THE GOODS : The Mutual Fund : Need a vacation? How about dry cleaning? Barter and trade exchanges can help you swap your skills to fulfill your needs.

Brea printer Lanny Doyle recently vacationed for six days in a secluded, 10-bedroom oceanside villa in Puerto Vallarta.

The villa came with maids, a chef who prepared gourmet meals and a bartender to serve exotic drinks beneath blue skies.

Also enjoying the idyllic vacation were Doyle’s wife and two children, along with his two brothers from Oklahoma and their families--a total of 22 people.

What made this family reunion even more pleasurable is that Doyle didn’t need to run up any credit card bills. As a member of an Irvine barter and trade exchange, he swapped his printing services for the $1,500-a-night villa. His expenses were relatively minor. They included food, air fare, a 10% tax to Mexico and 10% of the villa’s normal rental fee to his barter exchange.

The vacation “is something we would never have experienced had we not been part of that group,” he says.

More Americans are expanding opportunities by swapping goods or services in barter and trade exchanges.

An estimated 550 trade exchanges with about 250,000 members swap about $1.8 billion of goods and services a year, says the National Assn. of Trade Exchanges.

Another trade group, the International Reciprocal Trade Assn., estimates that since 1990 barter has grown 10% a year among members feeling the pinch of the recession. Before the recession, growth averaged about 8% for two decades.

For some enthusiasts, barter fits somewhere between fun and frenzy.

“I love it, I’ve become addicted,” says Yuval Eyal, the owner of a Sherman Oaks dry-cleaning shop. Eyal bartered dry-cleaning services for prepaid telephone cards from a long distance phone carrier, saving about $200 a month on calls to his daughter in Israel.

Alan Zimmelman, owner of the BXI West Los Angeles exchange, traded a car for services and his wife worked as a graphic artist to pay for much of their elaborate, $20,000 wedding last year.

“I used the barter system voraciously,” he says. “I acquired the hotel, the catering, the flowers, the honeymoon, the rings, the place for relatives to stay all on barter. Because I was able to barter, I went a little overboard. I didn’t have to be conservative.”

As in these cases, most trades are between business people.

“Those who sell advertising, office equipment, printing or hospitality are the primary candidates,” says Tom McDowell, executive director of the National Assn. of Trade Exchanges. “There’s also a lot of construction done on trade.

Services rarely bartered are those of such professionals as doctors, accountants and lawyers because people prefer to choose their own. “They provide more personalized services, and people will not change those providing these services like they will change those who sell them equipment. A desk is a desk. It doesn’t matter where you buy it,” McDowell says.

“Consumers get involved if they have a car or a boat or a vacation place they can trade,” he says, but this should be frequently on offer. Most trade exchanges prefer not to enlist members who don’t have an ongoing product or service.

Nevertheless, barter possibilities for individuals and small businesses are intriguing.

Thomas G. Martin, president of an Anaheim investigative agency, often accepts a fee-in-trade when asked to prove the infidelity of a client’s spouse.

“Just this last weekend we had three surveillances which were done on trade,” he says. He uses most of his barter credit for his business, obtaining advertising, printing and restaurant meals for entertaining clients.

Bijan, a local artist, has traded acrylic sculptures for laundry services, television repairs and restaurant meals.

Tim Walter, owner of Tutor Tim, a computer training service in Burbank, recently earned a two-week Mediterranean cruise when clients paying in barter filled empty seats in his classes.

Members of barter-trade groups often pay membership fees and are charged a fee for each transaction, based on the value of the product or service. After each transaction, the business supplying the work or merchandise receives a credit to its account.

Say a newspaper provides $1,000 worth of advertising to a computer group, McDowell says. The newspaper now has a credit for $1,000. “They can spend it with any member of the system,” he explains. “They may want to spend $200 on office supplies, $300 on printing and $500 to buy a fax machine. The exchange keeps track of everybody’s accounts and balances.”

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The groups are listed in the Yellow Pages under “Barter & Trade Exchanges” for those interested in joining.

Prospective members should learn whether members are charging manufacturers’ suggested retail prices or what the item goes for in the market, McDowell says. They should also ask for a list of the exchange’s members to see if the group offers goods and services they want.

They should also ask current members whether they’re happy with the exchange and ask the Better Business Bureau whether it’s had complaints.

Potential members should be aware that the Internal Revenue Service treats bartered “dollars” the same as real dollars.

“You have to include in your income the fair market value of property or services you receive in bartering,” says an IRS representative. “That’s taxable like any other income.”

Another hazard is that members may overextend themselves by accepting more than they can pay off with their own services.

“If people are standing at a registration desk in a hotel and are offered a suite, they’re more apt to take it” if it’s paid for in barter rather than cash, says Zimmelman of the BXI West Los Angeles exchange. “They get barter fever.”

Doyle avoids overextending by making sure he does only a small percentage of business on trade. In the meantime, he says, barter is enhancing his life.

He recently traded his printing services for dinner, a limo and a concert at the Anaheim Pond to celebrate his 25th wedding anniversary. He has used barter to obtain antiques and paintings for his home and carpets, new locks and janitorial service for his business.

“Over a period of time I can utilize my printing services to create trade credits without laying out a lot of cash,” he says. “It puts me in a position to afford the extras or the luxuries of entertainment that I wouldn’t probably be able to afford paying cash.”