Precious Metals and running a Business after the Collapse

I read you site religiously everyday, bought your book, and also many
other items through your site. I have a question. I have a small
jewelry business, mostly items in the $20 to $50 range, using silver
and gold-filled. business has collapsed. I have a stock of raw
material and am trying to decide whether to buy more. I am convinced
silver is going to $300 at least, which will make buying more
prohibitive. Business in the shops I sell to has fallen off a cliff. I
know barter didn’t work out longterm in Argentina, but did it work for
a while?  and could jewelry items be used as a bribe to burearcrats
later to speed up things, or a trade item for some other purpose? or
should I just use up what i have and forget it. Or is inexpensive, but
PM jewelry too useless to be used as a item of exchange?  In other
words, would it be useful longer term in a SHTF scenario? I would
appreciate your thoughts on this matter.
Druidhouse

Hi Druidhouse, thanks for your support.
I’m sure there are some, but I don’t know of a single jewelry store that went out of business after the 2001 collapse. Right away all of them set up signs of “I buy gold” and got into the business of precious metals, smelting jewelry gold. There was more than enough people in a fragile financial situation, and many of them ended up selling what gold jewelry they had.
If you haven’t gotten into this I, suggest you do. It’s one of the most lucrative sides of such business during a financial crisis and I know that this is also happening in USA. It may not be the line of work you are used to, but you have to understand that adaptation is key during times like these. There’s people that because of the crisis started new business they knew nothing about. In your case it shouldn’t be that great of a jump to start buying junk gold and silver and selling it to a smelter or having it smelt. You could even learn the process yourself if you know enough about it. All I can tell you is that all jewelry stores here have a big “I buy gold” signs and none of them has gone out of business.

Besides this, you should start looking into new strategies for your business. Before you even get started know that yours isn’t a bad situation. If you find the right angle I know you can make it work. My brother in law’s uncle, he started making silver jewelry in his 40’s not knowing the first thing about any of this. As I mentioned before, the price of gold made silver jewelry more attractive and he started selling to a handful of store and he’s still doing ok.
Maybe the stores you were dealing with haven’t adapted, how about looking for new ones? How about starting your own online store selling silver jewelry? Invest in a good website designer.  Evaluate the jewelry designs, are they trendy? Are they appealing to what people like these days? Do a bit of research and see what’s selling well. There’s a market for steel jewelry as well. I suppose these are mostly resellers but people do buy them. Again, I’d study your business, evaluate your marketing strategy and try offering new models and find new dealers.

About your PM, yes of course, prices will keep going up and when there’s shocks in the economy like the US rating, expect a jump in the price. Bribing is almost a cultural thing in South America, of course I don’t encourage any sort of illegal activity in first world country like USA. In South America? Sometimes you don’t have a choice. In case you ever travel down here and get into trouble, just for the record and since you asked, officials favor cash.
Barter did work for some time, but it was the last, desperate resort and everyone involved in it would have preferred cash. When there was no money, it was better than nothing, that why we had barter clubs after 2001. I’m not saying its not an option, it may as well be for some time, but you’ll want better means of doing business than bartering.
Don’t lose faith in your business. Change your strategy and find a way to make it work. It is possible and people have done it before here. Trendy fashionable designs, (study what people want), affordable prices, you seem to be aiming already at the $20-$50 gap and explore new marketing alternatives and dealers.
I hope this gives you a few ideas of how to make it work.
Take care and see you around.

Join the forum discussion on this post

 

FerFAL

Child Abduction After the Collapse

It is said that the worst thing that can happen to a man is to outlive his children. Having kids of my own I have little doubt that this is true, but an even worse outcome would be to have your children simply missing forever. What fate did they meet? Are they ok or have they suffered a horrible end? Not knowing and simply being left to fear the worst forever can be worse than simply losing them. As I write this there´s yet another child missing in Buenos Aires. Eleven year old Candela was last seen waiting at a friend”s house just a block away from here home. Its been almost a week now and there´s no news. Usually after the first 48hs, if the child wasn’t found the chances of finding him alive go down considerably. If you´re wondering whats this got to do with an economic collapse or crisis, you should know that these things only get worse during economic down turns. With the degradation of society in general comes along more perversion, more organized criminal activity combined with a tighter budget that has an impact on the police capabilities, both in terms of prevention and investigation.
Why Should you worry

