Forget Gold, Buy cigaretts and alchohol.

I have heard alot of talk about survival recently and have made several preparations to ensure my familys survival.
I have stocked up on canned foods,50lb bags of flour and rice,a good machete, and evena cute little water filter that is small enough to fit in the glove box of your car.You can stick one end of the hose into a sewage pond and the other end into a cup and Viola, Clean water.


But aside from clean drinking water being the most valuable commodity
in six months what else will people die for?
What do you collectors of gold plan on doing with all of this shiny stuff?
You will undoubtedly use it as currency correct? Why bother stocking up on gold coins if you can't buy a chicken or a cord of fire wood from a local farmer?

Gold may not be a BAD idea but when it comes right down to it, you can't eat or drink gold coins.

I will be going out this week and stocking up on ALOT of cigaretts and alchohol.WHY???
Not for myself, I don't even smoke. I will be using it as currency. If you want proof of how well this works visit your local prison.The inmates in there could give a crap abput gold coins but if you have a cigarett you have leverage. A whole pack of cigs???You may as well be a wealthy land barron.Do you realize what a smoker would give you for a pack of cigs after not having one for a month? What would you do for a cold beer after running all day from the round up troops? DO you realize How many "GOLD COINS" will be in your pocket after setting up a roadside stand selling whisky and beer?

Why "Buy" gold? You will all be giving it to me willingly for cigaretts and alchohol.You people buy the gold, I will trade you for a pack of Marlboros and a shot of Jack Daniels.

I would suggest you all do the same.



[edit on 22-2-2009 by outatime]

Originally posted by outatime
DO you realize How many "GOLD COINS" will be in your pocket after setting up a roadside stand selling whisky and beer?

Have a line of good looking hookers there also, and maybe a nice variety of drugs... Make it a full fledged end of the world booming business.

Don't forget security though, people might be desperate... so be sure to have that machete with you that you mentioned.

Set up your roadside stand, someone will see what you have and take it from you. I can make alcohol and will for myself, family and freinds. Stores have booze and smokes, if the economy, sorry when the economy collapses people will break the windows and take what they need/want. Why do you think your stash will be any different. I'd say, when something happens, keep things on the down low for a while and see how your community reacts, then you can decide how to offer your goods safely.

Haha good idea. I would so go to your beer and whisky stand and spend my gold coins on it.
Really this is a good idea. If all hell breaks loose people are going to want a drink and smoke just to keep from going crazy.
Prozac may be another one to add to the list

I do not agree.

Booze and cigs are luxury items compared to food. Buy Food.

I smoke, if I was forced to quit for 2 weeks, I would be over it or at least not crave it enough to pay a dear price for a damned leaf stick.

Food on the other hand is a necessity. I think the gold coin would go for food and not a pack of cigs and a bottle of rockgut. Of course the full blown "junkie" mentality may think differently but they aren't going to have any gold coins to blow.... maybe a snub nosed .38 to rob someone to get some drugs but that is about it. I don't think you would want to do business with the kind of people who need booze and cigs so bad that they would part with anything valuable for it if food is scarce.

LOL!
Pehaps you are on to something...

However-I can and do brew my own beer. Beer is fairly easy to produce. Same for distilled spirits.

Although I quit years ago, you may have a market for cigs.

Best of luck to you if TSHTF.

PEACE

reply to post by outatime


Best thinking I have seen on ATS in a while, and I have seen some good ones. If the 100 page threads about why smokers have the right to smoke is anything to go by, they would give you their last gold coin for those delicious cigarettes. Possibly even offer you a slightly smoked organ in exchange.

reply to post by outatime


Thats one of the things that I'll be doing, is buying tons of liquor.

With aliens and time travelers (or whatever they are) in my head, I can't get to sleep at night without enough liquor (I've been able to bring it down to 5-6 shot glasses now, but not too long ago it took 8+). When I don't get the liquor, I just lay there with violent fart sounds coming out of my throat. After you've had a violent alien induced fart sound rattle your throat over and over, not only are you in pain, but you realize that you won't get to sleep!

If they're still in my head after the SHTF, then I'm going to need enough liquor to last me until I figure out how to make some more. Or else I'll die of like sleep deprivation or something.

You could imagine I plan on burying large amounts of liquor deep underground in the woods someplace

imagine the post-apocalyptic landscape of a torn city as Cheney watches the live satellite feed of you and your machete wielding hookers. You take the last drag of your cigarette; your newly found addiction, and smash that 19 year old bourbon (that you've been waiting to exchange for an ounce of gold) over a desperate drunks head. then you see the watchmen storming over the hill, your hookers ready and willing with the anticipation of fresh blood on their palettes.
i'm calling grindhouse up with this pitch..
seriously though, i can be your right hand man. 25% of profits sound good?

actually i would buy up all the weapons and munitions possible, there'll be a ready market.

reply to post by MegaCurious


Me thinks that you may want to take some of that alchohol and give it to a psychiatrist in exchange for some therapy.We will be living in a bartaring system soon and you will want more than just one form of currency. If the psychiatrist doesn't drink, he will soon after hearing your story but bring a chicken just in case.

If I get into a jam with smokes I would go to the nearest tobacco farmer and ask for the old tobacco leafs that fell on the barn floor. then I would make a corn cob (many uses for corn cob) pipe, its vary simple to make. of course you could use rabbit tobacco also.

I've got two water sources one spring and the other well. food is really no concern because of wildlife. Heat would be a wood burning stove that I could set up in a couple hours.

If its things like keeping milk cold no problem, the spring house will hold about 6 good gallon jugs, water temp. would be around 40-45 degrees all year.

