Thursday, May 28, 2009

Sheep To Be Shorn

Outsource your preparedness. Sovereign Deed offers to do everything but carry your lazy ass out of a radio active crater left by one of North Korea's wayward nukes.

Prices range from $1,299.00 to $8,900.

$1,299.00 gets you one weeks worth of food and sundries for NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) events. Bear in mind this is for ONE person.

$8,900 gets you a whopping two weeks of food and better quality NBC gear for one person.

Included in all of the kits are an emergency radio, communications equipment, navigation devices, first aid kit, water treatment and sanitation gear.

Oh they offer a customized "Emergency Response Plan", and a "Home Threat Mitigation Plan" and access to training via their web portal. You also get a one year subscription to their news letter.

If you have an extra $3,299.00 laying around, you can buy a one years supply of food for ONE person.

So, for a family of four, I can expect to spend (if I really care about them) (4 X $8,900) + (4 X $3,299.00) = $35,600 + $13,196 = $48,796.00!

In the immortal words of Mayberry, "BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Who are these people kidding? Where are the weapons? Ammunition? Do they even give you a pen knife?! Online training? You can read all of our blogs and various survival sites and get the nearly the same quality training (IE NO HANDS ON EXPERIENCE) FREE! Emergency response plan? Just go to the FEMA site, they show you how to do it, FREE! Threat mitigation plan? Who are they kidding? If you can't figure out how to shut off your gas, water and power connections in the event of a disaster, there are places online that show you....FREE!

Any other threats need to be addressed with a hail of lead.

The deluxe food kit for one person, for one year is only $1,241.35 (UU030) from Walton Feed.

The Deluxe NBC kit from Approved Gas Masks is $329.00 each.

A Kaito Emergency Radio is $54.99.

To be fair, they don't exactly spell out what communications equipment, navigation gear, first aid kits, water treatment, or sanitation gear is included.

Hopefully for the prices you're paying its something more than GRMS radios, but just in case. These are nice, 27 mile range for $70.57 per pair. Amateur radio (HAM) stuff requires a license, but in the EOTW situation, I doubt people will be enforcing the rules. I doubt they would be supplying stuff and advising you to break the rules.

Navigation equipment. If things really go south, do you think GPS will still be functional? Maybe. I wouldn't want to rely on it, so what then, a compass? Ranger beads? Silva Lensatic Compass a whopping $17.99. I personally have one of these. It's plastic, but for the cost and the durability of plastic, I love it. Something more robust, like maybe a Marble's Compass? $14.24. Solid brass construction. Ranger Beads? Check out Ranger Rick's place for the "Survival Para-Cross" $17.00 including insurance as it is shipped from his beautiful home in Italy. Yes, Rick proudly makes his own gear. Help a veteran and buy his stuff, after all he is living in Italy.

First aid kit? How about and Aerie Level Three kit for $175.00? Yes, you could assemble one yourself and maybe save a few bucks if you already have a bunch of this stuff. I'd throw some QuickClot from Z-Medica in for good measure.

Water Treatment. Okay, so this stuff is designed to be an on-the-go kind of kit. Chances are they aren't setting you up with a Berkeley "Big Berkey" water filter. More than likely it will be some combination of chemical and filtration techniques. Katadyn mini good for 2K gallons of fresh water. $99.95 Chemicals? How about Aquamira for $13.99.

Santitation? Plastic garbage bags. 500 per case 1.2 mil 7-10 gallon $48.49. 5 gallon platic bucket with a toilet seat $12.99. Baby wipes, Bath Wet Wipes. $1.95. Campers soap. $3.99 <---good for laundry too. Toothbrush, toothpaste and other personal items, you probably already have extras you can pack away in your kit. Worse comes to worse, go buy a few of the travel size items the next time you're in the store.

Now, also if you buy this stuff for four people. Two adults, two kids, the needs of a five year old are going to be a whole lot different from an adult, and these seem to be geared around adults unless when they do an evaluation, they prepare a kit for tailored to your kids. Who rapidly grow, and then the kit doesn't quite fit them anymore. Wouldn't you rather set stuff aside and use it as they grow in order to avoid wasting money on things that will never get used?

Thought so.