You may think that perverts only kidnap kids from careless parents, or that kidnapers only go after kids with money. Studying these events you see that kids can be kidnaped during a distraction that lasts seconds, and that often your financial status has little implication: The child itself is the motivator. Even if they are looking for ransom, one of the changes seen after the economic crisis is that anyone can be a victim of this sort of crime. A business that went well, a car that got sold, even if your financial situation isn’t that good any child can get kidnaped and a couple thousand bucks asked for his safe return. Anyone will find the way get hold of a couple thousand through friends or relatives if your child’s life is at stake, you don’t need to have money, they are counting on that.
As the economy gets worse and more people become desperate, as the society continues to degrade, we will continue to see even more child abduction in the US and world wide. The situation in US regarding the amount of children that go missing each day is already alarming.
Why are they abducted

Sexual Exploitation: This is one of the most common causes in Argentina. After the 2001 collapse it became more and more common for children to get abducted so as to be exploited in one of the countless brothels along the country. With the social degradation that follows an economic collapse comes depravation of many kinds. The network and connections with both local police and political power makes it extremely hard to rescue children or adults from these organizations and they usually move them often from one brothel to another across different provinces to make identification harder. It not only happens with children. These groups have been known to abduct women in their 20´s and 30´s on broad daylight right from the sidewalk. Kept drugged, threatened, locked and incommunicated its very hard for them to contact the outside world.
Sexual Abuse/Murder: Perverts of all sorts abound, and it only gets worse when they feel the police can’t stop them and when police fail to properly investigate the cases.

Organs: Some organizations especially go after the body organs. This is unfortunately common in Latin America because of the high price organs go for in the international black market.

National/International adoption: Also very common, these groups abduct babies, children, even pregnant women to sell their children abroad. In many cases the parent dont know (or dont want to know) where the child comes from. ID and adoption forms are readily provided by people that work in adoption agencies and are in it.

Ransom: This type also boomed after the 2001 collapse. Kids are small and easy to abduct, and parents will do anything for their safe return. In some cases the more expensive schools allowed their pupils to go without their uniforms: The children were specifically being targeted because of wearing it, a clear sign that their parents had enough ransom money.

How they Operate and what You can do to Prevent it

A second of distraction is all they need. maybe your son asked to go to the bathroom, take a look at some nearby store, walk to a friend’s house across the street and you thought it was close enough, that it would only take a second. That’s all they need. One child that went missing in a mall in Buenos Aires was fortunately rescued. The mother immediately noticed he had been taken and alerted security. Having had children abducted in it before and being ready, they immediately closed all doors. The child was found moments later in a bathroom, drugged, his clothes already changed, his hair cut and dyed.

Talk with your children and make sure they understand they should put up a fight, most of all SCREAM for help when grabbed by a stranger, clearly shouting that the person is a stranger. While people dont help adults as often, in average people will help a child that they feel is being abducted. Finally, always keep an eye on your children. The second he is out of your sight anything can happen, and once you lose them its too late. Pay especial attention in parking lots, supermarkets, parks and theme parks, airports and other places where theres either conglomeration of people or easy exit routes for them to escape.

Join the forum discussion on this post

FerFAL

5 bad guys vs 1 Cop in a Bus full of Passengers

http://www.clarin.com/policiales/inseguridad/agente-Metropolitana-mato-ladrones-colectivo_0_536346572.html

This happened in Buenos Aires close to where I live a couple weeks ago. At 4 AM a group of five armed criminals enter a bus and proceed to rob the passengers. As two of them approach the metropolitan police officer in the back seat, he draws his issued Beretta Px4 Storm, identifies himself and orders them to stop. The bad guys bring their guns up, he shoots and kills the closest two, two shots each (“but…but… 9mm is a poor stopper FerFAL, you need to shot bad guys at least seven times with it according to what I read on the internet!!”) The other three ran to the front, screamed to the bus driver to open the door. Fortunately he complied and the remaining criminals ran away.

Now if you listen to what people have to say, several will tell you that a 5 vs. 1 armed confrontation is hopeless, especially when its inside a bus with at least ten innocent passengers! This is yet another example that shows how the right mindset, combined with the intelligence to take advantage of a tactical opportunity during a moment of distraction, having the right training and weapon to level the odds, even during seemingly hopeless situations like this one there’s still hope. The police officer knew that if he was identified as a cop he would have been shot immediately as it so often happens. He knew he had to respond aggressively and having innocent people to consider and no possible cover, his retaliation had to be decisive, his only cover being a steady and accurate delivery of lead.

