nobody knows for sure. But we who are liquid and out of debt will be the buyers of the future. And hopefully the profitable sellers as well.

Best wishes,

Agnut

P.S. Keep the faith, baby. We who are in the know will do far better than the oblivious. Maybe its no coincidence that oblivion and oblivious come right after obliterate in Mr. Webster’s dictionary.

P.P.S. If you were taken aback by The Great Consumer Crash of 2009, here is an article that indicates things may actually be MUCH worse than it appears. No wonder I was invited to join the doom and gloom club. Sometimes I scare myself.

The 2009 "Consumer Crash" Call is UNDERSTATED


http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=298670

i've spent the last couple days going through this entire thread. as someone who used to friviously spend every dime I made, I can really appreciate the sound principles of utilizing what you have to the fullest extent possible.

not that long ago I remember holding my head in my hands and just wishing i had enough money to simply pay the bills. what i eventually realized, is that i did have enough money to live well, i just had too many unecessary bills.

four months ago, my wife and decided to downgrade our house. we broke even on leaving it. my family of five lived in the den of a friends house and for three months we saved. then we moved into a much more modest house (about half the size) with a more affordable payment. in the meantime we've paid off our cars and have no other debt to speak of.

though i haven't been an active poster on GIM, there have been many times that i was able to find some sanity here. when everyone else was telling me to spend more and keep up with the jones, threads like this gave me the confidence that i was making the right decisions. hopefully this post will encourage others to bite the bullet and take some drastic changes to live a financially secure lifestyle. it's well worth it.

__________________

Thanks for the post maven. You had the courage to make drastic changes in order to be able to manage your financial life. I think that very few would ever be able to do what you did without being forced to. Good For you !

This thread is full of ideas from members who took the time and effort to contribute. I have been surprised at the longevity of the bartering and horse trading thread. I started it on a whim and it has taken on a life of its own.

I’m quoting RiverRat’s recent post where he responds to Chris Laird’s article. What RiverRat lays out (beautifully as ever I must add) is what I have been calling hyperstagflation. On the surface hyper stagflation doesn’t appear as a runaway situation like a hyperinflation but rather a grinding away process of wages going nowhere while prices of things we buy continue to rise without the restraint of supply/demand laws of economics. It is a method of driving the middle class into the lower class.

************************************************** ********

Quote:
In a deflationary depression, so much money is lost to the economy that economic activity and employment collapse. Since no one has any money, prices for everything drops, and it becomes a cycle of economic contraction.
Chris Laird

In a perfect world yes...in the US no.

We are the biggest debtor nation on the face of the earth.
Manufacturing was shipped offshore to create a labor force of burger flippers and paper pushers that create or manufacture nothing.

Our ratio of imports to domestically produced goods is so high consumers will be slapped in the face with massive price rises as unemployment and economic disaster deepens.

Do the math...the US doesn't fit the model.
There is no contraction of domestic prices because imports will rise in price to offset the continuing fall of the USD.

What we're talking about here in the US is a massive depression with hyperinflation...a double whammy most will not survive.

Been to Wally World lately ?
Prices are rising on a weekly basis...not falling
RiverRat.
**************************************************
With us little guys in the trenches, it will get down and dirty. First there is the rising prices (like now). And there is the increasing unemployment (like now). And wages going nowhere (like now).

Next phase is a scenario of prices folks can’t afford (like now). So they buy necessities rather than discretionary items (like now). The manifestation of this can be seen in the virtual disappearance of discretionary spending (like what I observed and wrote a warning about in July of 2007).

And finally we settle into an environment wherein everything is getting more and more unaffordable. This is also a time in which people are losing their homes (like now but I expect it to increase) and selling their personal assets. For example, someone with a grand piano who has to vacate their home will be needing to either move the piano or sell it in a time when nobody wants one because they are in survival mode themselves. And since they are losing their home, what resources will they have to be able to move this piano or pay storage for it ?

Now I just used a grand piano as an example but it could be anything former homeowners have to make a decision on. In a normal economy this would be a time of opportunity for a barterer and horse trader but I believe that we will not see recovery in the U.S. for many years, if in our lifetimes. With that, we must be futurists and imagine where economic society will settle in for the duration. We must adjust right now so that the shock effect doesn’t disable us. Yes, there will be opportunities but will we be able to pass them through to buyers in such a hyperstagflationary environment ?

