October 9th 2013 - First Barter - I bartered a staple black ink ball-point pen  with Chuck McMillin from Indiana. He saw a post I placed on Craigslist with  the content from this website and sent me the following email:

 

"Got a kick out of your ad and gave me a good laugh before bed. I do closeouts and will find something with more value to get you started. I remember seeing a story about a guy who started with a paperclip and got to a house ... So email me and we will get started.

 

Have a great day

Chuck" 

 

(Name and correspondence were reprinted with authorization from Chuck. I will not print any details without prior consent)

 

Chuck was serious and ended up sending me 30 pieces of jewelry to barter. Chuck, I have never met you but you kick ass, thanks for being such a good sport. 

 

When sending Chuck the pen, I had my first experience in a US post office.

 

Here is how it went down. 

 

I waited half an hour to reach the teller. Since the envelope had the pen in it, I wasn't sure what stamps to put. I finally arrived at the teller and placed the envelope in front of her. “Hi, I need to send this to Indiana” I politely stated before her. She stared at me as if I was either a massive cunt or a foolish clown. Maybe a clownish cunt, I’m not sure. She continued to look me up and down with derision.

 

“Where’s the stamp?” she grunted in disgust. 

I paused for 10 seconds (it might have been 3 seconds; I’m usually inaccurate when calculating how long it takes me to accomplish things). We stared at each other in silence.

Flying through my head were retorts like:

“Yeah, I tried to get some stamps at Burger King but that wasn’t working for me.. so I thought I would try my luck at the post office"..

or 

“Stamp?! Whad is Stamp? Whad you facking talk about?..”

Luckily, I didn’t say any of these. Instead, dazed and confused, a “Yes, please” came out of my mouth. She hadn’t asked or offered me anything! But it was the only thing I could think of saying that wouldn’t escalate the situation into one of me being arrested.

“That will be 46 Cents” she replied, and stuck a stamp on my envelope. 

I learned my lesson. Less think, more stupid. Good times.