UNDER $5

Wow! I haven't written in a long time! My Ebay world has been very busy. So... I'm going to cut to the chase and have you check out some of my recently sales. The dollar amount you see on the left is what I paid. Next, you'll see where I found it (GS - garage sale or TS - thrift store). And finally, the link to see the actual Ebay listing and selling price (Sorry, the Ebay listing has expired). Enjoy!

.50 cents - GS - Gusher Game - $57.00
$4.00 - GS - Vase - $35.00
$1.00 - GS - Creamer - $28.57
.25 cents - TS - A First Little Golden Book - $16.49
$5.00 - GS - Longberger Notepad Basket - $27.55
$5.00 - GS - Longberger Christmas Basket - $24.00
$5.00 - GS - Suede Coat - $39.99
$1.00 - TS - Richard Scarry Book - $41.00
$2.00 - TS - 4 Richard Scarry Books - $27.05
$3.00 - GS - Vintage Scuba Diving Weights - $28.51
$1.00 - TS - Chemistry Text Book - $40.00
$3.00 - GS/TS - 25 Dr. Seuss Books - $35.03
$2.00 - GS - 17 Saddle Club Books - $27.95
$3.00 - GS - 15 Harvard Classic Books - $48.00
$5.00 - GS - Star Wars Lego Set - $28.09
.10 cents - GS - Stellarscope - $25.00
$3.50 - GS/TS - 33 American Girl Books - $27.00

SELLING LP's ON EBAY

As I last wrote, the lot of seven Jimmy Buffett albums brought in a good chunk of change. Awesome! However, I promised to write again and tell you how all of the LP's did in the world of Ebay auctions. Instead of me describing each one, you can view them by clicking on the link.

19 Vintage Rock LP Collection - $51.00

12 Classic Rock LP Collection - $12.50

15 Classic Rock LP Collection - $20.50

10 Reggae LP Collection - $31.50

16 Classic Folk Rock LP Collection - $2.47

So, there you have it! Those old albums (NOT including Jimmy Buffett) brought in $117.97! Ka-Ching! If you add the Jimmy Buffett ablums, then it's a grand total of $200.50! Ka-Ching, Ka-Ching!

Unfortunately, I have no idea why some of the groups sold for so much. If you know, please tell me.

Rock on!

MARGARITAVILLE

My husband, Mark told me months ago to Ebay his old LP's. I laughed! Who is going to buy those? Who still has a turn table? HA! Well, it seems there is a market for old LP's. I don't know why I should be surprised since I've sold a doll with the head off and live Koi fish on Ebay. Ebay is like something out of a fiction book. Things of seemingly no value here on planet earth, have value in Ebay's world.

Since there were so many LP's, my husband grouped them by music style. The first group listed, happened to be all by the same artist: Seven Jimmy Buffett albums. Most of them were not in the best condtion. Meaning, many of them had a faded ring imprint on the cover from where the album was pressing from years and years of storage. All the covers had some form of rubbing to the edges and corners. They did though have their original jackets, but most of the jackets were just plain without any type of song lyrics or graphics. All the records looked in perfect condition, so I believe they could of been played without any problems.

Within 24 hours we had received a bid of $2.50. Not too exciting, huh? However, shortly after that bid, this auction entered the Ebay Twilight Zone. The bidding went up and up and ended at $82.53! Of course, I screamed "What!". Who would buy these when they could buy the CD?? Mark reminded me that one of those albums was made before he was famous. However, when we saw how well the auction did, we decided to do some Googling research. We found you could buy it in CD form. So what gives? If you look closely at the songs on both the LP and the CD, you see that there are 3 songs that were not recorded on the CD. I'm sure this is what drove the bidding.

So, next time you pass up that box of LP's at a garage sale or Goodwill, you might want to flip through them and see if you can find "Before the Salt".

Later this week, I will let you know what happened to the rest of my husband's old LP's.

Rock on...

FINDING THE MARKET VALUE OF A BOOK

One way to know the value of a book is to use the website www.addall.com. It will list what the book is selling for on Amazon, Half.com, Alibris, Abebooks and others. This is a considerable time saver from going to each company's website to check value. It's also a great way to see at a glance if there are a lot of copies of the book in the used market.

When I bring home a book that I'm not sure of, I first check Ebay. This lets me see if there is any demand for the book. If there aren't any auctions for it or just a few, I then check addall. This will help me decide if I should sell the book through a different venue. Sometimes Ebay is not the best place to sell a book.

Hope this tip will help you save time when deciding to sell books online.

BALLET BOOKS

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.