Three Tips in One Day!

Tip 1.  Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader has been published since 1988. The most recent one is number 23. I always try to pick these up when I’m thrift shopping--they usually sell quite well. I found number 6 this week and just listed it this morning.

Tip 2.  Do you twitter? It’s a great place for free advertising! Just comment about your most recent listing and put in a link--suddenly you have lots more people looking at your listing!

Tip 3.  Since twitter limits you to 140 spaces, brevity is of most importance! So use a URL shortener for your tweet--I use tinyurl.com. My tweet this morning about my Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader reads There are approx 50% more male southpaws than female. Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader #6. 
Twitter will make a link and people will click on it, see your listing and hopefully some of them will be interested enough to bid!

Speedy Bump

I just discovered a great site--SpeedyBump.com. It gives free advertising for your eBay auctions.

You fill in your eBay auction with just the item number, no image to upload, no text description to fill out, just paste in your eBay Item Number and they do the rest! SpeedyBump.com is so fast it takes just seconds to show up on their site. They ask that you only post 3 items at a time to give others a fair chance at the exposure--but as soon as your item/s reach the bottom of the page and disappear, you can add them back or others as you see fit--just remember, only 3 at a time.

Crop Circles

I became interested in Crop Circles a few years back and bought myself a couple of books (on eBay of course!).

After looking through the books, I put them on the shelf, never to open them again....so I might as well list them since they're not doing me any good just sitting here. 

What do you have that used to be important, but is just collecting dust on your shelf?  Why not list it so someone else might enjoy it like you used to?

The Unknown Hood Ornament

I finally listed the hood ornament!  I've been researching this thing for a full 2 days now. First I checked on eBay and found one similar (but not exact) on completed listings...it was a 1933 Olds.  Then I emailed my son-in-law,  who said it was a 1954 Buick.  I'd already been on various sites that show the different (there are soooo many!) but when I searched for a '54 Buick, it just wasn't the same--the '54 had upturned wings.

I put a picture on Facebook and got a few suggestions...one friend suggested it looked like an old Cadillac piece. I talked to the old guy around the corner who knows old cars...he said it looked a lot like an Oldsmobile.

So I listed it with a few question marks--and even revealed my ignorance in the description...would you believe it got a bid in the first 6 hours it was listed!!!

Now I'm second-guessing myself:  Did I start it too low?  I don't think so, but we'll see how it turns out in 6 days....check it out yourself:   Vintage Hood Ornament

ET has arrived!

My friends Norb & Marie sell odd items on eBay….I just couldn’t resist showing you this one….Doesn’t it remind you of ET?

　
It's item number 230570214389 if you want to check it out.  What fun!

On vacation, but still selling

Since I am in California for a few weeks, I put my store on vacation settings…but wouldn’t you know it…I received an offer for one of my books! Luckily my daughter at home was able to locate the book and will send it out as soon as payment is received.

I am selling items from my other eBay ID (the one I use when teaching), so if you are interested, check out ask.rae.

Understanding the Stock Market

(note: I was cleaning out old files on my computer and found this--perhaps you'll get a chuckle from it!)

Once upon a time, in a place overrun with monkeys, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them.
The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, they became harder to catch, so the villagers stopped their effort.

The man then announced that he would now pay $20 for each one. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. But soon the supply diminished even further and they were ever harder to catch, so people started going back to their farms and forgot about monkey catching.

The man increased his price to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so sparse that it was an effort to even see a monkey, much less catch one.

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys for $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on his behalf.

While the man was away the assistant told the villagers, "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has bought. I will sell them to you at $35 each and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each."

The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys.

They never saw the man nor his assistant again, and once again there were monkeys everywhere.

Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works.