Barter and Trade Stories

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A California woman traded her old vacuum cleaner for bags for her new cleaner.
A California woman traded her old vacuum cleaner for bags for her new cleaner.
2 / 4
A jewelers traded earnings and gold pendants for medical assistance delivering her babies.
A jewelers traded earnings and gold pendants for medical assistance delivering her babies.
3 / 4
A Rhode Island family traded produce with a neighbor for irrigation water.
A Rhode Island family traded produce with a neighbor for irrigation water.
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A Colorado man built a family a new pine board chicken coop, and salvaged the walnut board from the old coop to make a table.
A Colorado man built a family a new pine board chicken coop, and salvaged the walnut board from the old coop to make a table.

Since the first of the year, we’ve had an almost overwhelming response to our offer for one-year subscriptions to people who share their barter and trade experiences. Hundreds of letters have poured in, and since it’s impossible to print even a small portion of them in our usual format, we thought you might like to have a condensed rundown on what some of these folks are doing to enrich the quality of their lives through swapping.

If our mail is any indication, New Yorkers seem to be inveterate swappers. S.S. had a couple of crocheted tablecloths that had been handed down through her family. They were just gathering dust until she ran across someone who owned several handmade quilts and who needed a covering for a trestle table. Now S.S.’s daughter has a quilt for her redecorated room, and her new friend has a table cover. Best of all, the two families are sharing beautiful parts of their heritages.

Also in New York, M.L.H. had some gallon drums in her yard. When her garbage-man spotted them and said he could use them to water his garden, she gladly swapped six of them for six months of free trash pickup.

On the other side of the country, Californian V.J.H. offered her old vacuum to a sales and service store to use for parts, and in return received a six months’ supply of bags for her current cleaner.

Still another California resident, M.C.M., bartered a wallpapering job for hypnotism treatments for her husband, who was trying to kick his smoking habit. (The treatments worked!)

  • Published on Sep 1, 1984
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