“Hoarding vs Stockpiling” and “Russian Rambo”

Woo-hoo, it’s the first day of Spring! Thank God, it’s been a long winter with the snow, heating oil costs, and plowman expenses.

Before I begin today’s post, did y’all read my “Gold – Time to SELL?” post yesterday? Gold fell $59.00 an ounce yesterday! That’s the biggest one-day drop since June 2006. Gold led the decline in commodity prices. Read the article here. Think hard about offloading your 30 bags of gold. There’s a commodities price bubble, and we know what happens to bubbles. *pop*

Buy Low – Sell High

Those are my thoughts anyway.

It’s been over a week since I wrote my post entitled To Hoard or Not to Hoard and How to Hoard for the 2008 Recession. As is often the case, you guys (and gals) end up educating me with your feedback. “Group learn” TEOTWAWKI party peeps! The comments that followed in both posts were interesting. Here are a few:

• It’s not hoarding! Hoarding is taking more than your share when resources are scarce. In times of plenty, we STOCKPILE to minimize our need for resources when they ARE scarce… Remember – stockpile good, hoarding bad!
• I agree with the term “stockpile” not hoarding.
• We survivalist aren’t hoarding we’re just food collectors. Myself I collect hard red winter wheat……… and a little bit of cocoa powder as well LOL
• Hoarding is a word with big time negative connotations. Purchasing all the wheat in town during SHTF and charging 3x what u paid (if selling at all)would be hoarding but going to the local big box tommarow and getting a hundred points of rice would not be hoarding.
• Stockpiling the basics for your own use is “hoarding”, stockpiling so you can make absurd profits is known as “price gouging”, which is illegal in some states after the TSHTF has happened. In a TEOTWAWKI, price gouging could very well be punishable by facing a firing squad.
• If I save all my money and put it in the bank is that hoarding or being frugal with my resources? If I invest in things that turn a profit down the road ie. food stuffs, wouldn’t that be consider a wise investor in commodities? Perception is always the determing factor.

It’s the last comment by “noisynick” that prompts this post, because I have similar questions. I think the general “hoarding” versus “stockpiling” debate is a case of semantics. You call it one thing, I call it something else. My intended meaning was – acquire large quantities of stuff for when you need it (or can’t afford it). That being said, if you “stockpile” goods for bartering purposes, and then sell it for more than what you bought it – that becomes “price gouging” – or so some of you might proclaim. Hmmm . . . . . .

People that buy raw land as an investment love the saying “they’re not making any more of it.” Why is it okay to turn a profit on land, but not food (assuming you wanted to sell some at inflated costs post-TEOTWAWKI)? If someone is facing the firing squad for price gouging, then you’d better not get caught selling a box of .308 shells for a pile of silver coins – price gouging! If you paid 50 bucks for a goat, you’d better not sell it for $800 WTSHTF – price gouging!

I don’t understand this line of thinking. I know people may have different view, but I see it as simple economics. Supply and demand. If something is scarce, and people need it, it’s worth more – period. If you stockpile fuel and food as trading items for ATSHTF then you’re a shrewd “investor” – assuming you timed the purchase and SHTF event – which is, of course, difficult to do. Don’t get hung up hoarding versus stockpiling. Stock up on survival goods and sort out your course of action after Doomsday, which is what – next week? Week after?

– Ranger Man

BTW: You GOTTA read the article sent to me, it’s friggin’ RAMBO – only the Russian, real life version. This guy was a total SHTF warlord of the wilderness. This crazy bastard has lived in the woods for 20 years, coming out periodically to steal boots from locals, potatoes, and to burn down homes. He held a hunter at gunpoint once and since then locals were terrified and for years the police refused to go in there . . . . until the head of the Department of Natural Reserves in Moscow, angered by the inaction of local police, ordered a surveillance operation on him. Read:

After finding out where he lived, six specialist policemen – including Afghan war veterans – from outside the local police and four armed Park rangers went into the forest on snowmobiles to hunt him down and try to arrest him.

But the hermit, who carried two shotguns and a home-made pistol, ambushed them and wounded two. He then set alight a swathe of forest as a diversion, tracked behind the men and was apparently preparing to start firing on them again.

One of the policemen, Andrei Potemkin, said: “He ambushed us and I told him to surrender and that we wouldn’t hurt him. He yelled ‘I’ve nothing to lose’ and opened fire. He hit two of the others and fired at me. My bullet-proof vest saved my life. He then set his place on fire, and everything was covered with smoke.”

“He’s a real professional. While we were helping the wounded, he made a circle around us, hiding in the smoke, and cut us off. It was pure chance the sniper suddenly saw his figure in the trees and pulled the trigger. He shot him right in the head and he died in a flash.” Police later found in his semi-destroyed lair more weapons, dozens of furs, hundreds of traps and books about hunting and survival.

There’s more to this wacky story; read it right here. Note that he had books about hunting and survival. I’ve stressed the importance of this before – read. There are books there that will teach you how to set snares and ambushes. YOU could be Rambo!