I think alcohol would be useful for trading.

drinkable water

ammunition could get you anything you could need. drinking water would be a second i guess, but you could with effort gather drinkable water.

ammunition is heavy, but no where near as heavy as water for trading purposes,

Depends on the apocalypse.

AAA batteries

Gout sufferer checking in, Prednisone

Will “fully equipped cruize ship” count as one item? Then I can scavenge them for all parts required to build new civilization.

And if it is not, then question to OP, what is the limit for the composite items to stop being counted as one item?

Not a single mention of bullets? Seriously?

In an apocalypse, ammunition will be worth more than gold.

Waterproof matches.

A) Something to trade (rely on others)

B) Something for ME to survive on (rely on nobody)

C) Something to rebuild (everyone relies on me)

I generally lean towards rebuilding, but it really depends on what apocalypse we’re talking about here. Zombie? Nuclear war? Asteroid? Nazis? Waterworld?

So, assuming I can survive enough, I’d pick rebuild critical tech like rubber or a way to forge steel or a critical chemical. Think, “Doctor Stone”.

But if I need to survive like a water world or a desert world or a zombie outbreak, what I pick is going to be pretty fucking different. Cigarettes don’t mean shit if there’s no water. Water don’t mean shit if that’s all you have. And none of that matters if you’re stuck in a world with aerosolized zombie infection that results in smart running zombies that fast heal.

Beans. Not only about the most important food source, legumes are also natural nitrogen fixers for soil health.

Paper, good for lighting fires and keeping people honest. Also I’m guessing pretty hard to make

Mainly maps, but also other informative reading materials such as natural medicine, almanacs and other foraging guides.

Ok so some people are asking what type of apocalypse but I feel that’s mostly irrelevant because you said it’s a post apocalypse scenario. The apocalypse has already passed.

So there’s kind of two options. One is where I would be the sole survivor on the planet, and the other is where there’s still pockets of survivors out there.

Most post apocalypse situations involve other people surviving, so I’ll start there.

You didn’t put a limiter on what the item could be, whether it had to be realistic or not, and how this supply would come to be. So I’ll give three answers, each with different degrees of what I’m assuming your intention behind the question is.

The first would be an infinite supply of non tricky, non malevolent genie lamps. Infinite wishes baybee, this trumps pretty much everything.

Something more fantastic but more reasonably grounded would be computers, with a complete set of data on human history, art, music, science and schematics, with instructions on how to rebuild society in a more equitable way, translated into all languages possible, with a pictogram of how to charge it up etched on the outside. Pass those suckers around, rebuild society, got infinite of them, everyone gets one and it has the windows space pinball from the 90s on it just for fun.

But since you said lighters, to play with the idea of things that exist, I’m gonna go with tents. Probably those onion shaped ones that are designed to be permanent housing, or yurts. Sure water and food are important but without shelter you’re fucked, and I could house everyone.

Now if it were an apocalypse where I’m the only survivor, I would want an infinite supply of one thing.

BACKUP. GLASSES.

Genies in a lamp