Posted on 08 January 2009 by Gary H
For many years I’ve been making a twice a year round trip of 460 miles to a university town of about 17,000 people in Minnesota for their semi-annual AAUW book sale.
The sale has never had a preview and always starts at 10:00 Friday morning. I usually leave early Thursday morning and poke around the antique shops and malls between here and there. I stay overnight in a motel, grab breakfast in the morning, and if I’m in line by 8:00 there are usually roughly 10 to 20 people in line ahead of me. By the time the doors open at 10:00 there are 200 plus people waiting in line to get in.
They always have between 25,000 and 35,000 books with nearly all of them priced between $.50 and $1.00. If they feel they have something special, it gets priced at $2.00. Most years this is one of the three most productive book sales I go to.
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Popularity: 25% [?]
Posted on 02 August 2008 by Gary H
If you live in, or near, a university or college town and buy used textbooks for resale on Amazon, eBay, or Halfcom it’s likely you have bought an Instructors, or Teachers, edition or solutions manual at some time. When you did, you quickly learned that selling them is against eBay’s, Amazon’s, & Halfcom’s policy.
Amazon’s policy reads in part - “In most cases, Teacher’s Editions and Annotated Instructor’s Editions are NOT intended for public sale and may not be listed for sale on Amazon.com.”
eBay’s policy reads - “Teacher’s editions of textbooks and solutions manuals that are intended solely for use by teachers are not permitted by eBay.” HalfCom’s policy pretty much mirrors eBays.
There is, however, a way you may be able to turn Instructors editions and solutions manual into a profit when you find them.
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Popularity: 39% [?]
Posted on 20 February 2008 by Gary H
There has been a lot of talk during the last few weeks by eBay sellers who say they are moving their business to alternative sites and never selling on eBay again. Much of the discussion has centered on Amazon as an alternative to eBay.
But is Amazon really a viable alternative to eBay?
The answer may be yes or no for each individual seller depending upon what they sell and how they sell it. Before making a decision, each seller needs to evaluate the pros and cons of Amazon vs eBay in relation to their own business.
While I’m sure this isn’t a complete list, based upon quite a few years of selling on both Amazon and eBay, here are some things sellers should consider before making a decision to move their business to Amazon.
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Popularity: 19% [?]
Posted on 27 October 2007 by Gary H
The local chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) is having their annual book sale this Friday and Saturday.
The sale is always located in the middle of the main corridor of one of our local shopping malls. Because of the large number of books to be put out each year, the ladies from the AAUW always start setting up for the sale Thursday morning and enforce a strict policy of “no sales” until the sale begins at 10:00 Friday Morning.
I have a friend named John, a retired school teacher, who has been selling books on Amazon for the last few years as a way to supplement his retirement income. John’s wife sent him to the mall shortly after it opened Thursday morning to pick up something for her. On his way out of the mall, hoping to scope-out the location of a few good books, he asked one of the two women there if he could “just look” at what they had out.
Her response was, “Go right ahead. If you find any you are interested in, buy them. We’re here to sell them.”
“I can buy them now?”, he responded.
“Buy all you want”, she replied.
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Popularity: 23% [?]
Posted on 09 October 2007 by Gary H
Over the last couple months, most mentions of Amazon here elicit two or three emails from readers asking what kind of books sell well on there.
I’m certainly a long ways from being an expert on that subject but, over time, I’ve been able to develop an ‘eye’ in some genres of what has a fair chance of doing well on Amazon. However. whenever I try to answer those questions, once I get beyond ‘non-fiction’, I have a hard time generalizing what kind of books I look for. After I hit the ’send email’ button I’m always left with the feeling that I haven’t really been a whole lot of help.
Yesterday evening was the cut-off time for my last two weeks of Amazon sales. I thought I’d list the titles of what I sold on Amazon during the previous two week period in the hope that seeing some actual titles would help interested readers get a better idea of what, for me, generally does well. I’m just cutting and pasting these out of my Amazon stats page, so in some cases, if the book has a long title, the last word or two may be cut off.
So, here goes.
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Popularity: 18% [?]
