Printer John Rankin bought a used Buick Century, got dental work done and had furniture restored -- all without spending a dime.

Rankin, owner of Cove Printing in Orange Cove, is one of many people in the central San Joaquin Valley who barter for goods and services.

Experts say they're seeing a spike in bartering, especially among business owners.

"There's more transactions, [and] there's more activity because businesses have more down time," said Ron Whitney, executive director of International Reciprocal Trade Association, which represents bartering agencies and has offices in Portsmouth, Va., and Rochester, N.Y.

Three organizations that help businesses trade for goods and services in the Fresno area say they are seeing an uptick.

Each organization works differently, using a combination of Web sites, databases or brokers to assist trades. Participants don't have to trade directly with someone who has what they want. More often, they provide goods or services up front and get "trade dollars" that can be spent at any other member's business whenever they want.

For instance, Melodie Frazier of Fresno estimated she has bartered $70,000 in recent years. She trades gift baskets she makes at trade shows with fellow barterers. She then spends the trade dollars she earns to get carpets cleaned at the insurance business she owns and pay for haircuts and visits to the nail salon. She's also had sidewalks installed at her home and remodeled her kitchen on trade.

Frazier and her husband, Bert, not only practice bartering, they own the local franchise of ITEX Corp., a publicly traded Bellevue, Wash.-based company that facilitates trades through its Web site and brokers. The couple act as brokers as well.

They signed up 13 members in July -- five more than the same month last year.

"I think that everybody is looking for ways to save their cash," she said. "They're seeing costs go up."

Typically, travel is a popular way to spend trade dollars -- on rooms or on cruises in Mexico or the Bahamas, said Dale Torres, CEO of Patterson-based American Barter Exchange, which has about 275 members.

The exchange has between 50 to 100 members between Visalia and Madera, and transactions are up about 20%, he said.

Media often use bartering, such as a radio station trading advertising for meals with a restaurant, said Craig Scharton, chief executive of the Central Valley Business Incubator.

And entrepreneurs getting started use it all the time -- only they call it "bootstrapping" -- because they don't have a lot of cash, said Tim Stearns, director of the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at California State University, Fresno.

Torres said businesses often use bartering to provide perks for employees, or for the owners themselves.

Louis Esparza of A-1 Electric in Visalia has traded electrical work for tickets to Magic Mountain and Great America, which he uses with his grandkids. He also recently furnished three rooms in his new office with new furniture worth $6,500 on trade.

Economic boost

But as the economy changes, so does the way people trade.

When business slows, people are more likely to put goods and services into barter because they are going unused, said Don Mardak, CEO of Milwaukee-based International Monetary Systems, which has 18,000 members across North America and has seen a 20% increase in transactions compared to this time last year.

For example, hotel owners have long bartered empty hotel rooms. But now they're using sales generated from bartering to pay for hiring window cleaners or buying advertising, said Whitney with the International Reciprocal Trade Association.

"It only makes sense that in a tough economy a company would use their trade dollars more on operational expenses rather than on a special thing that you might buy as a treat," he said.

Mark Kotenkoff of Kotenkoff Granite in Fresno is a good example -- using about $6,000 worth of trade on ads in Fresno Magazine.

"I don't think I would have been able to do that on cash," he said.

Still taxable

Whitney said transactions bartered through large companies are reported to the IRS and "sales" are considered taxable income.

Bartering does have drawbacks.

Kotenkoff said that sometimes when he wants to cash in his trade dollars, the business he hoped to use was busy.

Most businesses will make cash customers a priority and another contractor offering the same service may not be in the system.

Torres said business owners considering barter should make sure a system offers goods or services they need before joining.

Rankin, the printer, said there is one more fine reason for businesses to barter: free marketing.

Barter customers who use Rankin's business to print business cards, letterheads or paychecks may come back as cash-paying customers later, he said.

"The barter system is the equivalent of hiring a salesman," he said. "People within the barter system who would not normally do business with because I'm in Orange Cove and they're in Fresno -- we're going to get dibs on their work because I'm in the barter system."