What could we buy now that will become more valuable in this future ? Things we will need and others will need. So what are these things ? Tough answer and I’ve been pondering it for some time.

First are the losers. Art, adult toys, used furniture, appliances, musical instruments, electronics, SUVs and most gas hog transportation, late motor homes, houses, commercial property, designer clothes, and most things people can live without. Hyperstagflation is like having your privates squeezed in a vise. More painful as time progresses.

But there is a bright spot here among the misery. And don’t chastise for being an opportunist; the world has always worked this way. If I’ve prepositioned myself to not have my nuts in a vise, I will have suffered by denying myself some of the pleasures of the past. I don’t go out to dinner, the movies or even rent DVDs. I stock up food for long term and have absolutely no debts. Actually, as much as I try to live frugally like my parents and grandparents, I cannot fully do that. They lived through the last depression and when I recall how they lived, I can see that it was so crushing and long term that it formed their actions for the rest of their lives.

The winners ? First, out of debt. What may seem like a small debt now could become a monster in a hyperstagflationary time. But isn’t this contradictory with prices rising and wages going nowhere ? Not really as you have to imagine living in such times. Absolutely no extra money to pay off a loan since you are in survival mode barely able to put food on the table and a roof over your head. So as the mighty dollar devalues into worthlessness, you can’t get your hands on any to pay off the loans from the past. That is the reason I recommend for us all to get out of debt if at all possible. Debt man walking.

Winners will be able to take advantage of cheap deals but this will be in a time in which there are few buyers for what they think are bargains. We gotta adjust our minds to what is happening NOW, not what WAS in the past. Too much supply of anything and prices fall until equilibrium is established. It is like water seeking its own level. If water is held back, the dam must bear the pressure through time. Enough water buildup and the dam breaks. Right now the govt put a huge patch on the damn Fannie and Freddie. Let’s see how long it holds and if the banks will again loan money as in the past. If they do so, they will in effect drain off much of the water pressuring the damned (the foolish borrowers). If they do not, the pressure will increase until the damn dam bursts.

So this morning after the govt took over Fannie and Freddie, the wall street yahoos celebrated. But woe for the common man. Our tax burden just got heavier. We won’t see it right away except maybe in rising necessity prices but it is a heavy straw laid upon this camel’s back. I may just pull a John Galt (as in Atlas Shrugged) and opt out of the system. Maybe like a Moses and pull up the ramp to my ark as the rains begin to fall.

In any event, I’m a small businessman and unsure what demand there may be for my product when the economy bites the big one. If I have to close shop, I know that there will be a multitude closing down before me since I don’t have any overhead like a huge business rent. No debts either.

The last few months I have had the nagging feeling that business could abruptly cease. The only downside to my redoubled efforts would be the extra work I have been doing in increasing advertising and stocking up more parts. It isn’t unlike the prepping I have been doing for years. Just got in several cases of beans and corn which friends bought for me. Stuff on sale but I don’t have to tell you that as you know by now what a total dirt bag and cheapskate I am. By the way, did any of you happen to check the pasta prices lately ? HaHa

Best wishes,

Agnut

P.S. Just talked with a large dealer and he has only about 500 ounce rounds. $2.00 over spot (see spot run). When these are sold, he doesn’t have any more coming in for 3 weeks. He said that the delivery time is now 15 weeks between ordering and receiving ! Yikes !

He also said that Johnson Matthey shut down to selling to the Perth mint. Probably already on the internet somewhere. Also the wholesalers are competitively bidding $1.70 over spot to get material to sell.

Also, silver could go lower. Hopefully just before it takes off. Good chance that we will get involved with Iran before the elections. Hey ! Don’t shoot me; I’m just a messenger of this mess.

Just caught this over at Timebomb 2000 :

CNN reports on Americans Bartering

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=300562

Looks like folks are waking up, probably by necessity.

Best wishes,
Agnut

Here’s another financial article that mentions the hyper stagflation I have been writing about. Please, I’m begging you, read it in its entirety.

SIX SITUATIONS TO MONITOR FOR THE REST OF 2008
By Michael Kosares

http://www.financialsense.com/editor...2008/0908.html

In his conclusion of section three he states :

“The bad news is that there is a significant downside to the Fed's Magic Money Machine. Runaway stagflation becomes a distinct possibility. Already the Misery Index (the combination of inflation and unemployment) is in double digit territory at roughly 12%. And that's the misery level utilizing the government's numbers. It could be even worse if you use Shadow Government Statistics. (Please see #5 "Lies, damn lies and statistics" below.)”

