The TBBN blog
Guides, stories from people and businesses who trade, and how TBBN is being built.
Prices keep climbing, closets keep filling, and most of us own things we no longer use. Barter is one of the oldest answers to that problem. Here is how it works today, where it used to break down, and what a modern trade looks like from listing to handoff.
Barter isn't a way around taxes, but that doesn't mean every swap creates a tax bill. Whether you owe anything depends on who you are, what you traded, and what you paid for it. Here's how the IRS treats bartering, what it means for casual traders, businesses, and Space hosts, and the records worth keeping.
Bookstores have swapped used books for store credit for decades. What's new is running a trade-in program without appraising every item by hand, and reaching traders far beyond your own counter. Here's a step-by-step playbook for bookstores, thrift shops, and resellers.
Almost every business has space that sits empty for part of the day: a quiet corner table, a spare desk, a meeting room booked twice a week. TBBN Space lets you turn it into income by hosting safe trade meetups, drop-offs, and coworking. Here's how hosting works, from setup to payout.
Most ways to bring in new customers cost money up front: discounts, ads, or more stock. Trade-in turns the things your customers already own into a reason to walk through your door. Here's how a trading program works for a small business, what it costs, and how to launch one without rebuilding your store.
In 1875, an economist explained why barter rarely works: you have to find someone who has what you want and wants what you have. A Nobel-winning economist later showed how matching can solve it. Here's the problem, the breakthrough, and how TBBN applies it to everyday trades.
Two items are almost never worth exactly the same, and that gap is where most trades fall apart. Here's how TBBN works out the difference in value, who pays it, and how to set numbers that get your trade accepted.
The hardest part of a local trade usually isn't agreeing on a price. It's finding a time to meet a stranger. TBBN Space drop-off and pickup removes the meeting entirely: one person leaves the item with a host, the other collects it on their own schedule. Here's exactly how it works.
Most online trades end with a handshake. But police across the country are warning about meetups that turn into robberies, and "just meet in a public place" isn't enough anymore. Here is what the evidence says, what a truly safe handoff needs, and how you can earn by offering one.
Economics textbooks list seven reasons barter fails, from the double coincidence of wants to the impossibility of cutting a cow in half. They were real problems. Here is what each one meant, and how modern trading answers them.