“One time I brought some sprouts to trade. I’d started them about four days before the Co-Op, and an artist brought the most beautiful cutting board to trade. It was inlaid, made with this gorgeous wood, and he wanted my jar of seeds. The board was easily worth $50, so I told him no, and I traded the sprouts for some fruit, I think. Well, the artist was mad. He really wanted my sprouts. I learned then that exchange is about both people getting what they want. Barter is not about the money, but the connection, about what people believe is important to get for what they have to offer.”

See the full story at http://www.mtshastanews.com/news/x524683241/Bartering-bonanza-Trader-s-Co-Op

By providing companies with the BizX dollar, an alternate form of currency, BizXchange helps businesses generate new sales and allows them to offset expenses by using BizX dollars rather than cash.

“The tough economic climate has made business owners look for creative ways to increase their sales and cash flow,” Bob Bagga, BizXchange CEO said. “Our growth over the last year is testimony to the valuable resource we provide companies and we are honored to be recognized for our commitment to the business community.  The success of BizXchange is made possible by our team members, clients and partners around the world.”

With over 2,000 members worldwide, BizXchange has conducted over $300 Million in trade transactions since its inception in 2002. In the last three years the company has had a growth rate of 274 percent.

The Inc. 5000 is an extension of Inc. magazine’s annual Inc. 500 list, a comprehensive listing of the fastest growing companies in America. The list includes companies from the business service industry to IT and internet consulting to retail sales, among many other industries. The 2010 Inc. 5000 list measures revenue growth from 2006 to 2009.

In order to provide more companies the opportunity to increase their business efficiency through organized trade, BizXchange’s future plans include increasing the company’s presence in current markets and opening new offices in key domestic and international markets.

A hearty congrats to BizXchange!

According to the Zimbabwean, “The multi-currency system has caused confusion in the Matabeleland area. Samukeliso Ndiweni (60) from Lupane, which is about 120 kilometres north of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city said not many people in the rural areas had access to foreign currency because they were unemployed.
“When I want to sell a goat I know that it exchanges for five buckets of maize but it becomes difficult when someone comes with US dollars, South African rands or even Botswana Pulas because I don’t know what to charge them as I do not understand the currencies. As a result I  resort to barter trade,” said Ndiweni.
“The last time I had US$10 and when I bought mealie-meal I received 40 Rands change but two weeks later I bought the same commodity using the same currency and I received 30 rands change and the reason was that the rate had changed,”said Ndiweni.“All this is confusing because it becomes difficult to know whether one has been cheated or not.”
Thabani Moyo also said he relied on barter trade.
“Nowadays I exchange my produce for what I need and the local schools have made it easier for villagers as they allow us to pay school fees with whatever we have and the school will later sell whatever we have bartered to those with the money,”Moyo said.
Last term he parted with three goats as payment for school fees for his three sons in primary school.
In the area a two litre bottle of fresh milk exchanges for a pumpkin while a bucket of maize exchanges for five litres of cooking oil. A live goat exchanges for a new blanket and two chickens can be exchanged for a trouser.
Tricksters and conman have however taken advantage of the confusion and ignorance among the villagers by using counterfeit currencies to procure goods.
“Two months ago I sold four cows to two people who claimed they were running butcheries in Bulawayo and I later realised that the 8 000 South African Rands they gave to me were fake and I have resolved that I will never use any of the new currencies but I will trade whatever I have with any goods and services that I need,”said Timothy Ncube, a local villager who keeps cattle and goats in his small plot.”

More at http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=32972:use-of-multiple-currencies-a-headache-to-rural-people&catid=71:tuesday-issue

“The barter program presents stations the opportunity to use mSnap’s industry-leading technology to boost ratings and increase connectivity with listeners,” Citadel Media President John Rosso said. “Additionally, station sales departments will be able to utilize these capabilities to create a source of new revenue.”

The Denver-based mSnap also includes among its clients Clear Channel, CBS, Entercom, Cumulus, Saga, and Beasley.

mSnap President Martin Kristiseter said, “Our goal has always been to make our mobile solutions available to all local media companies. We currently work with more than 750 broadcasters, and we’ve worked very hard to help grow their brands, audiences, and revenues. We’re proud of the progress we’ve made so far and believe our relationship with Citadel Media will greatly expand our radio footprint.”

