1.- When I was a child I exchanged figurines of soccer players with other kids for my Allbum Wold Cup.
It was not always a fair exchange, since some figurines were hard to get and the exchange was not always one to one.
I used to collect stamps and antique coins as a child and often bartered stamps for coins or vice versa. in most cases it was faire exchange because we both agreed that we’re getting a good value and gaining something that we wanted from the transaction .
Describe a barter transaction that you’ve been a part either as a child or adult.
List the two items in the barter transaction and, looking back, did you think it was a fair exchange and why?
Child- Blastoise pokemon card for a Charizard pokemon card
At the time I thought it was a good trade because Charizard pokemon card was the one that I wanted and that I did not have. Short term was a great trade for me but long term, if I would have kept my Charizard card, I believe the Blastoise card is worth more today. Once I became older, I forgot about the cards and I am assuming it was either thrown out or sold in a rummage sale by my parents.
Adult- I traded a snowblower that did not work, a lawn mower that did not work, and a generator that did not work for the installation of a gas water heater in my home. I thought this was a good trade because I did not know how to install my water heater at the time. The person who put it in for me, also explained how he did it, so I also gained that knowledge in the trade. The person that took the small engines in the trade, was able to fix them up and trade them. I am not sure how much he made. Overall I believe we both made out positively.
of course football/and other collectible cards ;). interesting though is that the value at the time for a certain card which was missing was extremely high and one would have traded in exchange much more cards just to get that single one. but once the book was full the cards one other person had, had basically no value anylonger.
@victorcaribe It was one of the most successful trades ever invented. Completely Win x Win. Unfortunately this market exchange is struggling a lot with the Pandemic
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Maybe it is just me, but I have no memory of personally barter trading… although I definitely understand the concept of bartering
When I was a small boy, we bartered conkers for marbles.
For those unaware, ‘Conkers’ is a traditional children’s game in the UK played in the Autumn using the seed of a horse chestnut tree – a hard brown nut. The game is played between two players, each with a conker threaded onto a piece of string or shoelace. The participants take it, in turn, to strike each other’s conkers until one breaks and loses.
Generally speaking, the hardest conker usually wins, so there are tricks and techniques used to harden the conkers including; oven baking, boiling in vinegar or simply ageing. The more ‘wins’ a conker has, the higher its score; 1er, 2er, 3er, 9er etc. The higher the score, the more prized (and valuable) it becomes.
Unlike conkers, ‘marbles’ is a game played all year round. Marbles are spherical objects of different sizes made usually from glass, clay or steel. Although these balls do vary in size, the standard is about 13mm in diameter. There are a variety of different games to be played including ‘Races’ or ‘Keeps’ (when the opponent wins the possession of the losing marble). More often than not, marbles are simply collected, or swapped for their unique beauty or aesthetic colours.
During my early school days, conkers were the prefered trading asset for marbles. Speculative trades were made, and conkers and marbles would frequently change hands.
Early in the season, conkers were plentiful and might be swapped for only the most standard of glass marbles. As the season wore on, winning conkers gained score, notoriety, and ultimately their value would increase, thus giving leverage for a much high grade of marble.
For a few months of the year, conkers were fun and had value. However, ultimately they were just a seasonal asset class, used to increase the size of your ‘marbles’ bag.
Barter transaction memory
I have a hard time coming up with any barter memory from my adulthood. My memory from when I was a little kid where in the midst of the pokemon craze, when everyone in my age group bought cards, pokemon games and more.
Everyday at school almost everyone had all their pokemon cards in their pocket to trade or show of to their class mates. I usually didnt trade alot but had bought myself to a healthy collection of pokemon playing cards. One day an older kid asked if I wanted to trade (I most likely think he had heard that I got some cards he wanted in his own collection), I accepted almost entierly obviosly because he was older and “cooler”. Ended up trading a couple of rare cards that at the time was valued alot for a bunch of cards I forgot about a week later. Only card in the trade I remember was that I traded away “gengar” that he wanted alot and was valued high at the time. The trade we did was not good from my point of view. I think his social status and that he was older than me made him a better negotiator combined with the social power he had over me.