During another incident where two off-duty metropolitan police officers where involved, a vehicle intercepts the car where the officers are traveling, and criminals pull guns on them. They shoot them down, both the bad guys that get out of the vehicle and the ones that were pulling guns through the windows from the inside, killing everyone except for the driver. Both of them had been trained not to shoot if they could clearly see both hands and confirm that there was no weapon. When the shooting started the driver stood still, tightly gripping the steering wheel. When the shooting ended the driver was still frozen in place, still gripping the steering wheel, both hands visible: Turns out he was a hostage, the owner of the car and had been picked up as a driver for their crime spree that night.

While the luck factor is always there, awareness, determination, training and having the right tool for the job makes a huge difference in the outcome of this kind of event.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Join the forum discussion on this post

FerFAL

So you have the basics covered. Now what? Five Things you can Focus On

If you’ve been following my blog for some time now there’s a good chance you have some of the essential preparations covered. Accepting the possibility of a tougher, more complicated future, understanding that survival and preparedness is more of a way of life, getting ready to handle problems. While mindset and the lifestyle adjustments are a long process, preparedness starts with it none the less. You probably got a good share of your gear and supplies together already, or at least have the essentials and understand the importance of food, water, emergency gear, some savings and so on, but what comes after that? If you find yourself in this situation, read on and see where you can pick up.

Take care of your Mind and Body

Guy, one of our readers, he sent me this link regarding what kills you after SHTF http://members.beforeitsnews.com/story/1000/685/NL/The_4_Most_Likely_Ways_You_Can_Die_If_the_SHTF.html . The article isn’t bad and reminds me of one I wrote called “What Kills you After an Economic Collapse”, but it is missing the number one cause of death after SHTF: Stress. Stress causing depressions and suicide, stress causing cardiac problems, decreasing your immune system, stress causing eating disorders and the health problems that come along with obesity.

If you already bought the cool survival stuff, a Glock, stocked up your pantry and saved a few bucks in the piggy bank and you ask yourself what’s next, take a good look in the mirror. Be honest with yourself. More than likely you can be in better shape, have better cardio resistance or become stronger. Once you accept that you can do better, then comes the part of deciding what to do. Golf? Tennis? If you acquired the survival mindset you don’t make these decisions lightly. Your choice will seek the greater benefit for a number of possible scenarios, so you probably would look approvingly of ways of working out that also make you stronger for fighting, working and running. For a combative oriented workout I recommend “Combat Fit” by Cliff Wiese. Cliff made these DVD with Gabe Suarez, and the workout in it isn’t your Jane Fonda type of thing, but clearly oriented to becoming stronger for fighting, concentrating on upper body strength. Overall its very good workout for the entire body and I included it in my routine. Add to it some walking, running or stationary bike and if you keep a reasonably balanced diet you should feel better and stronger fast. 

When it comes to relaxing the mind it gets more philosophical. For some of us, our family is our emotional safety net, while for others its all about going camping and being alone in the nature a few days a month. Hobbies that can be practiced with certain frequency help you to stay sane. I enjoy shooting and defensive training so that’s how I unwind. Camping is great as well even though I haven’t gone camping in ages but plan to do it once we relocate to a safer/better place.

Acquire new skills and train so as to keep them

While a lot of S&Pers own firearms, the number of people that actually get professional defensive shooting training is limited. Of those, the amount that get more than one basic class is even less, and even fewer people get a couple classes every year. The files become pitifully thin when you then pick how many train this on weekly basis. I’m not being mean, just honest, and I know how hard it is to find the time and the right group so as to be consistent. First aid, trauma and gun shot treatment should be part of your curriculum as well. Most serious shooters that I know of would know what to do if they get shot (even accidentally during training!) and many keep the essential supplies for such an event in their range bag.

Other skills such as first aid, bushcraft, carpentry, mechanic, gardening, to name a few, these both have a practical S&P side and can become cherished hobbies or family activities. 