This morning, I found out people are buying houses on the cheap. maybe it will get better maybe not, time will tell.

If you live in the city, the only thing you got are the stores, just like Katrina you will have no other alternative. its not a Taboo thing, it's a survival thing and I understand.

Gold is not a necessity but it helps, that is if you can KEEP it.

[edit on 22-2-2009 by tiso_us]

reply to post by patent98310


LMAO! That was funny. Ammo will run out one day but it is still a good idea. My machete will always be by my side. I have already made an effective Bow and Arrow with it. As for my hookers, thankfully they don't smoke or drink so it will keep my overhead low.(ehhh hu hu... he said head)
I am growing my mullet as we speak so I can fit in to a post apocyliptic world and I am currently constructing a thunderdome.Just call me MAX!

Learn how to grow tobacco, its not very hard. I grow my own tobacco and dry it and roll my own cigarettes. I could see this skill I have as being rather helpful if SHTF/post apoc. Also I have a little hand crank machine that packs cigarettes just like they do at the factory so they look nice and have filters.. The supplies to make cigarettes like this are very cheap.

Since I have moved into an apartment for growing tobacco is not really an option but I found a few locals who will sell me some of their crops ( I live in Virginia). Pure unadulterated tobacco is something else any smokers who have not tried a pure Virginia blend either filtered or unfiltered are missing out.

I also sometimes cut out a recess the middle of the filters and put ground up mint in there for a natural "menthol" effect.


And if you are talking about selling drugs in this post apoc world its not hard to make your own of that either, seems like a rather profitable enterprise.

Good post! I think these are good ideas for bartering. People always want their cigs, look at prisons and soldiers in war time. I was always amazed to see a photo of a soldier, in the middle of a battle, with a cigarette in his mouth. Pictures of WWII
More stress equals more smoking and drinking!

How long do cigarettes stay fresh? They might get stale before you can sell them. Go for the booze, it will last for decades! Hopefully the S won't HTF and you can use to celebrate with.

I have been thinking of things I could buy now to barter with later. I just got a bunch of P-38 and P-51 can openers. Maybe I'll pick up some flashlights at the dollar store later. I saw people buying huge packs of toilet paper after hurricane Ike, so I might want some of those. Disposable lighters, Coleman fuel, and lamp mantels sound good. Personal hygiene products, shampoo, toothpaste, etc., from the dollar store will look good to people if they've been without for a couple of weeks or more. Cooking oil, powdered drinks....

I work in a hospital, so it's easy to get things that are going to be thrown away like various kinds of gauze, water proof drapes, half used antibiotic creams, partially used tape rolls, etc..

I would recommend that anyone who knows someone who works in a hospital, ask the person to bring you any items that will be thrown away.

Of course you'll need some way to protect your stuff.

You would think that people would have things stockpiled already in my area because of hurricanes, but they don't. Let a hurricane come in the Gulf and ALL plywood and flashlights are sold out days in advance. I was in a store to pick up two items, hours before Ike hit and people were buying MEAT. A lot of meat.

reply to post by outatime


i'll bald and lose some teeth and find one of those damn un-fixable ford broncos and weld on rusty metal spikes, that'll keep the un-dead re-dead.
and there will be plenty of room for a few human shie....uhm, hookers in the back. the overhead will take care of the ovehead i'm pretty sure, and it'll help us keep a straight head if you know what i'm sayin...

The point is, Everyone talks about gold and food when preparing for the worst. Our dollar WILL collaps....SOON!!!! But, we need more than ONE form of currency.People are freaking out about the price of an ounce of gold. A thousand dollars an ounce??Can you even afford an ounce of gold at this point? I will get an ouce of gold for Thirty dollars! Want to know how? I will buy a Fifth of Jack Daniels and put it in my closet for about a year and then I will break it out and sell it for an ounce of gold.
Poof!Just like that.

Actually I would probly be more inclined to trade for a dozen eggs and a chicken or something but you all get the point.

Originally posted by infolurker
I do not agree.

Booze and cigs are luxury items compared to food. Buy Food.

However, in every single economic situation in the history of mankind... Vice is the one market that never crashes...

I won't be buying alcohol... I will be brewing my own

Banking on vice will get ya through it i think... You can barter your wares for food...

But... beware the sliding moral zeitgeist... When things get bad, people will always look for someone to blame...

History has also shown that the scapegoat is easily the guy selling vices

reply to post by patent98310


LMAO! You are cracking me up. I look like an idiot laughing my A__ off in front of a comuter screen.As for the human shie...umm...... Hookers,
What do you do with a dead hooker after she has taken a fifty cal round from a sniper positioned a mile away?No, seriously, what do you do?
My bronco is starting to smell.

reply to post by outatime


all i know is you got fifteen minutes......fifteen minutes. Oh what shame and regret a post apocolyptic world brings. You can wash yourself all you want but that doesn't make it go away.

god i'm gonna get banned for the crap i'm saying....lmao

as for the smell you'll have plenty of vodka and tequila to wash it away a little, but of course by that time we'll all be used to the smell.... except for the lucky few..god rest their souls.......

Yea I got my PI-38 on my key chain, had it for 25 years.

Another thing that alot of people are forgetting and that is 'Panic', Never show fear or panic, not even to your family, if you do, then your family will panic and you are doomed.

Growing tobacco is a good idea, if you got the seeds. the average smoker out there can't wait for a plant to grow to get a smoke, its a good idea in the long run. I keep getting this picture in my mind seeing the local farmer warding off the people from stealing his crops.

also here is another thought, cattle rustling.