Online Selling Tip of the Week
May 17, 2012 by The Selling Sisters
Filed under Ebay, Etsy, Selling Tips
Something is better than nothing.
When you’re having a busy week, don’t get down on yourself if you haven’t listed as many items as you want to list.
Did you at least do something for your online business? Shipping? Take pictures? Organize items that you already listed?
You’re only one person. You’re not Superman. Do what you can do this week and try again next week.
What To Do With The Books~Post From The Past
May 10, 2012 by The Selling Sisters
Filed under Ebay, Etsy, Finding Inventory, How To...
I’m a book loving homeschool mom.
This is not good for my house. I find books at the thrift store and they pile up like crazy. My “to read” pile is always so huge, I feel like I’ll never get to it.
When I’m done with books, or cleaning out books here’s what I do.
1. Check eBay.
A lot of times the books I have aren’t selling for much on eBay.
Most of the time I feel that eBay is a better place to get a deal on books than to make a profit on selling books. I’m talking about normal paperbacks and older books–not collectibles or highly sought after books.
I often list homeschool books on eBay though because there seems to be a decent market for them there.
2. Check Half.com
If there are 100 books listed for .75 on Half, I don’t bother listing mine!
3. Check Amazon
Sometimes, I’m pretty pleased with the amount used books are selling for on Amazon and I list it there. Listing on Amazon is very quick and easy. Amazon deposits your commission in your checking account pretty quickly too. Ditto with the 100’s of books at .01.
Paperback Swap isn’t a way to make money but it’s a great way to move books that aren’t worth selling and replace them with books you want!
Here’s a basic “how it works”.
*You sign up for free–this is my link. If you sign up and list 10 books, I will get 1 credit that’s all.
*List 10 books–books can be paperback, hardcover, children’s books, easy readers, etc. They cannot have water damage, be written in, or be advanced reader copies.
Listing is REALLY easy. You just enter ISBN numbers.
*When a member wants a book you have, you pay to ship it to them by Media Mail. When they receive it, they tell Paperback Swap and you get 1 credit to spend.
*When you want a book, you use your credits and request books and that member pays to ship it to you.
Paperback Swap has helped me find tons of books for school and other books that I’m interested in reading. Give it a try, if you love books you’ll love it too. Recently, I reviewed a book for my personal blog. I discovered that it was a series so I went to Paperback Swap and found the other 3 books. Thankfully, I had enough credits, so I ordered them all and they’re already here waiting for me to get busy reading!
5. Check Etsy too
On Etsy, you may be able to sell vintage books. I’ve seen people sell, “Instant Collection” type of listings with vintage books. Check out that link for clarification of this idea.
Another great thing to do with cool vintage books is to take an exacto knife to it and sell the pages to people looking for paper for their projects.
I’ve sold pages from French books, hymn books, ledger paper, children’s dictionary pages, etc. I’ve listed some other vintage pages lately. If you don’t think the vintage book will sell and the pages are interesting, consider selling pages for collage or paper ephemera.
One of my customers sent me these photos of her wedding and my French book pages!
Good luck with the books!
What’s Selling Well For You?
May 2, 2012 by The Selling Sisters
Filed under Ebay, Etsy, Motivation
I’ve been slacking on the eBay listing, but I’ve sold some homeschooling things lately and that always makes me happy!
If you’re not selling, what are you buying?
Online Selling Tip of the Week
April 30, 2012 by The Selling Sisters
Filed under Ebay, Etsy, Working At Home
Enlinst your family to help you with your listings and shipping.
Working together on a project like running an online store is a lot of fun for a family to do together. Even small children can help put packages out for the mail carrier, put labels on and put items away once they’ve been listed.
It’s not only fun, but a great way to teach your kids about business, work ethics and making money.
5 Ways To Reduce Shipping Costs~Repost
April 23, 2012 by The Selling Sisters
Filed under Ebay, Etsy, How To...
If you can save a few cents per item you increase your profits and decrease the customer’s cost . With the price of gas and postage being high, who wants to spend more on postage than you need to?
1) Print your own shipping labels.
One of the best ways to reduce your shipping costs (and save time) is to print your shipping labels through paypal shipping. To save even more time, if you haven’t already linked your eBay account to your PayPal account for shipping, go ahead and link them. You can print your shipping labels through eBay and your postage will still be paid for by your PayPal account.
Printing your labels directly through eBay (or PayPal) saves you money because the cost of shipping PRIORITY flat rate boxes and envelopes is less if you print your postage online AND the best part is the delivery confirmation is FREE when you ship items PRIORITY mail via eBay or PayPal shipping. Delivery confirmation on 1st class, parcel post and media mail is significantly less when you print your postage through eBay and PayPal.
This is one of the most basic ways to save money on your shipping costs, but I’m still surprised at the number of sellers out there who don’t take advantage of this savings.
2) Ship soft items in poly mailers.
When I first started selling on eBay, I shipped almost everything in a box or a bubble mailer. Boxes and bubble mailers add weight to your packaging, which means you pay more postage to ship the item. If you haven’t already tried poly mailers, give them a try. They add about 1/10 of an ounce to the weight of your item. You can ship clothing, plush toys, books, and I’ve even shipped some shoes (mostly sandals, kids shoes, anything light) wrapped in bubble wrap in poly mailers.
3) Utilize PRIORITY flat rate shipping boxes and mailers.
One of my favorite things to ship Jeans and bulky sweaters in is the PRIORITY flat rate envelope (the current rate to ship this mailer is $4.75) I don’t even know how much it costs to ship a pair of jeans via PRIORITY mail now days, but the last time I checked, I couldn’t ship them out for under $7.99. I found out that by folding the jeans up and putting them in a poly mailer, pushing out the excess air and then putting the poly mailer in a flat rate PRIORITY envelope, I can ship them out for about half of what it would normally cost me. I’ve never had a pair of jeans not fit in the mailer.
I’ve also used the same method for jean skirts, and heavier sweaters (cashmere can usually ship out via 1st class for less than $4.75, so I ship them in poly mailers.)
4) Utilize USPS.com carrier pickup.
By having your mail carrier pick up your outgoing packages from home, it saves you both time (driving to the post office, standing in line) and money (gas, mileage) my motto is “work smarter, not harder” don’t make selling online any more difficult than it needs to be.
5) Know what “class” to send your packages.
Mailing a 10 ounce item via PRIORITY mail is going to cost you a lot more than sending it 1st class. Items being shipped within the USA that weigh 13.0 ounces or less can ship out 1st class.
13.1 ounces or higher, usually PRIORITY will be the least expensive option. (Also, when you ship via PRIORITY mail, be familiar with the rates for the flat rate boxes and mailers, sometimes it’s less expensive to use a USPS flat rate box or mailer than it is to use your own box or polymailer and ship the item PRIORITY mail.)
Books, CD’s, DVD’s etc that are under 5 ounces are usually less expensive to ship when you use 1st class shipping.
Depending on where you live and where your item is being shipped to it will vary, but I typically find that media mail items over 6 ounces are less expensive to ship via Media Mail than they are to ship 1st Class.
