What To Do With The Books~Post From The Past

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.

4. Paperback Swap

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!

5 Ways To Reduce Shipping Costs~Repost

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.

Simple Steps To Increase Your Sales on Bonanza

In my conversation with Brienna, I found out that tweeting your Bonanza inventory is essential because sites like eBay send your listings to Google for you, so while you can promote your eBay listings yourself, promoting your items from sites that don’t do as much promotion for you is where you should spend more of your effort. Also, the fees are lower on Bonanza, so you might as well encourage buyers to buy from you there

Sink or Swim…….I’m Divin’ in

In the last 7 years, I’ve learned TONS about selling on eBay. I’m constantly stream lining my process, and working on ways to increase  profit margins.

I’ve experimented around with selling on other venues. I love to sew and hand make things, so I started a little Etsy shop, though I don’t have tons of time to work on  sewing projects, it’s still fun to sell things on there once in awhile.

The majority of my time and effort is spent on eBay. I upload my listings to bonanza and addoway each week, and have occasional sales on both sites. On average, I would say I have 2-3 sales a month between both sites. I did notice things pick up over Christmas on my other venues, but nothing like the volume I experienced on eBay.

One of my business goals for 2012 is to look into selling on amazon.com. I mentioned it to Lizzie and she said……I’ve only sold books on amazon, let me know how it goes. Which means I’m gonna be a pioneer in this project since Lizzie doesn’t sell toys on Amazon.

I’ve talked to a few friends who sell on Amazon, and I started getting excited about it, but at the same time, when you’ve never done something before, it’s kind of like a big black hole . When you’re  used to selling on a venue for 7 years and have learned how to make a decent income on that venue, it’s a little scary to start out on a different site and learn all of the rules and what to sell on that site…….

It was fairly simple to set up an Amazon seller account. It is different than any other set up process I’ve been thorough. Amazon actually calls you during the process and you have to enter the pin number over the phone that  they gave you on your computer screen.

I learned that unless you’re a pro merchant (which you have to pay for)  you can’t add new items to the listing catalog, so for now, I’m sticking with the items I have that are in the catalog.

The listing process is pretty easy, you don’t have to take pictures of your items, just find your same item in the catalog, list it’s condition, price and quantity.  Just a couple of clicks and your item is listed.  The plus side is that listing items on Amazon doesn’t cost you anything, you only pay fees when an items sells.

We’ll see how it goes, but I figure it’s worth a try

5 Ways to Increase Your On-line Sales in December

1.  Have someone analyze your store or listings.

It helps to have another set of eyes looking at your store to see if there’s something you can change that will increase your sales.  The easier it is for customers to find items in your store (organized categories) to search your store (search box in the listings) and the more information you put in your listings, the better.

2. Answer questions promptly.

Sometimes in the busyness of shipping and listing, answering questions gets lost.  I wonder how many more sales could be made if I answered all of my questions from customers within 24 hours.

3. Be prepared to ship.

Make sure you’re stocked up on bubblewrap, poly mailers, labels, tape, boxes, priority boxes and mailers and that your items are organized so you can easily find them when it’s time to ship them out.  The quicker you can get your items in the mail, the happier your customers will be.

4. Stay organized.

During this time of year, things can get a little bit crazy with parties, shopping, programs and then your online sales on top of it all.  Staying organized and on top the items you’ve sold online will help reduce your stress level this holiday season.  I like to eliminate all unnecessary stress and stay ahead of the game.  If I’m running behind and unorganized, I don’t feel a sense of accomplishment.

5. Take a deep breath.

Enjoy it while you can.  The chaos will be over soon, but so will all of the fun times and holiday events with your friends and loved ones.  This is the season that I work for all year long, not only on eBay, but also with my piano students, and this year, I’m moving to a new house right in the middle of it all.  I plan to take it all one day at a time and enjoy every moment of the season.

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