a marketplace for people who do things for themselves
bacongetter.com is a classifieds marketplace built for the growing community of Americans who have decided — for whatever reason — to take more control over how they live. Whether you are a full-time van dweller rolling the back roads of the American West, a tiny house builder finishing your third THOW of the year, a family homesteader putting up preserves and raising meat chickens on five acres, or a weekend prepper quietly stockpiling heirloom seeds and learning to can: this site is for you.
We exist to connect buyers, sellers, and barterers within the self-reliant economy — the informal, human-scale, skill-based economy that has always existed alongside the mainstream one, and that is growing faster today than at any time since the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s.
The van life movement has exploded. Hundreds of thousands of Americans now live full-time or part-time in converted vans, camper vans, cargo vans, and truck campers. Sprinter van conversions, Ford Transit builds, Ram ProMaster campers, high-top vans, stealth city vans, solar-wired boondocking rigs — there is an enormous secondary market for these vehicles, their parts, and the gear that makes mobile living possible. bacongetter lists them all. Looking to buy a van conversion? Selling a skoolie — a converted school bus — after five years on the road? Need a composting toilet, a lithium battery bank, a 200-watt solar panel kit, a diesel heater, a rooftop fan, a water pump, a grey water system? Post it here or find it here.
The van life community also trades in knowledge, craft, and handmade goods. Custom upholstery, hand-built cabinetry, leatherwork, macramé, hand-drawn maps, zines — the nomadic economy is a maker economy. bacongetter has categories for all of it.
The tiny house movement — once a fringe architectural curiosity — is now a recognized housing category with its own builders, designers, zoning advocates, and enthusiast communities. Tiny houses on wheels (THOWs), park model homes, container homes, A-frame cabins, yurts, geodesic domes, earthships, cob houses, strawbale homes — alternative and small-footprint dwellings of every description are listed and sought on bacongetter.
Tiny house builders can list new builds, shells, and custom work. Buyers can find finished homes, partially completed projects, and land with existing structures. The market for off-grid tiny homes — equipped with rainwater collection, solar power systems, composting or incinerating toilets, wood stoves, and propane appliances — is particularly active, and bacongetter's categories reflect that.
Full-time RV living has moved from retirement hobby to mainstream lifestyle choice. Class A motorhomes, Class B camper vans, Class C RVs, fifth wheels, travel trailers, toy haulers, teardrop trailers, pop-up campers — there is a massive market in used RVs, RV parts, RV accessories, and RV upgrades. Boondocking gear, solar setups for RVs, portable generators, water filtration, satellite internet equipment, hitch receivers, weight distribution hitches — all of it finds buyers and sellers on bacongetter.
Beyond the rigs themselves, the full-time travel community trades in everything from cast iron cookware to hammocks, from portable washing machines to folding bikes and bicycle trailers. If it fits the mobile lifestyle, it belongs here.
Off-grid living means different things to different people. For some it means a remote homestead with no utility hookups — running entirely on solar panels, wind turbines, microhydro power, and rainwater. For others it means a suburban backyard transformed into a productive food system. For others still it means a small farm with animals, outbuildings, a root cellar, and a woodlot. bacongetter serves all of these communities.
Off-grid equipment — solar charge controllers, deep cycle batteries, lithium iron phosphate battery banks, inverters, grid-tie systems, off-grid refrigerators and chest freezer conversions, propane ranges, wood cook stoves, rocket mass heaters, masonry heaters, wood stoves, pellet stoves — changes hands regularly in the off-grid community, and bacongetter is where that happens.
The word homesteading once described a federal land program that settled the American frontier. Today it describes something broader and more personal: the decision to produce more of what you consume, to develop practical skills, and to reduce dependence on long supply chains and corporate systems. Modern homesteading draws on a long tradition of practical literature — from John Seymour's The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency, first published in 1976 and still in print, to the fifty-year archive of Mother Earth News, to Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of Country Living, to more recent works like The Market Gardener by Jean-Martin Fortier and The Resilient Farm and Homestead by Ben Falk.
