Little Golden Books

I don’t usually deal in children’s books, but I did list a collectible Little Golden Book this week.  I needed to do some quick research before pricing it and thought I’d share a bit of what I learned.

Everyone remembers reading the Little Golden Books as a child--Little Golden books were first produced in 1942.  Twelve titles were sold that year. They were an immediate hit with young children and their parents, who loved the 25¢ price.  These older books are quite collectible. If you have an old one in good shape (no scribbles, no missing pages, etc.) you might be surprised how much it sells for. 

One thing to remember:  Never date your book by the copyright.  Copyrights seldom changed and the book that says 1942 just might have been printed in 1980!

For books published in 1947 – 1970, there is an easy way to tell the edition: Look on the last page of the book in the lower right hand corner by the spine. There will be a letter and this letter tells the edition. For example A=1st, Z=26th, AA=27.

For books published between 1971 – 1991, on the bottom of one of the first two pages you will see something like A B C D E or a b c d e. The first letter to the far left is the edition.

For books published after 1991, besides having the copyright date, the book will also have a printing date in Roman Numerals. If a book from this period does not have a Roman Numeral date it is a first printing and it was left off by mistake. If the letter "A" precedes the Roman Numerals the book is a first edition. If an "R" precedes the Roman Numeral then the book is a (R)evised edition.

It’s a complicated system, but good to know if you think you’ve found a valuable book!  Go look in your shelves to see if you have one of the older books!

Facebook Friend Requests

Something new for Facebook: When users include a personal message with a friend request, that message will now also appear in the Messages inbox of the recipient. These messages, which allowed users to add a short note to a friend request, only appeared in the Requests channel. This made them easy to miss, especially since once a request was answered, the message was permanently deleted.

By adding these friend request personal messages to the Messages inbox, users are much more likely to see them and users will always have them, significantly reducing the chance of these notes being lost.

Flush Left

Centered text is harder to read than text that is flush left.  (quoted from Griff who was on eBay Radio yesterday)  Go check some eBay descriptions—you’ll see what he means! 

I really never gave it much thought before since all my eBay descriptions are flush left (also known as aligned left or justified left).  But now that he mentioned it, I think that’s an important point—almost as important as not making your description look like a rainbow. 

It’s all about making your listing easy to read.  If at first glance it looks hard to read, many people will just go on to someone else’s eBay offering.  If you want to make a profit, you have to pay attention to small details!

Selling Barbie Dolls

Do you sell Barbie Dolls on eBay?  I recently acquired a few copies of Barbie Bazaar—a Barbie Collector magazine.  These are from 1989 and beyond (first published in late 1988—I do have the premier issue, too!)—I just about have them all listed.

One issue has an article on selling guidelines.  Remember, this was 1989 when there was no eBay and very little internet.  Some dealers would sell Barbies and accessories by mail.  This article gives suggestions for uniform grading of collectible Barbies.  The purpose was to grade the dolls & clothes; and to list the flaws any item might have.  (Kind of sounds like how I talk about descriptions on an eBay listing to my students.) 

They suggested that these acronyms be used for descriptions:

NRFB - Never Removed From the original Box

MIB - Mint in Box

MINT - Unplayed-with condition.  Doll may have been displayed, but never played with and looks like it just came out of the box.

EC - Excellent Condition.  It may have been played with but has no flaws.

VGC - Very Good Condition.  A nice doll that may have some minor flaws.

GC - Good Condition. This may make a decent display item, but has some major flaws like cut hair, green by ears, fingers missing, etc.

Fair - Item could be dirty, buttons missing, or may be torn or stained.

Interesting list, isn’t it?  I personally would combine the last two.  And, remember to list (and photograph) every flaw that you see in your listings.

Outstanding Customer Service

Part of my recent trip to California included a stop in Las Vegas for eBay sellers’ convention—eBay on Location.  I’ll be telling you about it in bits and pieces, but today I want to talk about Customer Service. 

Marsha Collier, author of the many eBay for Dummies books, was there. She talked about the importance of connecting with customers, making them feel important, and offering top-notch customer service.  Her presentations have motivated me to do better in the communications department (I think I do OK now, but there’s always room for improvement). 

But, let me tell you about an eBay seller who excels in the area of customer service—their eBay ID is sleepymountainmattress.  Granted, they are a company and not an individual seller like myself, but their attention to keeping me informed about my purchase has really impressed me. 

I ordered a memory foam mattress topper from them (I discovered I could get one for soooo much less on eBay than from my local big all-in-one store) a few days ago.  They have sent me at least 3 emails thanking me and telling me that the order was shipped, how it was sent, and when it would arrive. 

This morning my phone rang—I almost didn’t answer it because it was a number I didn’t recognize.  It was sleepymountainmattress, thanking me again and telling me the package ought to arrive today!  Wow!  What outstanding customer service!  I will certainly look to them the next time I need any of their products!

 (And if you have been thinking of buying one of those memory foam toppers, they have great prices—check them first)

Look in your junk drawer!

Don’t discount some of those junk-drawer items as being just “junk.” I have been going through my folks’ house and selling some of their items that my brother and I don’t want to keep. I found this old beer opener and thought it might have some value.

And it did! Even I was surprised! It turns out that the advertising on it was from an old California brewery that no longer exists. I started the auction on eBay at just 99¢ and I was thrilled when it went up to $8, and then a few days later it was at $20. It sold at even higher! 

Check out the completed auction HERE--You will hardly believe the final selling price! Do you have any old beer bottle openers to sell?

There's That LIKE Button Again!

I’ve noticed something new on eBay--there’s a Facebook LIKE button on some of my listings. When I click on it, that listing is posted on my Facebook page!

These Facebook Like buttons appear at the top of the page, directly under the listing title. The buttons do not appear in all categories yet, but are starting to show up on a few of my own listings--mostly those with free shipping.

I had heard a little bit about it at the eBay convention in Las Vegas last week--eBay told us that "We're actively working on putting more "Like" buttons on the site."

I, for one, "Like" it.