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What is the difference?

Doc

Bottoms Up
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Hoarding is when other people buy out all the quantities of something you need.
Prepping is when you buy what you need to survive for extended periods without having to go out and buy more stuff.
 

Bamby

New member
Between hoarding and prepping? Is it when you do it? I dunno. Just curious I guess.

Hoarding is all those paint cans you've got stashed with a pint of paint left that you may need to do some touch up with someday. It's holding on to all the associated tent camping supplies bought and gathered before you purchased your camper ten years ago and they've been collecting dust ever since.

Prepping is actively attempting to gather goods or supplies at a fair value for a upcoming anticipated need. Purchasing supplies for a upcoming remodel in advance because the value was to good to pass up. Or simply purchasing anything we know we'll utilize simply because the price was to good to pass up..
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
HOARDING is what happens when people panic and go out and buy ALL the available stock of a few particular items in a store. It spreads the panic to others. This happens during emergency situations. People who HOARD in panic times often have a profit motive and intend to resell their surplus during the panic period. Many just buy out of panic without any real thought as to what they are doing.

PREPPING is buying what you expect to need when there is no external emergency or other time of panic. Preppers are people who ALWAYS have 30 days, 90 day or a year's worth of food and supplies in their home storage. They are the people who ALWAYS replenish what they use as they use it and never create a city, county or national shortage of any particular good because they build their supply as they can afford to do so. PREPPERS plan their purchase as part of their LIFESTYLE and are typically people who also can their own jellies, pickles, sauces, etc. Many just buy and rotate their cans of store bought food, but typically have cases of this type of food at all times.


FWIW, I have lived as a mid-term prepper for years. Typically having 30-45 days of our normal foods on hand at all times. Typically 45+ days of other goods. Sure, we buy toilet paper 2 cases at a time, ditto paper towels, and Kleenex. When we get down to 1 case, we buy 2 more. Cans of tomato products, green beans, etc are bought in case lots. We have several cases of each of those, along with cases of other products including soup mixes, bread mixes, noodles, pasta sauces, etc. We did build our personal supply up over the 6 weeks prior to the panic buying. We have a solid 90 days worth of food (offering us a balanced diet) in storage today. I'm sure we will miss some fresh fruits and vegetables but we do have plenty of winter squash which stores for long periods. We have dozens of fresh eggs, blah blah blah.

Many others here have the SIMILAR inventories of their favorite foods, or of dried foods, or of whatever they choose to have. And they may have much more or somewhat less than we have. This is the type of activity that describes a prepper. I think of the grandparents that lived through the Great Depression and grew their own food, canned and stored their own food, etc. It is that lifestyle that describes a prepper.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
I don't understand why anyone would stand in line outside a store for hours before it opens then run in and gather as many rolls of toilet paper they can carry and start fights with other shoppers over the last bottle of hand sanitizer. It boggles my mind. If I ever get like that where I lose my mind over toilet paper, please do me a favor and take me out back and give me a whooping.

That isn't preparing. It isn't hoarding. It's greed and madness. Like seriously. You're going to tell me that if you get sick for a few weeks, you are going to survive by having 24 bottles of hand sanitizer and 172 rolls of toilet paper? It just doesn't make sense.
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
SUPER Site Supporter
Yeah, makes sense to me, all of the replies. I guess I would be considered a mid term or mid level prepper as well. Always had that 90 day supply in my head as some kind of magic number.

After this is over though, I am going to purchase more of those 5 gallon buckets of freeze dried food. Just looking at the ones i do have right now sure give me and wifey a lot of peace of mind.
 

EastTexFrank

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
I am going to purchase more of those 5 gallon buckets of freeze dried food. Just looking at the ones i do have right now sure give me and wifey a lot of peace of mind.

And that is partly if not mostly what prepping is about … peace of mind.
 

Bamby

New member
This is hoarding.
https://www.homesteadingforum.org/t...er-and-nowhere-to-sell-them.9116/#post-233593

He drives a 1300 mile trip, buying all the hand sanitizer he can find. Ends up with over 17,000 bottles of it. Tries to make a ton of money selling online. Amazon and EBay shut him down quickly. Now he has all these and has no idea what to do with them.

Actually this is an example of capitalism at work. This is fine example of it being applied. Capitalism is buying or producing something as cheaply as possible and being in the position to sell it at huge margins / profits. Anyone remember the epi pen incident a while back where they made a slight change to the applicator and the patent and were granted the right to price gouge hundreds for a cheep plastic applicator? :hammer:
 

bczoom

Super Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Capitalism or gouging? Amazon & E-bay said gouging so they banned him.
A lot of Attorney's general are cracking down on gouging right now.
 

Bamby

New member
Capitalism or gouging? Amazon & E-bay said gouging so they banned him.
A lot of Attorney's general are cracking down on gouging right now.

You are right my man in this instance, but if Amazon or E-Bay would have owned the inventory and stood to make the profit for themselves they may have smiled all the way to the bank...
If they can find a way to market the product there is still a very real chance they'll still pocket quite a profit for their effort.
 
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