As a kid I remember trading pogs, for a brief time. It was pretty straight forward in that it was about the artwork on the pogs as they all serve the same function. It was the intellectual property or cool artwork that incentivized the trade.
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Lesson 1 - 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?
- “Bartering occurs when two or more parties, such as individuals, businesses and nations, exchange goods or services evenly without the use of a monetary medium” - investopedia
- for example: give a 6-pack of redbull for a 6-pack of good bavarian beer and a pack of cigarettes
- good deal beside health aspects, in my region it’s about the same value. cheers
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Q. 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?
As a child, if I cleaned my father’s car once a week, I would be paid one ice cream every day for the next week.
I was exchanging (bartering) physical labour for ice cream.
It was a fair exchange. The car stayed the same (he didn’t buy a lorry and expect the same deal) and regardless of the price of ice cream going up, I would always be paid an ice cream each day. Happy days!
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While driving a cab in NY in the 90s, I used to trade free rides to bartenders for free beers (when I wasn’t working). Definitely worth it! If you were working at 4am when the bars closed, there was not much other business going on. Always good to be buddy’s with the bartenders!
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As a child I made an trasaction with the Dark-Magican YuGiOh Card. I exchanged it with a toy crossbow. Think it was a good deal because I was now able to shoot my neighbours.
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As a child I bartered with trading cards. Looking back there was a central authority (magazine) that told us how valuable or scarce each card was, so we trusted them enough to work out whose card was more valuable and thus who would get the better deal on the exchange. Often this resulted in one party getting multiple cards for the one card from someone else and there was no exact amount that made it a perfect transaction.
Simply that two parties agreed on the exchange and it was so.
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When i was a kid, I use to barter Sega Genesis games with my friends! One time I let a friend of mine borrow my gamed called Gunstar Heroes for his game called Maximum Carnage. It wasn’t a fair trade because Maximum Carnage controls were weird and the gameplay was terrible. My game Gunstar heroes was so much better. the gameplay and controls was smooth and the graphics was very nice. i’m still mad at myself for playing that terrible game hahahaha!
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I traded a baseball jersey once for a hockey trading card…the both the nominal value of the jersey and the utility was higher so it was a pretty poor trade on my end.
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When i was a kid, my friends and I would trade magic the gathering cards for other cards. sometimes it would be 3 or 4 cards to get 1 really special one.
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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?
Like many, I remember trading sandwiches, snacks and candy during school lunch break. The fairness in the exchange is based on how much you like the items you are trading for.
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I remember trading Pokémon cards. There was definitively a lot of cognitive effort devoted to figuring out the “fairness” of a trade. Different cards held different value depending on their rarity and we were all aware that these differences existed. It was still possible to be “scammed”, though, if the opposing party had better information about the rarity of a card (maybe gotten from an older brother/insider) or you were a noob. Rarer cards were marked by having “shine” or rare background colours, but there were other gradations in value that were subtler. For example, the perceived rarity of a regular card could bump up it’s value.
We would also flip them and the card that landed face up would win and take the opponents card. This was another form of trade and you wouldn’t flip a rare card against a normal unless you were an idiot, or the coolest kid at the playground.
I don’t remember any particular trades, tbh.
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As a metal worker I made a trade with a stone mason. The trade was a custom made BBQ for a small wall for my garden. After making and delivering the BBQ (labor and materials included), he later came to look at the job. He only wanted to provide the labor and wanted me to supply the materials. That defeated the purpose of bartering. In dooing so, he devalued my labor (currency) by valuing his labor more than mine. In the end, I decided not have the wall built since the whole purpose was not to spend money since I already had the materials on inventory to make the BBQ.
In answering the prompt, no, I do not think that it was a fair trade.
What I learned from this experience was:
- Make sure that the terms of the barter are clearly spelled out and agreed upon.
- Value your trade more the theirs.
- Make sure you get yours first.
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Besides maybe some cards, some stickers, most deals were either temporary swaps or deals.
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I can’t say I remember a specific exchange, but I do remember every day in middle school there was a lunch bartering system amongst us 
“are you going to eat that?” “wanna trade?”.
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I’d trade stickers with my friends. It was fair since we would both get the stickers we had missing and could complete our collection faster.
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Remember barter exchange of stickers of cartoons figures. Once you know who’s favourite is which, used to give them stickers of small value to get a better deal for my favorites. Not fair though.
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I did a few as a collector when I was young. I was trading hockey cards and/or stamps for my collection. I think it was a fair trade for both sides as we agreed on the exchange of goods.
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I went to boarding school in Nigeria and the kids established a batter practice of exchanging different meal items (food purchases from outside were prohibited).
Protein was seen as the most desirable (meat chicken, fish & eggs), followed by fizzy drinks then finally carbs like rice, sweet potato & yam.
Initially, when I arrived at the school, I would trade my protein for carbs because it was more filling but changed my practice due to a lack of taste diversity and more importantly healthier eating.
I traded my Chicago Bulls Michael Jordan Singlet for a Nike singlet.
Looking back at the trade i was definitely the loser of this transaction. At the time i was caught up with appearance and thought the singlet would look better to girls. It didn’t take long to regret the trade. I got very short term satisfaction and lost out on something that had more sentimental significance to me. This was really highlighted once i moved out of the phase of worrying about how i appeared to girls
When a partner of mine found out i was getting rid of my truck, he pressed up on me because he wanted it. Well i have secretly wanted a motorcycle he had just sitting in the garage collecting dust. so we traded straight across and really it was an uneven deal because you can’t haul things on a motorcycle and the danger of riding the motorcycle on Los Angeles streets is high… But at the moment, i thought it was what i wanted