Furniture refinisher David Jenkins got a new computer by refinishing a bedroom set.Brant Sanderlin/Staff

Better to barter?

It's the world's oldest system of exchange -- trading what you have for what you want

Web posted March 11, 1998

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By Wendy Grossman
Staff Writer

Mary Granade didn't have the cash to build the barn she wanted. She wanted a great big shed to hold her chickens, tractor, cars and junk.So she bartered. She cooked up a pot of peas, sausage and cornbread and told her friends and family she'd feed them and help them redo their deck or renovate their homes if they'd chop down the pine trees on her 15-acres and build her barn.

The 40-year-old hazardous waste inspector at Savannah River Site has bartered for everything from horseback riding lessons to car repair. Her husband, Bubba, once swapped a convertible Oldsmobile for 350 feet of 6-foot chain-link fencing.

``Barter's a good way to get things when you don't have cash money to pay,'' says Mr. Granade, a 48-year-old mechanical and electrical inspector at Westinghouse Savannah River Co.

Bartering is the oldest form of currency. Before American Express, people used to go to the market and trade.``Barter's the direct exchange of goods or services without opening your wallet,'' says Gary Dolan, president of the National Barter Network. ``Rather than have a garage sale selling your gold for small amounts of cash, you might be able to trade them.''

The Barter Theater in Abingdon, Va., was formed during the Depression by starving, unemployed New York actors. Robert Porterfield rounded up a group of his friends and brought them to his home in southwest Virginia, where there was plenty of food but no live theater. Trading ``a ham for Hamlet,'' in 1933 their first season cleared $4.35 in cash, two barrels of jelly and a collective weight gain of 300 pounds.

``All money is barter -- even your dollar bill,'' says Bob Zimmermann, executive director of Itex of Western New York, the largest barter exchange in the world. ``You can't eat dollar bills, but you can barter them for other goods.''

David Jenkins bartered for the wiring, cabinets and most of the tools in his Augusta furniture-refinishing business.

``Starting out on a shoestring, I was just trying to get everything as cheaply as possible without putting any money into it,'' says Mr. Jenkins, 40. ``I've done a lot of bartering. Really. When I started I was doing more trading than making money.''

He refinished a woman's bedroom set and got a brand-new Packard Bell 486, two computer desks and a handful of software.

``I felt like I got the better deal,'' he says. ``This computer was killer.''

You can get gypped bartering over the Internet. If you mail off your dune buggy, the other person might never ship his velvet couch. That's why the BarterNet created BARtenders (barter tenders). If one guy lives in Alaska and another in Maine, they'd both mail their stuff to a guy in Minnesota so no one gets rooked.

``They use what they have to get what they want,'' says Bob Meyer, publisher of Barter News.

You've got to be careful with barterers and make sure someone's not giving you junk for your good stuff. Turn the television on and see if works before you hand over Grandma's pearls.

In 1625, Peter Minuit traded $24 worth of bobbles, blankets and beads for the isle of Manhattan. That was a bad barter. The Indians thought they were just renting the land, but, turns out they forked over the deed to the Dutch West India Company. A good barter for Broadway, but not for them.

To regulate bartering, more than 300 barter exchanges have developed internationally.

``It's just another way to drum up business,'' says Ed Poston, 79-year-old owner of Ed's Auto Center in North Augusta. He has been a member of Barter Exchange International for 10 years. ``It just spreads it out further. It's nothing but a clearinghouse.''For a 10 percent fee to the Barter Exchange, businesses give their surplus goods or services and get barter credit (sort of like Monopoly money). They swap that credit for hotel rooms, cases of beer, cars -- anything you want.In the past 20 years it's the only United States industry that has doubled in size every year, Mr. Dolan says.

``There's so many major deals that are done in barter,'' he says.About 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies barter, Mr. Dolan says.A few months ago, World Comp bought MCI without any money -- that was a $30 billion dollar deal all done in trade, Mr. Meyer says. Bill Gates bartered computers and software for the rights to Ansel Adams' work. And Oakley Sunglasses gave glasses and stock to Michael Jordan for his endorsement.

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