Seymour's vision — of the "complete" smallholder who can grow vegetables, keep bees, raise pigs and chickens, make cheese, brew ale, bake bread, cure hams, and build fences — remains the north star for a large and growing number of Americans. bacongetter exists in that tradition. We are a place where people who live that way, or are learning to, can buy and sell the things they need and make.
From backyard vegetable gardens to market gardens selling at farmers markets, from community supported agriculture (CSA) operations to u-pick orchards, gardening in all its forms is central to the self-reliant life. bacongetter has listings for seed saving and heirloom seed trades, seedling sales, transplants, bare-root trees and fruit trees, berry bushes, grapevines, mushroom spawn, and garden tools.
We also serve the growing community of permaculture designers and food forest growers — people planting perennial systems of fruit and nut trees, nitrogen-fixing shrubs, medicinal herbs, and ground covers that produce food with minimal inputs. Tools of the trade — broadforks, wheel hoes, collinear hoes, digging forks, soil blockers, cold frames, low tunnels, row cover — all appear in our listings.
Keeping animals is one of the oldest human activities and one of the most personally rewarding parts of homesteading life. bacongetter's listings include chickens — laying hens, meat birds, heritage breeds, day-old chicks, hatching eggs — as well as ducks, geese, turkeys, guinea fowl, quail, and rabbits. We list goats — dairy goats, meat goats, Nigerian Dwarfs, Nubians, LaMancha, Boer — and sheep, and pigs, and cattle.
Equipment for animal husbandry — portable electric fencing, livestock panels, water troughs, feeders, milking equipment, cream separators, cheese-making supplies, brooder lamps, incubators, egg washers — is regularly listed and bought on bacongetter. So is beekeeping equipment: Langstroth hives, top-bar hives, Warré hives, smokers, extractors, uncapping knives, mite treatments, protective suits.
The ability to preserve food — to eat in January what you grew in July — is one of the core skills of self-sufficient living. Water-bath canning, pressure canning, lacto-fermentation, dehydrating, freeze-drying, root cellaring, smoking, curing, salt packing, pickling, making jam and jelly, brewing vinegar, making sauerkraut and kimchi and kombucha — these skills and the equipment that supports them are all well represented in bacongetter's listings.
Freeze dryers, dehydrators, pressure canners, water bath canners, fermentation crocks, mason jars, Tattler lids, vacuum sealers, grain mills, grain storage bins, food-grade buckets — the market for food preservation equipment is active and bacongetter is part of it.
Food security — the ability to feed yourself and your family regardless of what happens to grocery store supply chains — has become a mainstream concern. Whether motivated by economic uncertainty, climate anxiety, pandemic preparedness, or simple common sense, millions of Americans are building food reserves, growing more of their own food, and developing the skills to feed themselves from their land. bacongetter serves this community without judgment or politics.
The preparedness and survivalism community overlaps heavily with the homesteading community. Long-term food storage, #10 cans, mylar bags and oxygen absorbers, water storage barrels, water filtration systems, Berkey filters, hand-pump wells, gravity-fed water systems, first aid supplies, medical reference books, amateur radio equipment, generator fuel storage, firewood — these items appear regularly in our listings.
Self-sufficiency has always had an economic dimension. John Seymour wrote about the "cottage industry" — the small-scale production of goods for sale or trade that supplements the homestead's food production. That tradition is alive and well. bacongetter lists handmade pottery, hand-thrown ceramics, hand-woven baskets, hand-dyed textiles, natural fiber yarn, hand-spun wool, beeswax candles, herbal salves and tinctures, homemade soap, forged ironwork, hand-carved wood items, turned bowls, hand-stitched leather goods, handmade jewelry, and original art.
We also list original music — recordings, cassettes, digital downloads — from independent and folk musicians who are part of the same cultural world as our other sellers. The Mother Earth News of the 1970s ran articles on folk music alongside articles on goat keeping and solar water heating; we are in that same tradition.
