One of the things that I have found successful selling on Ebay are books. However, not just a variety of books, but books with a theme. Selling one book at a time has not paid off for me. The time it takes to list it, photograph it, and then ship it eats away my profit margin. Unless the book is rare, hard to find or out of print, then its just not worth my time.
Selling books in groups with something in common has been much more rewarding for my time. The books can either be by the same author, from a series, or for a certain target market. For example, children's book author and illustrated Jan Brett sell very well in groups/lots. Magic Tree House books or the Left Behind series sell well when you have all the books in the series. Books that have received the Caldecott or Newbery award sell well together too, as I've shown in past blog posts.
Keeping this in my mind, I was at a garage sale and noticed this person was selling all these ballet/dance books. All of them were in excellent condition, and there was a sign that said "everything half off". It was obviously the last day for their garage sale, and they wanted to get rid of all their "stuff". Counting the books and realizing the cost would be $1.50, I decided to take a chance and see what would happen on Ebay. I had never thought of doing this, but since I figured there are people out there who have children taking ballet, then perhaps there would be some interest or demand for books such as these.
I bought 7 books that day with half of them written for the little child in mind, and the other for someone who might be studying dance at the college level. When I got home I researched each one individually and found that none of them were rare with a high dollar value. Many of them were out of print, but there were enough used copies available to keep the price too low for me to make a return on my investment. So, I gathered them all together on the floor, took a picture and listed them on Ebay. My lot of ballet books brought in $36.01! Now, that's a fair return on my time.
Since this auction, I have kept my eyes open for books with a theme. I'm sure if you found a bunch of books about button collecting or trains or scrapbooking, there would be a market on Ebay for them. You may want to try searching on Ebay with that in mind, and see what you find.
If you have had success in doing the same thing I did with my ballet books, leave me a comment and tell me about it.
Next time I'll share with you how I determine if a book is rare enough to list alone. Checking Amazon.com is not sufficient enough to make this kind of decision. So, tune in next week.
Selling books in groups with something in common has been much more rewarding for my time. The books can either be by the same author, from a series, or for a certain target market. For example, children's book author and illustrated Jan Brett sell very well in groups/lots. Magic Tree House books or the Left Behind series sell well when you have all the books in the series. Books that have received the Caldecott or Newbery award sell well together too, as I've shown in past blog posts.
Keeping this in my mind, I was at a garage sale and noticed this person was selling all these ballet/dance books. All of them were in excellent condition, and there was a sign that said "everything half off". It was obviously the last day for their garage sale, and they wanted to get rid of all their "stuff". Counting the books and realizing the cost would be $1.50, I decided to take a chance and see what would happen on Ebay. I had never thought of doing this, but since I figured there are people out there who have children taking ballet, then perhaps there would be some interest or demand for books such as these.
I bought 7 books that day with half of them written for the little child in mind, and the other for someone who might be studying dance at the college level. When I got home I researched each one individually and found that none of them were rare with a high dollar value. Many of them were out of print, but there were enough used copies available to keep the price too low for me to make a return on my investment. So, I gathered them all together on the floor, took a picture and listed them on Ebay. My lot of ballet books brought in $36.01! Now, that's a fair return on my time.
Since this auction, I have kept my eyes open for books with a theme. I'm sure if you found a bunch of books about button collecting or trains or scrapbooking, there would be a market on Ebay for them. You may want to try searching on Ebay with that in mind, and see what you find.
If you have had success in doing the same thing I did with my ballet books, leave me a comment and tell me about it.
Next time I'll share with you how I determine if a book is rare enough to list alone. Checking Amazon.com is not sufficient enough to make this kind of decision. So, tune in next week.
