Written by Bob Meyer, Editor of BarterNews

Bentley and BartercardUSA Acquisition Talks Terminated

Mark Savoy Resigns As Bentley President

Bentley Communications Corporation (OTCBB:BTLY) and BartercardUSA terminated their acquisition discussions earlier this month. Bentley will instead build a proprietary online trade exchange, with an integrated payment system and its own brand...based on the BarterDollars.com domain name.

Gordon Lee, CEO of Bentley, explained, "As we progressed through the due diligence process, management felt that the (BartercardUSA) acquisition was no longer consistent with our business plan.

"Most important," he noted, "we want to keep our barter operations focused on a state-of-the-art online exchange that will meld other exchanges into ours, rather than brick and mortar storefronts." According to Lee, Bentley decided that creating their own barter business was in the best interests of the company and its shareholders.

Lee said the company believes the future growth of barter rests with online solutions, and will parallel the growth of other successful internet online businesses, such as stock trading and auctions.

Did you know that your classified ad gets one full year exposure in the
Tuesday Report archives?!

For information on The Barter Marketplace click here.

The Barter Marketplace archives click here.

NFL And IBM Put Together Multi-Million Barter Deal

Two giants are teaming up to convert nearly 80 years of professional football films into digital form to will be enjoyed by players, coaches, and fans. (The NFL archive contains 100 million feet of film that dates back to the 1920's.)

The specifics of the barter arrangement were not disclosed, but the deal depends, essentially, on mutually beneficial barter ad revenue and service swaps. In other words, IBM will handle the video transfer project in exchange for the IBM brand being featured prominently at NFL media events, including nfl.com and NFL Sunday Ticket.

If you haven't read the current issue of BarterNews, get yourself a copy now! Orders are shipped the same day we receive them. (Click on Order Form)

OTR Media, Offering Innovative National Advertising On Truck Fleets, Funded

OTR Media, headquartered in Bowling Green (KY), is a national mobile billboard company that provides advertising space on semi-trailers. They just closed a first round $4.1 million funding, and expect to dominate an untapped market niche with their unique advertising vehicle.

The company has negotiated exclusive, non-compete leases with major national fleet-trucking companies that will enable advertisers cost effective national and regional exposure on the trailers. Advertisers will be able to track the location of their ads 24 hours a day by logging onto OTR's web site, and with a password get up-to-the-minute demographic and viewership data on their ads.

Extraordinary Revealing Report For Business Owners - Click here.

Futurist Optimistic About What's Ahead

Peter Schwartz, 56, author of Inevitable Surprises, a follow up to his 1991 bestseller, The Art of the Long View, is optimistic about the future! He sees medical advances enabling the increase of life spans to 120 years.

Economically, here's what he foresees in 2030...
Globalization is an unstoppable force. Productivity and living standards will grow worldwide, driven by advances in information technology and life sciences. The Dow Jones Industrial average will jump 10,000 points, and inflation will remain near its present low levels as productivity rates continue to rise with the development of new technologies.

Every barter company in the world is listed on our web site, click through to our Global List of Barter Companies.

Internet And eBay Changing The $100 Billion Surplus & Returned Goods Industry

Retailers and manufacturers have always had to unload excess inventory, representing 3% to 4% of revenue. Traditionally, they sold the goods for pennies on the dollar to liquidators, who then sold the merchandise from warehouses to various entities...such as outlet stores, second-hand shops, and entrepreneurs who would resell at swap meets.

It was a geographically confined, large, and inefficient modus operandi. But the Internet, good at introducing efficiencies into such markets, is changing this way of doing business and taking it global. There are now 1,100 internet surplus-goods wholesalers, and a growing number of entrepreneurs jumping into internet bulk sales.

Last summer, eBay started noticing wholesale lots among its auctions. In October, the online auction site opened a wholesale category which now has approximately 36,000 auctions of bulk merchandise every day. This category sold $20 million in 2002, and is on pace to sell $45 million in 2003.

The following message was used to promote one's trade exchange. The exchange owner
sent this flyer/message out to every member....

Trade Is The Competitive Edge—Spread The Word!

We have begun co-publishing a monthly newsletter entitled The Competitive Edge that is a generic overview of barter in today's competitive marketplace.

In addition to providing the newsletter to you (our members) we have also begun a prospecting campaign using the publication. Each month we mail The Competitive Edge to businesses that would be an asset to our exchange, and follow up with phone calls.

Many trade exchanges have successfully used this newsletter, published by BarterNews magazine, to educate potential clients about trade and therefore attract new members. And we hope to have the same results here!

You can help us spread the word by providing some counter space or other conspicuous area to display The Competitive Edge to your clients. Waiting rooms, bookshelves, reception areas...wherever your customers have a chance to pick up a copy of the newsletter, they also will have a chance to find out more about bartering in today's economy.

Each month's issues offers new insights into the advantages of using trade and how it can improve a company's cash position. Every business owner will find the articles interesting and educational.

To learn more about The Competitive Edge newsletter and how it can help build your trade exchange, click here.

Get New Money-Making Ideas And Valuable Contacts!

You can obtain useful, informative ideas and contacts in every available back-issue of BarterNews.

• B2B exchanges, thought to be sure winners in the late '90s during the heady dot-com days, found that purchasing agents are generally reluctant to change procedures that work. It was generally assumed that buyers and sellers would use web sites to find one another, which would have disrupted traditional distribution channels (and drive down prices).

  But a report recently published by the California Management Review found that of 1,500 business-to-business exchanges launched, only 43% remain. The study concluded that most buyers placed a premium on long-term relationships with their vendors.

• Ninety percent of American imports from China aren't made in U.S. owned plants, which helps explain how last year's merchandise imports from China zoomed to a trade deficit of $103 billion...the largest with any country.

• Have you signed up to receive a summary via e-mail of the Tuesday Report every week? If not, go to the top of this issue (right hand corner) and sign up!

• Kimberly McCall, columnist for Entrepreneur magazine, listed "using barter" as one of the inexpensive ways to motivate sales reps on a small budget. As is often the case in such articles, the examples given have unfortunately been used excessively...over and over and over.

• Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies says home equity, not stock ownership or other investments, is presently "the anchor of the household wealth."

  The study reports that home equity opens the doors to tax-subsidized consumer borrowing and spending, plus accumulation of capital sheltered from any form of federal or state taxation. As a result, homeowners on average enjoy much highernet wealth per household ($172,000) than those who rent ($4,810).

• Where is the most entrepreneurial region of China? Answer: The coastal city of Wenzhou, just a 40-minute flight south of Shanghai with a population of 7.5 million. Wenzhou produces 20% of China's shoes, 80% of its spectacles, 60% of its razors, 65% of its locks and keys, and 65% of its electric transformers. Interestingly, some 95% of the city's industrial output comes from the local private sector.

Are You A Subscriber to BarterNews?
Click below on Order Desk to Start receiving BarterNews!