doodledee

Lately I've found myself sucked into the so-old-it's-new-again economic world of bartering. It started a month or two ago when I was listing some stuff on craigslist and I noticed they had a 'barter' section in their online classifieds. The ads were full of people looking for services or stuff or whatever, and in exchange they were offering their own services or stuff or whatever. A typical ad would say something like "I need someone to fix my car and if you do, I will clean your house." Ok, that's not totally accurate, in reality the ads mostly say "If you fix my car, I'll set-up a web site for you" because the only people posting ads are geeks with broken cars, but you get the idea.

Although I have no real proof, I suspect the people who have the most success are the "real" service providers. By that I mean if you're a plumber or a guy who trims trees or whatever, you're going to have a lot more luck bartering with someone because you can do stuff that individual people need done. You would think the listings would be full of ads from these service providers looking to barter with each other, and while there are a few - one of my favorites was from a dude who said he'd install granite countertops if you gave one of his workers a root canal - mostly it's just doofs looking to trade dog walking or house cleaning (ie "fake services") for something requiring more skill.

And here's the part where I confront my own brutal reality: I have no barterable skills. Sure, I'm [currently] employed, so I must be able to do *something* that someone has found value in, but I'm a little short on skills that other individuals might need done. Or maybe I have them already and I'm just too lazy to think outside the box.

My no-skillset portfolio hasn't stopped me from trying, though. I've got a long list of stuff I want to get done around the house and I've tried a couple of times to trade my fake skills (BBQ, hand made greeting cards (not by me), etc) for real skills, but so far I've come up empty. But don't think for a second that I'm giving up. Barter is back, baby, and I'm gonna be a part of it! I'm just going to have to learn a more barterable skill and/or lower my expectations and stop dreaming that I'll be able to trade a pan full of smoked pork for new kitchen cabinets. Curses.

Craigslist Classifieds - Barter [craigslist]
'This For That' lyrics [schoolhouserock]