Orange Goop and Books

Orange Goop is a cream-like substance that mechanics use to clean the grime off of their hands. It is sold in the dollar stores around my area. It is great for removing sticky residue off of book covers—you know those sticky price tags that thrift shops, etc. put on books!

Probably any similar product that mechanics use to clean their hands would work just as well. Just, don't buy expensive products for removing stickers from books-- check out your dollar(or less) discount stores.

Another thought: the dollar stores themselves are filled with valuable treasures: just last week I sold a wonderful children's book (brand new) that I bought there for a dollar and sold on eBay for $9.99.  I always check out books at our dollar Store.  They have many new books with dust jacket books (without remainder marks) that make great gifts for holiday giving and great books for selling on eBay.

Look What I Found Last Night!

I made an impromptu stop at Goodwill last night...nothing better to do, right?  I found a few "goodies" that I will try to get listed today.

Puzzles are hard to sell unless they have a unique theme (like aliens!), and look at that cookbook on things to do with a store-bought rotisserie chicken!  The Grinch's Chrismas is a favorite, so even if it doesn't sell this year, I'm sure it will by next year.  And look:  I found another Hippo Birdie 2 ewes mug!  I sold one just like it to someone in Australia just a few weeks ago.  What fun! 

Setting Prices

When you sell on eBay, do your prices attract attention? Consider the total price, with shipping. Think like the buyer: just because you think your item is outstanding doesn’t mean others will think it has the same value. Check what your item has previously sold for using the completed item search filter.

Sell in the right format:

 Auction – Use when selling rare items OR when demand outstrips

supply. Auctions with a “Buy It Now” option are taking off and are

being used more and more successfully by sellers.

 Fixed Price – For everything else, consider adding the “Best Offer”

option. It can really boost your sales. Sometimes I increase my fixed

price and set a base best-offer price that is where I wanted to sell

the item in the first place. Buyers still feel they are getting a bargain.

 Charitable Donations - Consider donating a portion of sales to a

charity. Research shows sellers connected to a charity get more

buyers. This also exposes your items on the Giving Works pages. There

are buyers who search there first. Call attention to this in your

description and let them know which charity you support.

ASCII Code ♥ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♥

A friend asked how I make the little music notes in my writing.  So here's the trick:

To make music notes: you need to have a full sized keyboard with the 10-key on the right side. First hold down the ALT key (just to the left or right of your space bar). While holding that down, hit 1 & then 3 on the 10-key pad. That makes ♪. To make the 1/16th  notes do ALT & 1 4  ♫.

To make a heart do ALT & 3.   ♥

Try other combinations! This is called the ASCII (pronounced asky) code.

Use All 55 Spaces

The first thing potential buyers see is your listing’s title. That title is soooo important to get them to click into the listing itself.  If your title is bad, you’ll get fewer viewers, which translates into fewer bidders. But a great title will pull more shoppers into your listing and increase the number of bids. Most buyers find items by searching, so you want to include all the important words in your title. 

The key is to think like the buyers—use the words they are likely to use.  Include the name of the item and any common terms your buyer might be using to look.  Use the model number, use the year it was made, list the color & size, and include whatever terms you might use to describe your item. The more search words you can include the better.

eBay gives you 55 spaces to use to make a title for your listing—use as much of this space as you can! 

Quick Reminder: Overseas shipping

When shipping overseas check on the USPS rules that tell what you cannot send into that particular country.  For instance, do you know you cannot send Saccharine to France?  You cannot send lottery tickets to Sweden, and you cannot send powdered milk to Denmark.  Check out the individual country rules on the Post Office web site.

Today's Grammar Lesson: i.e & e.g.

The Latin abbreviations e.g. and i.e. are often used, but not everyone is aware of the difference in their usage. Some people use them interchangeably. Others even invert their meaning. If you are not completely sure when to use each of those abbreviations, keep reading!

e.g.

e.g. stands for the Latin phrase “exempli gratia,” which means “for the sake of example.” You use it when presenting examples or more possibilities for the term in question. An easy way to remember this is to associate e.g. with “example given.”

I like root vegetables (e.g., carrots and beets)

i.e.

i.e. Stands for the Latin phrase “id est,” which means “that is.” You should use it when explaining or rephrasing a sentence. Usually it has the same meaning as “in other words.”

I like all vegetables (i.e., I eat pretty much anything)

Some considerations

·                       You can use the e.g. and i.e. abbreviations both inside and outside the parenthesis. If you are writing in a formal style, however, they must go inside the parenthesis

·                       They appear in lower case letters even if at the beginning of the sentence

·                       Always separate the letters with a period, and follow the abbreviation with a comma

What does this have to do with eBay?  Not much, other than when I look at other seller's listings I tend to notice bad grammar (i.e. it bugs me!).

Selling Old Board Games

Whoo Hoo!  The old Pac Man Board Game sold last night!  Bought an paid for in the blink of an eye (translated: I made a quick trip to Sam’s Club last night to buy padded envelopes and when I got back, there it was--$60 more in my Paypal account!)

Older games often sell well—sometimes people are looking for parts, or sometimes they just collect them.  And, I have found some really “odd” games sell—ones that weren’t well publicized, but have a unique theme.  Most people have a “stash” of old board games they don’t play anymore….check yours out to see if you have anything you could list on eBay!

