Bartering for services

[Bert Kemp]

Just wondering if anyone has bartered for laser engraving?
One of the guys in the PGR I ride with asked if I could engrave his amber len's on his bike. He wanted an eagle head engraved in all 4 len's. I said sure give me the len's. He popped the off his bike I took them home and engraved the eagle head in the len's. Brought them back and he said how much. I said hey were good. no, no no got to give ya something. So I'm thinking and I ask if he ever comes across dead rattle snakes out at his place , I said I want to make a snake skin holster. So he's gonna get me a snake skin for the engraving's I did for him. Makes me think I can barter a whole lot.Maybe get the girls to cook me sometin good LOL

[Tim Bateson]

Sure, I bartered for an AR-15 from one of my gun manufactures I do engraving for. It's still taxable, but was worth it to me. Also bartered a tabletop engraving for a custom gun rack to hold my 1845 Plains Rifle. I even bartered with Pete Rose - Engraved some bats for a free autograph.

Remember bartering IS taxable here in the states.

[Art Mann]

Seems like a very convenient thing to forget to me.

[John Kleiber]

Everything in moderation. I barter, but very little if ever.

[Bert Kemp]

Wow thats some awesome Bartering Tim

Sure, I bartered for an AR-15 from one of my gun manufactures I do engraving for. It's still taxable, but was worth it to me. Also bartered a tabletop engraving for a custom gun rack to hold my 1845 Plains Rifle. I even bartered with Pete Rose - Engraved some bats for a free autograph.

Remember bartering IS taxable here in the states.

[Bert Kemp]

Forget what Art . Do you mean that people will forget they bartered services. Why do you think that. Its payment just like money. I'm going to pay you with dollar bills or I'm going to pay you with and home made apple pie. I guess people forget to pay the money some might forget they owe you a Pie. Personally I think your more likely to get paid if you barter services. I'll have your engravings ready when you drop off the pie, no 30 day BS.I'm just sayin in some cases its mutually beneficial for both party's to exchange services.

Seems like a very convenient thing to forget to me.

[Jeff Body]

Forget what Art . Do you mean that people will forget they bartered services. Why do you think that. Its payment just like money. I'm going to pay you with dollar bills or I'm going to pay you with and home made apple pie. I guess people forget to pay the money some might forget they owe you a Pie. Personally I think your more likely to get paid if you barter services. I'll have your engravings ready when you drop off the pie, no 30 day BS.I'm just sayin in some cases its mutually beneficial for both party's to exchange services.

I believe Art was referring to Tim's comment and accidentally forgetting about the barter when it comes time to pay the tax man.

[Scott Shepherd]

Everything in moderation. I barter, but very little if ever.

Quite a few years ago, I was in a networking group. One of the guys had a service business. A person from a Barter Service (yes, they do exist!) came in and sold him on it. He talked about bartering all the time. He got this for doing that, etc. He was a one man operation and he was asking us for help in growing his business. One of the guys told him he needed to do something that was $15 a month. He said "I don't think you understand, my mortgage is past due, and I don't have $15 to spend".

We all thought "Well, if you had people actually give you CASH for your services, then maybe you could make your mortgage payment"

It took him a while, but he finally figured it out. There are barter exchanges where you earn points in the network and you can build up those points and use them for other people's services. We never did much of it. Maybe a little in the industry "You print this for me, and I'll engrave that for you", but very very little of it. Haven't done any in a long time now.

[Joe Pelonio]

I did it a lot, but more with vinyl lettering than laser. For example, letter a truck and trailer for a tree service, and they remove two big dead trees. One woman with a nmasage business wanted to give me a massage for back window lettering on her car. I passed and took the cash.

[Bert Kemp]

Yikes I'd of taken the massage

I did it a lot, but more with vinyl lettering than laser. For example, letter a truck and trailer for a tree service, and they remove two big dead trees. One woman with a nmasage business wanted to give me a massage for back window lettering on her car. I passed and took the cash.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

I have had a number of requests to barter and thinking back, the other person has always initiated it ... or my LOML has initiated the trade. I have done it a number of times where the person has supplied the product and I keep the leftover product. This has allowed me to experiment with items I wouldn't normally have bought.

[Kev Williams]

--all this reminds me of the guy who started bartering with a paperclip and ended up with a house...

Me, I don't barter much. Not because I don't like to or anything, it's more that the opportunity hasn't presented itself. Or at least, a 'fair' one... About the only thing I ever straight-across bartered was trading my '76 Firebird for a '54 Ford Victoria...