It seems that this hyper stagflation, or “runaway stagflation” as Mr. Kosares puts it, of which I write is beginning to take on some credence with financial writers. After all, it only seems a logical conclusion when we consider wages going nowhere, increasing unemployment and prices going through the roof. We are at a point of recognition where it has progresses enough that Ponce’s saying is becoming all too true, “the government will only tell you what they want you to know AND CAN NO LONGER CONCEAL.” The statistics pumped out are nowhere near the reality we are living. Duh !!

The question here is how long can it continue. We can extrapolate into the future to where an average man makes $50K a year take home pay. Everything has increased in the last couple of years to the point that business sales volume has fallen precipitously and as a result layoffs have continued until only necessary employees are retained. With inexorably rising prices, he has become a slave to the system. If I had to compare it to a racehorse, I would say that it is now a bag of bones, unable to compete and vulnerable to disease. If there are no future races planned, there is no reason to nurse this racehorse back to health. Besides, time has passed and like any athlete, this atrophy has done much unseen damage. The only option left is the glue factory since the race horse owner was selfish and greedy and has no intention to reward this once magnificent beast by putting it out to pasture.

Can you now envision yourself as this race horse ? Neglected and starved through a gradual devolving into a pathetic picture. Of course, the racehorse wasn’t smart enough to expect a future retirement in green pastures (and maybe a bevy if fillies to pass the time. I like that; I like that a lot). Sadly, millions of humans have the ability to anticipate a promised retirement. But it ends there because they trusted others, strangers mostly, with their futures. But some of these humans are actually wolves and have been living off the flesh of these same millions unaware that rather than the golf links awaiting, the glue factory is the reality. You know who they are and they know who they are. False money begets broken promises.

For some reason I never depended upon social security or a pension for my retirement. After all, strangers have control of it. STRANGERS (let that sink in). More like stranglers, I muse. And history is littered with broken promises. I find it so strange that people will work all their lives and expect a reward at the end while never considering that they should be taking care of their own futures. Ponce’s simple quote, “If you don’t hold it, you don’t own it” is like a soft, haunting whisper in the background. Can you hear it as you are making decisions for your future ? I can and it is there with me all the time now. It has sunk in to the point where it guides many of my decisions.

With the specter of hyper stagflation, it seems that it would be wise to hold cash for emergencies rather than to have it somewhere down the pipeline in hopes of making up for the consumption (as in tuberculosis, a withering away) of inflation. That being said, I have been watching the falling gold and especially silver prices.

This article from Captain Hook clearly outlines where the dollar is and where it is heading. He implies the same about hyper stagflation; it seems nobody has directly written about this yet. It needs a technical writer beyond my analytical skills. Maybe I’ll call the Mogambo Guru; he’s always up for something to get him foaming at the mouth and screaming from the rooftop.

The Almighty Dollar

http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/ed...2008/0908.html

With this understanding we should take some solace in that the precious metals have been driven down but should take off with a vengeance as the dollar plumbs to its true value. Zilch. Not exactly cause for joy in witnessing the fall of the almighty dollar but rather of relief in dodging the fiat/phantom bullet.

No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.
John Donne

If you are a PM speculator you are probably in a depression and in trouble. If you are a PM investor you are probably angry and confused. But if you are a PM survivalist, you are probably seeing this as an opportunity to back up the truck. That is, if you can find any silver. I understand that gold is getting harder to find. But since I’m not into gold I only hear from others.

There has been some talk of late about PM confiscation. That is why I have some sterling silver. I don’t expect confiscation of sterling jewelry or dinnerware. It is just a plan behind a plan behind a plan, as Ponce is fond of saying. Another option. Take it for what it is worth to you. Silver rounds are nice but a 100 year old sterling tray or fork has beautiful artwork and utility. I figure, what’s the harm ? Maybe I’ll lose someday but maybe I’ll win. Who knows ?

Gotta go and make some of that filthy lucre; the bills don’t pay themselves.

Best wishes,

Agnut

Hi all; been busy cranking out rebuilt transmissions. Busy because my son inundated the internet with what we have to offer. Admittedly, I’m terrible at marketing. I think I said it before but it bears repeating. The saying , “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door”, is incomplete. What if the world doesn’t know that you have a better mousetrap ? Or the pathway to your door ? You could starve while waiting for them to serendipitously trip over your better mousetrap. So getting the word out there is the next step after you have some product you want to sell. This goes hand in hand with showing buyers the pathway to your door.

