As I mentioned in my earlier post, for the next month or so I’ll be looking at ways to turn your barter habit into cash.  The most basic form of cash conversion is simply to buy things on barter that you would have purchased with cash.  The cash that you would have spent on that product or service is your effective conversion from barter to cash.

This is simple enough to do in theory, however I’ve found in practice that the vast majority of traders are really bad at this.  Here are my tips to help make sure that you take advantage of every possible barter purchase possible so you can hang on to your cash:

• For EVERY purchase, product or service, business or personal, ALWAYS see if you can buy it on barter FIRST.
• Make sure that everyone in your family or office that has the authority to make purchases is fully informed about how and why to make purchases on barter.  I doesn’t do any good for you to know all the ins and outs of barter if someone else who doesn’t understand barter makes most of the buying decisions.
• Keep an up-to date wish list of products/services that you want to purchase on barter.  Make sure that your barter exchange broker has a copy of the list and keep an eye out on CraigsList.org for these items.  Approach vendors that sell the items on your list and ask them if they are interested in bartering.
• Stay informed about new members of your barter exchange.
• Stay informed about what is available for purchase through your exchange’s online marketplace

As much as I love barter, I’d always rather have cash.  Of course I’m not the only person that feels this way.  As such, the art and science of turning barter credit into hard cash represents the holy grail of success in the barter world.  Within the industry this alchemy is known as “cash conversion.”

In the coming weeks I’m planning on writing a number of articles about cash conversion using this post to over-view the topic and whet your appetite.  Here are a few of the many ways that you can turn barter credit into cash.  Of course some methods are better than others and some people are more suited to a particular method.

• Buy items on barter that you then sell (on ebay, craigslist, etc.) for cash.
• Purchase items on barter that you would have spent cash on, and keep the cash.
• Purchase items on barter that your friends/relatives would have paid cash for and have them pay you in cash.
• Purchase services/products on barter that you can sell to your regular clients for cash.
• Purchase items on barter that you anticipate will appreciate in cash value like real estate, collectibles, commodities, etc.
• Refunds or reimbursements in cash for purchases that were made on barter.
• Purchase marketing services through barter that will attract cash clients.

I’ll post my thoughts on these different approaches in coming weeks.  In the mean  time, I’m quite sure I’ve left some other approaches off my list here.  Please use the comment area below to share some other ideas.