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Perform Barter

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Brade Flix
Perform Barter

Understanding Bartering

Bartering is based on a simple concept: Two individuals negotiate to determine the relative value of their goods and services and offer them to one another in an even exchange. It is the oldest form of commerce, dating back to at time before hard currency even existed.

While the current senior generation bartered with the limited goods they had on hand (i.e., produce and livestock) or services they could personally render (i.e., carpentry and tailoring) to someone they knew, today most Americans have access to a nearly unlimited source of potential bartering partners through the internet.

Virtually any item or service can be bartered if the parties involved agree to the terms of the trade. Individuals, companies, and countries can all benefit from such cashless exchanges, particularly if they are lacking hard currency to obtain goods and services.

Benefits of Barter

Bartering allows individuals to trade items that they own but are not using for items that they need, while keeping their cash on hand for expenses that cannot be paid through bartering, such as a mortgage, medical bills, and utilities. Bartering can also have a psychological benefit because it can create a deeper personal relationship between trading partners than a typical monetized transaction. Bartering can also help people build professional networks and market their businesses.

On a broader level, bartering can result in the optimal allocation of resources by exchanging goods in quantities that represent similar values. Bartering can also help economies achieve equilibrium, which occurs when demand equals supply.

How Individuals Barter

When two people each have items the other wants, both people can determine the values of the items and provide the amount that results in an optimal allocation of resources. Therefore, if an individual has 20 pounds of rice that he values at $10, he can exchange it with another individual who needs rice and who has something that the individual wants that's valued at $10. A person can also exchange an item for something that the individual does not need because there is a ready market to dispose of that item.

How Companies Barter

Companies may want to barter their products for other products because they do not have the credit or cash to buy those goods. It is an efficient way to trade because the risks of foreign exchange are eliminated. The most common contemporary example of business-to-business barter transactions is an exchange of advertising time or space; it is typical for smaller firms to trade the rights to advertise on each others' business spaces. Bartering also occurs among companies and individuals. For example, an accounting firm can provide an accounting report for an electrician in exchange for having its offices rewired by the electrician.

How Countries Barter

Countries also engage in bartering when they are deeply in debt and are unable to obtain financing. Goods are exported in exchange for goods that the country needs. In this way, countries manage trade deficits and reduce the amount of debt they incur.

Modern Barter Exchanges

While it is mostly associated with commerce during ancient times, bartering has been reinvented in this era through the Internet. Online barter exchanges became especially popular with small businesses after the 2008 financial crisis, which culminated in the Great Recession. As prospects and sales dwindled, small businesses increasingly turned to barter exchanges to generate revenue. According to the New York Times, barter exchanges reported double-digit increases in membership in 2008. The exchanges enabled members to find new customers for their products and get access to goods and services using unused inventory. The exchanges also used custom currency, which could be hoarded and used to purchase services like hotel stays during vacations. The barter economy during the financial crisis was estimated to have touched $3 billion.

The best barter exchange by far is Goods and Services, located at www.goodsandservices.com

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