Hand tools, power tools, vintage tools, specialty tools — the self-reliant life requires the ability to build, repair, and maintain things, and good tools are expensive new but often available used. Blacksmithing and metalworking tools, woodworking hand tools and machinery, leatherworking tools, fiber arts equipment (spinning wheels, looms, drop spindles), sewing machines, knitting equipment, welding equipment, chainsaw mills, portable sawmills, log splitters, wood chippers, post-hole diggers, tractors, walk-behind tractors, BCS two-wheel tractors — bacongetter lists them all.
The philosopher-farmer Wendell Berry wrote about the "local economy" — a web of relationships and exchanges rooted in a particular place, built on trust and mutual aid rather than on global supply chains and corporate intermediaries. The internet has made it possible to extend that local economy across geography, to connect a tiny house builder in Vermont with a buyer in New Mexico, to link a van lifer selling her solar rig in Oregon with a skoolie builder in Texas.
That is what bacongetter is trying to be: a digital version of the old classified ads in the back of Mother Earth News, updated for the age of smartphones and cross-country nomadism, but preserving the human scale, the simplicity, and the spirit of those original listings. No algorithms optimizing for engagement. No surveillance advertising. No dark patterns. Just listings, just people, just commerce at a human scale.
Our sellers and buyers include: homesteaders and small farmers, van lifers and full-time RVers, tiny house dwellers and tiny house builders, skoolie converters, off-grid cabin owners, urban homesteaders and backyard farmers, preppers and survivalists, permaculturists and food forest designers, market gardeners and CSA farmers, beekeepers, cheesemakers, fermenters, herbalists, wildcrafters and foragers, canners and dehydrators, woodworkers and blacksmiths, potters and weavers, leatherworkers and tailors, soap makers and chandlers, folk musicians and independent artists, seed savers and plant traders, animal breeders and livestock keepers, amateur radio operators, bushcraft practitioners, wilderness survival instructors, and anyone else who produces something useful with their hands.
Listings cost $1 each, or $5 per month for unlimited listings. There are no commissions, no percentages, no hidden fees. Buyers contact sellers directly. We do not facilitate transactions or hold funds. We are a bulletin board, not a platform. Post what you have. Find what you need. Make a deal.
We are text-first and intentionally simple. The design is inspired by the plain-spoken classifieds of an earlier era — before infinite scroll, before engagement metrics, before the internet forgot that its job was to connect people, not to addict them.
Many listings on bacongetter are barter or trade offers. The self-reliant community has always had a strong barter culture — swapping eggs for seedlings, firewood for cheese, labor for lodging. bacongetter explicitly supports barter listings. If you would rather trade than sell, say so. If you are looking to trade rather than buy, search the barter category. The informal economy is a good economy.
If you are new to the self-reliant life, or looking to go deeper, these books are good companions:
Bacongetter (noun): A resourceful individual who sells their skills, handmade goods, personal possessions, heirlooms or secondhand items to bring home the bacon during a difficult economic period. Inspired by the classic idiom "bringing home the bacon," the term frames the seller not merely as a vendor, but as a dedicated provider who acts with grit and unwavering resolve to secure essential sustenance and immediate financial stability for their household.
Bacongetting (noun / verb): The dignified practice of applying one's skills, handcrafting items or liquidating personal surplus and household assets out of economic necessity to support a family. "Through sheer focus and weekend bacongetting, she ensured her household never felt the sting of the economic downturn."
Etymology. A modern compound formed by fusing bacon (historically used in the colloquial phrase "to bring home the bacon," dating back to the 11th-century English tradition of the Dunmow Flitch, where devoted married couples were rewarded with a side of bacon as a symbol of successful household partnership and provision) with getter (derived from the Old Norse geta, meaning to acquire, obtain, or safeguard). The term structurally mirrors historic maritime and frontier nouns like privateer or pioneer, elevating the everyday act of liquidating household assets into a noble quest for family survival.
bacongetter.com is independently owned and operated. we are not affiliated with any of the publications or authors listed above. we are just grateful they exist.