I knew the deal I had done was bad as soon as I had left the table where we negotiated 
List the two items in the barter transaction and, looking back, did you think it was a fair exchange and why?
I once traded a chip truck for a corvette. I think it was fair enough. I ended up selling the vet after enjoying it for a while at a price close to what I would have got for the chip truck. The vet on the other hand was easier for me to sell.
Describe a barter transaction that you’ve been a part either as a child or adult. List the two items in the barter transaction and, looking back, did you think it was a fair exchange and why?
Last time I bartered, it was regarding marbles in the schoolyard.
1 glassmarble traded for 3 cementmarbles.
It was a fair exchange, since it took place at the current schoolyard market price.
The recipient gained the utility of a playable glassmarble, and I gained the utility of stackable cementmarbles, that were used to build a pyramid for kids to hurl glassmarbles at.
I remember winning an orienteering contest at primary school and won a heap of lollies, needless to say everyone was my friend, so I dispensed them over the day for doing certain jobs for me. Win win for me, I’m not a sweet tooth 
Actually, I cannot think of a barter trade myself - maybe it is because it is just such a long time ago and we didn’t have much.
But would like to share a story that my grandma used to tell. During the second world war, in Germany most people did not have enough food. As my grandfather was a goldsmith, they would walk around the farmhouses and ‘barter’ small jewellery items for eggs, flour and if they were lucky some meat.
Was this a fair exchange? Probably not!
But after all, you can not eat gold or silver rings.
I have traded helicopter flight time for drums of fuel and maintenance.
I traded both collectible game cards (like Magic the Gathering) and glass balls. It was always cards for cards and glass balls for glass balls, so I hope that’s not considered off topic. I can’t name a single transaction but I remember the card trading was the most interesting. The goal was of course to make good trades. But it was always difficult to know how different friends were going to use different cards in their card decks. On one side you wanted to get better cards yourself, but not at any price. If you’re going to play against anyone a lot, you don’t want to make a trade where you get a good card for your deck, but the other party gets an even better card for his deck. The valuation was always really difficult, since you could keep a perfect record of all the decks you played against.
The only barter trades i can think of where all the sorts of cards and card games that became popular in time. Like soccer cards and magic the gathering cards. Where they fair exchanges… most of the times yes, I guess…
I remember when I was young and was trading baseball cards with my cousin. He was much older and more knowledgeable about the relative worth of the cards and he took advantage of my ignorance to get a limited edition all star rookie card and a couple other cards for a star card I wanted becuase i liked the superstar player but did not understand that the card was worth very little because it had huge volumes printed and in circulation. Bartering is hard to perfectly have equality for both parties.
When I was in grade school, I took a fancy to a small metal box with a locking key that my friend had. I was fascinated by it and traded something of mine for the box. That evening I regretted my trade and cried my eyes out. But I did not attempt to go back and trade back for the item that once was mine. A deal was a deal. (I can’t even remember what I traded, but it must have been very important to me at the time.) What’s interesting is I recently came across the box that I received in the trade, nearly 60 years ago! Guess I’m scarred from bartering. However I married a woman who grew up bartering, so I’m going to stay close to her in case I need the skill someday.
As a child, some of my buddies and I would exchange Hotweels toy cars for comic books with each other. Looking back I don’t think the exchanges where of equal value because as children we didn’t take care of the comic books and we lost the cars all the time. So it was bad business on both sides…LOL
I once exchanged a popsicle for a punch in the face. I came out on top cuz my friend threw a weak punch.
When i was in school we used to trade football cards all the time for instance my friend had this limited edition Steven Gerrard card that i wanted so badly so i would offer him this and that but the kid wouldn’t budge, so i gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse. I offered that we traded lunch for the rest of the school year because i always had the best lunch. Looking back it was a dumb trade but i still have the card to this day as a memory so i’m happy i did it.