Here’s a shot of a few of the games I have….Perhaps a good project for today would be to get them listed!

Is it Brass or Bronze?

I sometimes have a bit of trouble telling the difference between brass and bronze--and I'll bet you do too. 

My bronze goose just sold last night and will go out in today's mail.  I listed it as bronze, but in the back of my mind I'm always second-guessing myself.  I decided I'd better learn the difference if I'm going to sell many pieces like this! 

I didn't have to look far!  My friend Jody, who has an antique shop here, recently wrote a piece in her blog about that very thing!  Check it out here. 

Twitter

Do you twitter?  I have a few twitter accounts:  the one I use for eBay is OldBooks (follow me!) and I try to tweet about my listings once a day. 

I make a comment about one of my listings and give the link.  There are many people out there that click on every link they see (LOL) so it gets my listings looked at.  I realize many of the people who get to look at my link each day will not buy, but you just never know who might be interested!  And the twittering does not cost anything…there’s no down side! 

How do you use twitter?

Rumors of a Postal Rate Hike in January

The U.S. Postal Service said prices for Priority Mail and other Shipping Services might be increased effective January 2, 2011, pending Postal Regulatory Commission review. Pricing for the Express Mail Flat Rate Envelope will remain unchanged at $18.30. A new Express Mail Legal Flat Rate Envelope (15" x 9.5") will be priced the same as the Express Mail Flat Rate Envelope.

USPS Priority Mail Product	Current Rate	Proposed Rate	Percent Change
Flat Rate Envelopes	$4.90	$4.95	1.02%
Legal Flat Rate Envelope (new)	N/A	$4.95	N/A
Padded Flat Rate Envelope (new)	N/A	$4.95	N/A
Small Flat Rate Box	$4.95	$5.20	5.05%
Medium Flat Rate Boxes	$10.70	$10.95	2.34%
Large Flat Rate Box - domestic	$14.50	$14.95	3.1%
Large Flat Rate Box - APO/FPO	$12.50	$12.95	3.6%

They say there will be two new Priority envelopes. The Priority Mail Legal Flat Rate Envelope (15" x 9.5") and Priority Mail Padded Flat Rate Envelope (12.5" x 9.5") are both priced at $4.95. All six types of Priority Mail Flat Rate envelopes will be priced the same as the regular Priority Mail Envelope (12.5" x 9.5") at $4.95, including the Gift Card Flat Rate Envelope, Window Flat Rate Envelope, and Small Flat Rate Envelope.

My eBay Room

Someone the other day asked how I store my inventory…Oh my!  I don’t usually show people my “eBay” room….it’s just jam packed with boxes of items.  I do know where things are (most of the time LOL), but I really could use a better system. 

This is a shot of one wall in my room…it is organized by type of books: the cookbooks are on the top shelves, the craft books on the second shelf, etc.  I also have boxes of books on the floor that really need to be on the shelves (but I’m not showing you pictures of those!) and I have most of my mugs stacked on a table.   But, did you see the mugs on the bookshelves, too?  I have over 30 mugs listed--they’re all over the place, even in the living room!  And, then of course, there’s the stuff in the basement….

May-be I ought to set aside an hour a day to get the room organized….That might be a workable goal.  Then I would be able to show you the entire room! 

The History of eBay

Last night's eBay class was a huge success.  I'm really looking forward to the next 3 weeks.  It's great to have awsome students!

Part of my "intro" to the basic eBay class is to tell about the history of eBay--so I thought I'd put it here, too.

eBay was founded 15 years ago by Pierre Omidyar, who worked in Silicone Valley (near San Francisco, CA), home to many of the world's largest technology companies.  He was 28 when he sat down over a long holiday weekend to write the original computer code for what eventually became eBay. The site was launched on Labor Day, Monday, September 4, 1995, as "Auction Web"; it was hosted on a site Omidyar had created for information on the ebola virus.

The word 'eBay' was made up on the fly by Omidyar when he was told that his first choice for his web site, 'echobay,' had already been registered. Not wanting to make a second trip to Sacramento to register the name, he came up with 'eBay.'  The service was free at first, but started charging in order to cover internet service provider costs.

In March 1998, Meg Whitman (who just yesterday lost her bid for governor of California) was brought in as President and CEO and continued to run the company until January 2008 when she announced her retirement.

The frequently repeated story that eBay was founded to help Omidyar's fiancée trade Pez candy dispensers was fabricated by a public relations manager in 1997 to interest the media.

Millions of eBay members now sell on the site with their own eBay business. eBay has made it easy for people to start a small eBay business in their homes, and has lead to the creation of many large businesses as well. Thousands of people in the U.S. work in their own small eBay business, selling items on eBay full time. Over 700,000 people in the U.S. now rely on their eBay sales as part of their income.

The Statue of Liberty Goes to Australia!

I am sending the Statue of Liberty to Australia today—by Priority mail!

It’s so much fun to get up in the morning and have a new sale (and payment!) waiting in your email.  But, I was a little surprised to see the sale was the Build Your Own Statue of Liberty Kit with an address in Australia! 

There was another payment in my email this morning, too (but it was an item that sold yesterday).  And ironically, it is going to Australia, too!  This birthday mug is so cute, I just have to show you….

Hippo Birdie Two Ewe, Hippo Birdie Two Ewe

Ok, time to stop talking and get to packing these two things up for their trip south!