The baked sweet potatoes Zachary gave would indeed sell for just a few bucks per pound pre-apocalypse, and their price wasn't far from common pure metals of the same weight, like copper and iron.
If we go back before the apocalypse, a ten-times weight exchange rate would undoubtedly bring Zachary good profits, let alone the metal bars brought by the Taylor brothers, which contained not only common metals like copper and iron but also some very valuable rare metals.
However, after the apocalypse, despite Pengcheng entering a recovery period, most metals were unable to be utilised due to damaged processing equipment, severely devaluing their trading value.
Those unassuming pre-apocalyptic baked sweet potatoes, made from grains, now became rare trade items.
Even though some grains had been harvested during the safe period, they were stored in warehouses for emergencies. Every individual grain was precious, and no one dared to brew alcohol for pleasure.