More at http://www.radioink.com/Article.asp?id=1888220&spid=24698

Chandler’s chickens-for-checkup moment took place in a meeting with constituents in November 2009, and was captured on video by someone present at the meeting.
In the exchange, a woman who identifies herself as a farmer objects to health reform, noting that when she was young, her family didn’t have insurance and paid their own way when it came to medical care — and that this is how it should be.

“They didn’t have any kind of health insurance, they went to the doctor, and we paid for the call,” the woman tells Chandler. Whereupon he nodded and replied:

“When you didn’t have money, you gave him a chicken. You could barter if you didn’t have enough money.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/27/bartering-chicken-for-med_n_661041.html

Will a barter exchange in Kentucky please stand up and defend the new barter exchange system in their local area? Thank you…

The First Canadian Barter company along with their affiliated partner ESN held their annual barter cruise in the beautiful surroundings of downtown waterways and coastal mountains last Thursday, which was a packed affair with more than 200 business people attending. As usual, the beautiful surrounding made the dinner and drinks highly enjoyable and then there was dancing on the deck. Even though it was a non-Indo-Canadian cruise with a very mixed crowd, there was still Bhangra to get everybody jumping.

More at http://www.thelinkpaper.ca/?p=1752

To create new regions, we had to set them up for you in the exchange and then set each region to the proper permissions and configurations. There was also a fee for us to do this for you.

Now we’ve made it easier for you. You can create your own region simply by going to Control Panel > Exchange Mgmt. You’ll see a new heading under Exchange Settings called Regions. If you already have multiple regions, you will see them listed and will be able to manage the settings from there.”

More info at http://www.bcslsoft.com

Active International, a Corporate Barter company, is the world’s largest barter company with a gross trade volume of more that 1.4 billion dollars and 400 employees manning offices in 11 global locations.  “Members of the barter industry will come from all over the world to listen and learn from directly from Alan” said IRTA President David Wallach “his expertise in the Corporate Barter arena will provide invaluable information and education to those that attend the 2010 ITRA Convention.”

Alan Elkin began his career in the media industry at Kaiser Broadcast, which, under his direction as Senior Vice President of Sales, later became Field Communications and then Katz Media Group, the largest media representation firm in the United States.
He is a Member of the Barter Hall of Fame and has been awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year Award by Ernst & Young, and has received the Averell Harriman International Trade Award and the British American Business Inc. (BABI) Award in recognition of Active’s global accomplishments. He served as President Corporate Barter Council for the International Reciprocal Trade Association, and served on the IRTA Global Board of Directors for 10 years.

Alan has made community involvement a priority.  Active Cares, a charitable activity created in 1997, has provided contributions to over 600 charities.  In 2005, he received the Medal of Honor from Good Samaritan Hospital for this work and in 2006 the company acquired the naming rights for the Active International Cardiovascular Institute at Good Samaritan Hospital.

A native of New York, Alan received his B.A. degree from Brooklyn College.
Originally founded as a corporate trading company more than 25 years ago, Active International acquired underperforming assets, such as inventory, real estate and capital equipment, helping its clients use these assets to fund normal business expenditures and create cash savings and economic benefits that otherwise would not have been achieved.

The International Reciprocal Trade Association, IRTA, is a non-profit organization committed to promoting just and equitable standards of practice and operation within the modern trade and barter and alternative capital systems Industry and raising the awareness and value of these processes to the entire Worldwide Community.

Off the Waffle in Eugene, Oregon is not your typical waffle house. You won’t find pads of butter, bottles of fake maple syrup, or sides of hash browns and eggs here.

The owners, brothers Omer and Dave Orian, are in their mid-twenties and usually sport matching red afros. They and their seven employees serve traditional Belgian Liège waffles made from yeast-leavened batter. They use pearled sugar imported from Belgium, which caramelizes through the waffles, making them crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside.

And if you’re low on cash, Omer and Dave are happy to make a trade, because they’re big fans of bartering.

“When we were in elementary school, Dave would carry with him a little suitcase full of toys in hopes of trading them for cool stuff that other kids had,” says Omer.

Dave says the brothers have traded all kinds of things for waffles, including “acupuncture, massage, plumbing, a trumpet, and art.” And Omer adds that they received yard rakes from one customer.

“We have bartered for things we never would have gotten were we to have to pay cash for them,” Dave says.

This is one you should read in its entirety. Check it out at http://news.yourolivebranch.org/2010/07/21/how-to-share-a-waffle/