Remember the days when the biggest bartering you did was trading fruit roll-up for your friends pack of gushers snacks across the lunch table? It seems that as long as there's something we want and something that we can give up, there will always be bartering. Experience growing up with my brothers has taught me most of my trading techniques, skills acquired as you trade and learn how they respond to the trade and if you are satisfied. Is this a type of folk knowledge? How do these skills affect daily life? Am I worse off than a car salesman at the grocery counter or playing a game of Monopoly ?
The Essence of Bartering
Bartering has been in existence since before Esau traded his birthright for a mess of pottage. It is
defined as the trading of goods without the use of money. It exists in many places from the playground (remember all those card trading games ? ) to prison where inmates will trade cigarettes for protection or more food. I have grown to enjoy the ice-cream trade, that is I offer my help to someone for homework or something similar in exchange for buying me an ice-cream some time. These small trades may seem old-fashioned but they exist in corporate business as well. If my shelves have 500 stuffed toy panda bears on the shelves collecting dust, I would love to buy something I need and use my 500 stuffed toys
as currency.
Skills for Better or Worse (and how it affects you)
Are bargaining skills useful and are they developed? First of all, here's a short list of the times when it may come in handy to be familiar with bartering (whether you buy with cash or not):
- Your next car purchase
- A flea market
- Garage Sale
- Roommate needs to use your printer (a lot)
- You want that stereo or camera your friend isn't using
- Anything that has just been taking up space in your house
Good bartering means that both parties feel like they are getting a good deal. It is more common that this will happen with bartering since I may value the old vinyl record more than a guy who's had it sitting in his garage for thirty years (if this is you, try
this). There are techniques and skills associated with deciding on a fair trade that many people just learn as they can.
My dad has always worked the retail business where people come in looking for a good and usually exchange it for cash. These are usually fixed prices unless the item is much more expensive in which case it is customary in America to "talk the person down" (for those buying a car soon this is a
fantastic place to start). I worked for my Dad selling RV parts for eight summers growing up, and it was there that I learned many of the skills of good business practice. I learned how to make the consumer feel welcomed and comfortable as well as how to help them find what they are looking for and interest them in products they didn't know they would need. A lot of these things couldn't well be explained in a book but were learned just watching how my Dad treated customers and did business. Many of these same skills were very valuable when I was learning as a missionary for the LDS church how to befriend someone in ten seconds at the bus stop.
Start trading!
While there are many ways to improve your skills as a barterer, it is always valuable to watch someone skilled and to practice. Knowledge is a valuable asset and may explain why nearly half a page on your next resume will be devoted to previous experiences. Add a little pizzazz to your life and learn how to turn those cobwebbed corners into something useful.
I love all your practical applications. I also loved how you organized your post with headings. It makes it so easy to read.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think it is that it's not socially acceptable to barter, except for big things, like houses and cars? Why can't I barter for that shirt I want at Forever 21 that costs $18 but is probably only worth $4?
In economics, they describe the principle of barter as being dependent on a "double-coincidence of wants." It only works if you each have something the other values. So, Holland, even though that shirt at Forever 21 may only be worth $4 max, the only thing you have that they want is cash.
ReplyDeleteOn the playground I learned how fun (yet inconvenient) bartering can be when you have to make a triple or quadruple trade to get what you want. That's why using a medium of exchange (money) is so popular these days: it give you an automatic double coincidence of wants and cuts out all the middle-man trades that would otherwise be necessary in the simplest of transactions. This link shows the history of money, from bartering to shells to cash:
http://library.thinkquest.org/28718/history.html
What comes to mind when I think of Bartering is the "Johnny Lingo" movie. I have a sticker on my fridge that says "I am an eight cow woman."
ReplyDeleteI don't know how I'd feel if other people were determining how much I was "worth." I'm pretty sure bartering for people is a bigger deal than bartering for cars. I'm glad we've lost that little bit of our bartering culture.
When I was younger my family would barter with Halloween candy. Reese's usually required the most in return.
Holland: There are sites online where you can trade for houses or cars, but I understand what you mean by not being socially acceptable. No one goes to a dealership with a herd of cattle and tries to buy a car.
There's a story about a kid who was given a cell phone and traded until he got a Porsche.
http://www.autointhenews.com/teen-trades-up-on-craigslist-from-phone-to-porsche-in-2-years/
I never really thought of bartering as a form of folk knowledge. But now that I think about it, it truly is an acquired skill.
ReplyDeleteIn my TMA 123 acting class, my instructor is always talking about tactics of persuasion. In theatre, your character always has an objective and must, by any means, obtain their objective. The drama comes in when other characters want a conflicting something from your character and all sides refuse to give in. In a sense everyone is trying to get something different from each other, but is unwilling to give anything. Completely unsuccessful bartering.
However, it makes me see how tactics in theatre relate to tactics when it comes to bartering, as many of the bartering skills you listed remind me of several common theatre tactics. It just goes to show you that once again, everything connects! :D
@Sam - that totally makes sense. (But $18 is still a rip-off! Lol...)
ReplyDelete@Catherine - love that link. (Way to go the extra mile!)
We bartered at the markets when we visited China. It was amazing to see some of the negative effects of bartering: manipulation, frustration, cheating, etc. But it was still fun. I got a "Dolce & Gabbana" (ya right) trench for $30! I talked the lady down from ten times that value.