Dr. Suess

How many times have you seen The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss at a garage sale? I don't think a weekend garage sale shopping or trip to the thrift store goes by without me seeing at least one of them. Did you ever think how much a lot of Dr. Seuss books would sell for on Ebay?

What I mean is a lot of those Beginner Books or Bright & Early Books with the Cat in the Hat Logo on the spine. If you have at least 25 of them, you can do well on Ebay. Based on my research 25+ books in a lot sell the best.

So here are my tips regarding this type of listing:

1) You need at least 25 books to get a good return on your time and investment.

2) Take a picture of them showing the spine, so the Ebayer can easily see what titles you are selling.

3) Make sure you quote a media mail postal rate. This will help your listing stand out from others quoting the more expensive parcel post or priority mail rates. You can get an idea of how much it will cost to mail your books by using the USPS website's "calculate postage" page.

I have done this type of listing a few times. The first time, I listed 22 books and made $27.08. My investment cost for that particular auction was $1.00! Sorry, but I can't remember how I got them all so cheaply. It may have been when one of my favorite thrift stores had "bag of books for $1.00". You can cram a lot of books in a bag.

The second time I listed 25 books and made $35.03. My investment cost was $3.00.

The third time I listed 30 books and made $55.00. My investment cost was $5.00.

So, pick them up when you see them. Be patient and wait till you have at least 25 of them. In the meantime, if your kids are gentle with books they will enjoy reading or looking at them.

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.