Make friends to expand your “buddy” network 

Remember the part about being consistent with defensive training? It seemed impossible to me some time ago but that changed when I made like-minded friends. There’s not many, and they are especially hard to find in South America, but they are out there. It should be much easier in pro-gun USA. Don’t give up, keep looking and be friendly. Eventually you’ll either find one or form such a group yourself. Start by getting training and meeting as much people as you can, hopefully finding folks that live near by. Join the Modern Survival forum and see if anyone lives near by. That’s when training weekly becomes easier. Having friends and buddies has several advantages as well. I don’t know about you but sometimes I don’t get along that well with people that are still blindfolded to the reality around them. I can interact with them but its not my favorite type of person and I’d rather be with people and friends that see things as I do. Before you realize it you find yourself surrounded by people like you. Your kid’s birthday, Sunday BBQ, its you and your friends, everyone packs and has trained together numerous times. If something bad happens you cant ask for better company, right? The friends and “buddies” you make are one of your greatest assets during troubled times. People to do business with, to be friends with, train, doctors that give personal advice, cops that help you out with security problems, someone in the municipal building that can help you with bureaucracy stuff, the network of people you know is of great importance. With high unemployment (20-25%) such a network is the only way to find a job. Some may be friends, others are simply acquaintances, but its important to establish that “buddy” relationship of you scratch my back I scratch yours, you do this favor for me and I’ll do one for you when you need it.

Make preparedness a part of you life, keep learning and fill in the gaps

By now its clear that the next step is mostly about taking S&P seriously. This also means enjoying it, because if you don’t you simply wont do it. You CANT do it as an obligation, you must find aspects of it that you find fulfilling at a personal level.

Soon enough your hobbies, your life decisions in general and your friends, its all influenced in some way by your survival and preparedness mindset. When people email me about getting the husband and wife or the kids involved, this is what I mean. Your family must accept and participate in your preparedness, even within more limited roles, they must accept it an embrace it. It can’t be simply an annoying hobby that the wife puts up with. The entire family must understand its seriousness even if you cant expect them to be as involved in it and as excited about it as you may be. Its not necessary for your wife to become GI Jane, but she must understand the seriousness of preparing. Your essential survival “group” is your family, and your group will only be a strong as its weakest link. 

Develop a long term, bulletproof financial plan

In the good old days you could just lean back after retirement and enjoy the golden years. Buy a camper and visit the kids and grandkids across America. This may not be the case anymore for a lot of people. A fixed income is a limited time option when inflation eats up the purchasing power of what you get each passing month. Having investments, property to rent (and rent to increase along with inflation) or some side job to help compensate will become important for you when you finally retire. The type of investments you make, or how you go about generating extra income can be most variable. The point to be understood is that a fixed retirement income simply may not be enough, that you need investments that generate income, and that you may contemplate the possibility of having to keep some sort of income generating business, self employed or part time work within your capabilities. Its very likely that more than retired you have to think about it as being semi-retired instead. Even more of a reason to find something that you enjoy doing so as to gladly keep doing it after you officially retire.

Take care guys,

Join the forum discussion on this post

FerFAL

Reply: Question about Townhouse vs. House‏

Fernando,

Thank you very much for your reply & suggestion! I thought of the same. Thanks for reaffirming it in my mind.

One thing you didn’t have chance to talk about in this post or any other (I searched through your blog extensively) is the definition of a “gated community”. Was it that the residents on a given street decided to organize and hire guards or were there special communities built with gates all around and a guard at the front? I guess both. Any lengthy discussion on how and where people prefer to live in Argentina today would be helpful.

Again, I appreciate your reply very much. Thanks for your time and god bless you for your hard, but very helpful posts.

Alex

Alex, that’s correct you have mostly two kinds of guarded communities.
First you have ordinary blocks where people get together and hire private security. This is often a post on street corners covering a neighborhood or part of it. What you get is what you pay in this case. It may be as little as paying an of duty cop trying to do some extra, to a private firm that both has posts on each corner and patrolling vehicles. This is common in most middle/upper middle class neighborhoods in Argentina.

Then you have gated communities that were specifically built that way. These too can be of the lower end type or better ones. The good ones will usually have a monitored double chain link fence perimeter, guards and patrols both along the perimeter and inside the community. The cheaper ones have poor security, lacking proper training, equipment and not enough man power. Its common to hear of robberies if the security isn’t up to the ever growing challenge set by criminals.

This final alternative, the community with good security, would be the best compromise when crime becomes a serious problem. Neighbors organizing on their own will never achieve a steady level of security in the medium or long run, everyone has other things to do eventually, job, family, it never lasts long when neighbors try to guard the area on their own. Hired security has proven to be more effective.
Join the forum discussion on this post

FerFAL