So, lets see where we are now if we bought four of Walton's deluxe food packages. $4965.00 Four Deluxe NBC kits. $1316.00 You'll only need two GMRS radio kits (four total radios). $282.28 Two Emergency Radios (always have a spare). $109.98 Four lensatic compasses. $71.96 Four Marble's Compass. $ 59.96 Four "Survival Para-Cross" $68.00 Aerie Level 3 First Aid kit. $175.00 Katadyn Mini water filter. $99.95 Aquamira water treatment $13.99 Lugable Loo toilet $12.99 Plastic Garbage bags $48.49 Wet Wipes X4. $7.80 Campers Soap X4. $15.96 Now, there's no tax or shipping figured in here, and some of this stuff is available for less than what I quoted here from online sites. I bought my Silva lensatic compass for $9.00 on sale at a local sporting goods store for example.

Hmmmm... $7247.29

Wow. You have enough left over to pay for some nice guns, ammunition, training, good quality backpacks, tents, stuff for your four legged kids, outdoor cooking equipment, a nice used 4X4 urban escape vehicle (they're cheap right now), solar generator set (Must have for your GMRS radios), grain mills, heirloom seeds, and a case of Everclear for when things get to be too much.

It just staggers the imagination.

Or you could just go get that Big Screen TV and watch the end of the world from the comfort of your living room.

Note: All you guys who have stores (Bullseye) .... I hate referring people to these big stores out on the web. If you have stuff (sorry, but I can't keep up with everything everyone has) that fits the bill, leave a comment for me with a link to the item. I'll replace the link with yours. I'd rather see us small people keep our money circulating within our own prepper community.

8 comments:

zwick said...

You know, if any of us had a brain (well I certainly don't) we would jump on this Yuppie Survival Package idea. As it becomes more and more likely, imminent, and most importantly, talked about, that the caca is about to hit the fan, then the upper-middle class (with lots of MONEY) will panic. Then they'll pay any stupid amount of dough to buy security, or at least the illusion of security. They're used to buying their way through life, so laying out 50 or 60K won't be a problem for them. The issue for me is gathering up the gear on credit, and also the timing. You second mortgage your house and buy tons of stuff you will be screwed if TSHTF takes too long. Plus you gotta store it someplace. Plus your wife will be divorcing you. Unless you hit it right. When these over-payed fools realize whats about to happen to their Martha Steward world, the rush will be on to pay anything for that kind of supplies....just a thought.

Catman said...

Hey Zwick,

You could go the "consultant" path. Offer your services to conduct a field survey of a prospective client and his/her household including pets.

Get a 10% non-refundable fee if the client decides to follow your recommendations.

Work out a volume agreement with some of the suppliers. Assemble the package for the client. Take payment on delivery. Use one personal credit card to generate startup capital. (one or two initial clients financed with credit card) until you have a base of cash capital you can work with.

Personally, I'd ditch as much of the electronic crap as possible. Too many variables as far as EMP, nuke incidents rendering them useless. Wouldn't you want all of your family together rather than spread all over the place in such a turbulent time? Cheap short range stuff would be sufficient to keep in touch around several acres.

Thanks for your thoughts. The Everclear would help you sleep.....

HermitJim said...

Now ya done it...ya got me thinking again! I might just have to forget everything but the Everclear! Jus for medicinial purposes, ya understand...

Catman said...

Oh yeah, I've done enough surveys for customers where they take your proposal and go find someone willing to do exactly what you've planned for less.

Charge for the consultation, and apply it towards the final cost of whatever plan you develop.

That way you're not out of time and money for your efforts.

This will keep people from using you to generate a "how to" for them, and having it done free.

Catman said...

Jim,

Everclear is alot of fun. Especially when people don't know that it is in the punch.

Cygnus MacLlyr said...

WHERE you find time... je ne sais pas, Cat m'man..
But I offer thanks you do-- because I have not...

Catman said...

Hey Cygnus,

I took a vacation day today, so I was home most of the day. That's why I had the time. :-)

Thanks, for the thanks....

Bullseye said...

Hey Cat, no prob on the store man. There is so much stuff out there on the net to be found. Some good prices and as you point out, some not so good either. Man, for that price you should get a body guard 24/7. LOL Good stuff as always buddy, thanks.

Bullseye
Code Name "Bullseye"