Barter – What is Barter Exactly?

Barter is featured in the news rather a lot these days, and rightly so. It seems that whenever the economy takes a nose-dive, two things happen: investors clammor to buy gold, and bartering bubbles back to the forefront of conversation. However, each time the topic of barter arises, along comes all the misinformation or ignorance about what exactly it is.

Some folks wrongly believe barter to mean ‘haggling’ or negotiating for things. Others ignorantly believe bartering to be inferior is some strange way. Therefore, I thought I’d pen a few simple, ease-to-find words about what barter REALLY is. Additionally, just like words are easier to understand when used in a sentence, I thought I’d offer a few actually examples of bartering both in a business setting and for individuals.

According to The Free Dictionary definition, “Barter” is “To trade goods or services without the exchange of money.”Pretty simple enough. A cashless exchange of goods or services. Following are a few examples of cashless exchanges:

Mary is a vet, and she needs some dental work. Bill is a dentist with a very large dog. If Bill does some dentistry work for Mary, and she takes care of his dog in exchange, that would be an example of two business owners bartering.

Jonny and Jane are two school children. At lunchtime Jonny swaps (or trades) his apple for Jane’s yoghurt. This is a simple example of what children commonly do all the time: exchanging what they don’t want for what they do want.

Debbie needs some small landscaping done at her house, she doesn’t have much money, but she has a very nice sofa she doesn’t need. Coincidentally, Michael is a landscaper that needs a new couch. In this example, Debbie gives Michael her sofa in exchange for the landscaping.

In all three examples above it is a complete win-win scenario. Everybody gets what they want without using any money, instead they trade something they already have, but don’t really need. Barter is very simple, very effective, and unlike modern monetary systems has been proven to be highly successful over many thousands of years. For more information about bartering, check out the Business Barter Blog from Merchants Barter Exchange.

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