My first memorable “barter” was 3 large marbles for a metal POG slammer. Looking back absolutely it was a fair exchange. Marbles were on the way out and POGs were rushing in to replace them. My own version of the item versus precious metal exchange. This progressed to Pokemon on gameboy, Pokemon cards and of all things Spawn comics. Those were good times haha.
I was exchanging football cards for other cards. Depending on the rarity of the cards you could barter. It was not fair since the distribution was not equal and you could not redeem it back. Basically luck defined your value outcome.
I exchange soccer cards, one player for another player that I had many cards of the same. Typically those hard card players hard to get required more than one card to exchange.
I also change my used clothes for some cash, a 20% of the original price but after years of use. And I was going to throw them away.
My friends and I would trade clothes. We would trade clothes that we were bored with or didn’t fit so well anymore. I usually made out well. Being smaller than most of my friends, I often received clothes that they had grown out of and couldn’t wear anymore.
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As a child, doing chores in exchange for something desired, like going to the movies, or being able to go play with friends. As an adult, years ago the band I was playing in had a gig at a skydiving drop zone. We played their memorial day party in exchange for free tandem jumps the next morning for the whole band. THAT was a worthwhile exchange, and quite fair!!
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With my friends we actively engage in purposeful barter trade. We generally all have construction skills, but have diversified in specialty skill sets over time. Today, I’m a skilled carpenter. A friend is a electrician, another is a plummer. Yet another is a concrete finisher, and another is a tile setter etc.
We all have used each others skill sets in our personal construction projects. Rather than pay each other for help with specific parts of the a construction project, we simply agree to help each other complete personal projects using the unique skills we possess (skill value). In return, the helping act is redeemed by receiving help when needed.
This process has proven far more successful (between the friends participating) than interpersonal payments. However, we are a close circle of friends, with similar goals. This system may not scale well in other social circles.
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As a child I traded a Honus Wagner baseball card my grandfather had in his chest to a friend for an Ice Cream from the Ice Cream truck. My grandpa was furious and made me get a tree branch from the Asian Cypress in the front yard and he spanked me with it. Then he made me go and get an Ice Cream and give it to my friend and explain how I had stolen it and it was not mine to give. My friend gave it back and then he got in trouble from his parents when they found out about what had happened and he got spanked. I am a hoarder now afraid to trade, throw away, or give anything to anyone… Including my Crypto Bags. I hope the moon soon because I need to buy a bigger house to put all this stuff in that I am hoarding.
Exchange is horrible because you never know what the true value of what you have is worth.
Trading food for a favor.
Fair exchange because the food was good and I enjoyed doing the favor.
As a kid we have traded sometimes caps. It was popular game in that time and sometime you could trade out for some food or other things. But this is actually commodity money.
As barter we have used video games or some kind different entertainment, what was stored on CD s. Exchanges were mostly not fair but in that days it didn’t matter.
Traded guns for cars and differerent value marbles with friends. At the time as a kid I thought it was fair
As a child in postage stamp collection from our house letters envelopes, barter trade with others stamp collector friends in my school and neighbourhood . We exchange stamps of different states of our country or different yearly print designs of our states postage stamp. Yes it was a fair trade because both sides got their stamp that want .
I received a cool poster in exchange for a cool eraser
I grew up on a farm and it was common for my family to barter with neighbours. We had a big vege garden and orchard, but alas no chickens or sheep. So we would swap fruit and veg for eggs and lamb. It was pretty low stress as most families had excess of their produce and were on good terms with their neighbours, so there was little haggling over the price. I could see this would be more complex trading with people you did not like or trust and if there was a larger number of goods being traded.
In school marbles and cards of sports players were hottly traded, unlike the fruit and veg example above there was fierce haggling and a few fights over the relative worth of large marbles and a card of a football player from a famous team.
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I’ve made several barter transactions over my life and mostly involve an exchange of services. My high school days, having a background in construction, I helped a shop owner setup a new location in exchange for some custom engine modifications on an ATV I owned at the time (Yamaha Banshee). The shop owner was locally renowned for their engine work and very sought after by serious racers, we struck a deal and I showed up for work the next day. The service performed by both parties immediately increased the value of an existing asset and over time increased my ROI because of the it.
I believe this was a fair exchange, after the work was completed, both parties were happy.
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When I was 11 I did my first goods-for-services barter. My sisters’ primary chore was doing the dishes and mine was the garbage. It was a little unfair to begin with but I also had a paper route. They really wanted a dishwasher, which we did not have at the time, so I offered to buy them one with money I had earned on my paper route in exchange for them doing the garbage for six months. I found a used one for $50. It lasted 5 months but I still got 6 months of garbage service out of it and everyone was happy with the deal.
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Earlier this year, my neighbor came over and helped me repair my house. He gave me some lumber and I traded him an electric saw. I think the price was fair because we both traded something we weren’t using, but that the other could make use of. We didn’t set out to make deals but it was more like two neighbors sharing surplus. So the actual value in dollars was not even a factor.
A barter transaction I remember fondly as a child was the football sticker market. We all had our folders and were trying to collect all the stickers to fill up each team with their squad of players.
Most of the time trades were fun and fair but sometimes if we knew the other child needed that one rare player to complete a team then we would barter hard and ask for more than the card was worth.
It’s fun to look back and see the supply and demand in effect and other market actions.
Good times 
When i was a kid, i was a big football fan. My friend was also and we collected football cards. My friend had a rookie card of my favorite player. The card was in bad shape, but i gave him a number of cards for that one card. Even though i got ripped off in value, i was happy that i got the card of my favorite player.
The first barter I had my life was between me and my best friend. Back then I was collecting foreign coins and bancnotes. He had an uncle that was traveling a lot back then and he could bring him almost every coin from the destinations that he was visiting. So one day my friend recived 3 japannesse yen coins. For me it was an exotic piece for my colection. So, in exchange for that 3 coins bought 3 big icecreams for him 3 days in a row. I was very happy with the deal because in my Eastern European country the Japanese yens were very rare.
Traded soccer and batman movie cards for ones you needed, rare ones were more expensive they weren’t good long term holds. 