I don’t really know the rules to Survivor, and I think that the rules for luxury items have changed over time.
I’m sure it’s not allowed now (if ever), but I bet a package of spices would be the ultimate luxury item in that venue.
Books …
Hoarding these might not make much money … but would have the greatest positive value to everyone …
I’m slow on spices as a valuable commodity … there are some exotic spices; like nutmeg, cinnamon or cloves; but generally the spices we use are all common, easy to grow … some of which are even troublesome weeds; like peppermint, garlic and marijuana … but most of us would need a book to tell the difference between a walnut and bay tree …
Books … the peso of the apocalypse …
If you want black market value for something that can’t be grown nearby - I’d go with hoarding coffee. Coffee can be bought in sealed containers that are easy to pack and store.
After that, maybe vanilla, cinnamon, and chocolate.
Even “hoarding” really isn’t the correct word. Hoarding is selfishly depriving others of a badly needed item, collecting irrational and unreasonable amounts of a scarce commodity.
That’s not going to cut the mustard.
The problem with stockpiling spices, is they “go bad” over time. They will lose all the aromatics and high note flavors and more or less taste like sawdust. Not all of them, but probably most. Whole bay leaf seems to store well, and good quality whole cloves. Pepper corns so-so. Cocoa if sealed well keeps pretty good. I have some old spice cans from my mother that just look cool, so I cleaned them out and reinstalled the contents with new. They were all just powdered dirt, flavor wise.
One jar of mexican oregano, was absolutely the bomb though, very strong and pungent and probably 25 or 30 years old, and haven’t found anything as tasty to replace it.
I seem to recall that this was a plot point in the Niven/Pournelle book Lucifer’s Hammer. The protagonist (or someone) went to a supermarket to stockpile supplies before the apocalypse and found that most of the useful stuff had already been taken, but was able to grab a large amount of pepper, which he reasoned would become valuable after civilization’s collapse.
Yeah.
Looters killed his wife and stole all his stuff. They liked his beef jerky and liquor, but they threw away the pepper, 'cuz “who cares about pepper?”.
Edit- I had unconsciously assumed the OP was referring to this story in some way.
This is not a practical plan.
The chances of surviving a global apocalypse that so devastates international trade that jars of spices you have stored in your house become valuable is very low. You have to somehow narrowly thread the needle where the world is so fucked up that no one can drive a boat across the oceans, yet the rule of law is still sufficiently in effect that you’re going to be able to do local trade of (relatively value-dense) foodstuffs.
This is extremely unlikely to happen. There are basically two levels of societal collapse that you could reasonably prepare for, and neither of them is really helped by spices.
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Local (national) society is collapsing, but the rest of the world is doing ok (or at least less bad). Here, you’ll want to have property in another country and sufficient status and portable wealth (basically, gold) to get the hell out of dodge.
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The whole world is going tits up. The best plan here is to live somewhere fairly remote on enough land to grow enough food to feed as many people as it takes to defend it from the marauding hordes. Here, you’ll want guns, ammunition, durable manufactured goods (cause you’re not getting any more of them for a while), horses, etc. Ideally, you’ll also want to have strong social ties to your neighbors. You should seriously consider having grown up there and having close relatives that are married to them.
And even then, your chances are pretty terrible. Spices might help after the major upheaval and conflict dies down, but the important part is living through that.
If you’re going to hoard for apocalyptic profit, salt would the number one priority. Sure its common on the coast but how are you getting that to Denver. Second would be things that don’t grow well in the US. Sugar (non-beet), coffee and chocolate would all be high on my list of things to trade for after immediate survival was taken care of.
Of course by the time trading becomes viable again there is going to be some sore of town center and local market economy set up as well so really picking a non-shitty place to live without too many people to strip the countryside of everything would be a much higher priority to have 5 lbs of salt in a go bag.
BTW- one of Niven & Pournelle’s Lucifer’s Hammer guys did this as well. He did not personally recover his cache (he could only keep one useful book in his ‘bugout bag’), but he was able to inform friendlies of his ‘hoard’ prior to his demise.
I’m sure I will rue the day.
Hidden in his septic tank, IIRC.