Collapse Survivor: “There Was Little Room For Error… Either You Learn Fast Or End Up Dead”

Tuesday, March 17, 2015
By Paul Martin

Selco
March 17th, 2015
SHTF School

Editor’s Note: When the Balkan wars erupted in Europe during the 1990′s people literally went from sipping coffees on their neighborhood streets to a war zone almost overnight. Most did not see it coming. Even in the midst of collapse many believed it was a temporary situation that would soon pass. But food, medical supplies and other necessities quickly began to run out. Tens of thousands of people were encircled by heavily armed military, snipers, and artillery. There was no where to go. In the following article from Selco of SHTF School you’ll get a first-hand account from someone who was there and was forced to make difficult decisions just to put powdered eggs on the table for his family and friends. Specifically, Selco details the supplies and tradegoods that became important in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the civilization around him.

It is a harrowing look into a life many of us can only imagine.

Selco is the founder of the SHTF School web site and creator of the One Year In Hell Survival Course.

First Trades after Collapse
By Selco
The items for trade during my SHTF very often changed value, and some of them became unavailable for some period of time, just to suddenly show up again much more expensive.

Yes, situation in the city dictated that, but also people, the black market lords made this happen. The whole situation was always changing where and if you can find what you were looking for.

Some of the items that were circulating in the city were completely new to everyone, one of the reasons was that all sorts of stuff from humanitarian aid was coming to the city through different channels and from all different parts of the world.

Some of those things became popular fast, others remained completely strange for us, but all had some kind of value.

Of course practical things like MRE were very good to have. Some other things like Turkish army crackers (salt cookies, or so called „Turks“) were strange for us. Taste was awkward, thats why they had lower value, but we were starving so of course everyone would eat it and trade it.
In one period there were big amounts of some French cigarettes in the city, we called it „black tobacco“.

It was very very strong tobacco, packaged in nice small boxes, and you simply did not need too much of those daily, even if you were very passionate smoker. Simply way too strong.

Some “smart” guy smuggled this into the city and it is perfect example of successful product besides weapons and ammunition for trading.

The Rest…HERE

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