It is wise to take the time to think of your buyers’ mindset. A small priced product may be open to emotional buying. An example would be when you are at a checkout stand, notice all the items hanging there, just begging for your attention (and money).

A high priced product requires a buyer to do comparison shopping , financial planning and much communication. At least this is what I have observed on a retail sale basis. Wholesale selling of high priced products requires much less time to gain buyer confidence, especially after the buyer has previously bought from the seller. Wholesale buyers are repeat buyers and can provide stability to a business but it is fun to talk with the retail customer. I have made many, many connections with them that have greatly expanded my horizons.

Also, the times in which we live are an important factor. Loose money times and competition isn’t so cutthroat when everyone is busy. However, in tight times such as we are experiencing now and I expect in the future, price and quality become stronger incentives. A large sale item which sells for example, $1,000, will be a hard sell if the buyer has to pay cash up front. Offering a charge card or Paypal can make sales easy for the buyer. It is not the seller’s problem unless he is receiving stolen money; the buyer has negotiated the deal in the only way he may have been able at that time. What the seller has done is to make the buyer able as long as he has the credit on his charge card. The second advantage here is that the buyer now has increased confidence with using a charge card rather than mailing a money order to someone who may never send the product. It creates an unspoken bridge of trust. I have used this method in business and it works most satisfactorily. Sure, it costs about 3% for each transaction but these are often sales that would not have otherwise been made. Better to get 97% of something than 100% of nothing.

The other week I was out garage sailing with a friend. We pulled up to one that had been advertised in the local paper. Not much there of interest but I asked him what else he had for sale. Like vinyl records. He was a collector himself and pointed down the street where a 20’ container was sitting in the driveway. He said that they had an estate sale going and they had a load of records. I hustled over there and bought 50 for $25. The seller even threw in a pile of 45s. Now I don’t know much about 45s but freebies are hard to turn down.

When I got home I jumped on the internet and checked out the value of these 45s. Some were offered on Ebay for $20. But I know that these records are a very soft market and unless they are extremely rare, there are no buyers. Besides, selling an item on Ebay for 2 to 5 bucks isn’t worth my time. I’ll just store them away for the future. Someday a large accumulation may be enough to garner a reasonable bid from a dealer or collector.

By the way, I got a didgeridoo for $7 at the same time. Stupid, I know, but I’ve always wanted one to play with. Anybody know where I can get sheet music for it ? Sometimes an item will show up that is too tempting and it may have not been something you would have ever actively searched out. That is one of the things about garage and estate sailing that makes it so much fun. Books can open whole new interests and they usually sell for a small fraction of their new price. I still haven’t tried selling any of the books I have acquired although I have looked up their offering prices on ABEbooks.com. I’m still looking for an old collection of books that may contain a few rare and valuable books. For now I’m not actively chasing down book collections.

Yesterday my older son and I went to a recycling center that had a sale section. I found some 331/3 records, storage containers and about 50 of these rubber interlocking floor pads. They were 10 cents each and high quality. As in military surplus where they buy with no regard for price since it’s taxpayer money. I guess by buying these pads I’m getting some of my taxes back. Already measured out my workshop and they will be perfect (I hope) for my standing on all day. I bet that if I had to buy them new they would cost $5 or more each. They were designed to be used outdoors in wet or muddy areas and I figure I could also use them around our place.

I know it sometimes seems that I am rattling on about something inconsequential but there is an important point here. I have been able to outfit our place for a fraction of what it would cost new. And acquired many items that I thought I would never have. Besides buying bargain items for resale, I have many needs that make life better and easier. Even buying backup equipment like the Craftsman garden tiller for $2 will provide continuity as well as selling material later. More options means more freedom.

And I don’t need to tell you that cash is king and becoming moreso as time passes. But there will come a time when fiat dollars will crash in purchasing power. This fiat currency is useful only as long as others will accept it in transactions; it is only a temporary tool and has no intrinsic value and must be treated as such. There is a world of real three dimensional things that will hold their value better than bundles of paper with pretty pictures on them.

Gotta go, best wishes,

Agnut

P.S. Maybe a story form of garage sailing would be most instructive. I have quite a routine in preparation and dealing. If I get the chance, I’ll take you with me (kicking and screaming all the way, I expect).