Promoting next week's Blogging Class

This was on NTV's early morning (9am) show today.

eBay has a One-Day Listing Sale - Today

FYI:  eBay is running a 1-day promotion today, June 14. Sellers can list Auction-style listings for a 5-cent Insertion fees no matter the auction starting price.

The promotion applies to both eBay Stores subscribers and sellers who do not have an eBay Store subscription. Sellers who do not have an eBay Store subscription are still eligible to list up to 50 listings Auction-style listings for free per month. Once the free insertion fees have been used, the 5-cent promotional rate will apply to eligible listings.

More new Facebook changes

Facebook has turned on On Facial Recognition For Tagging for some people.  Is it you?

To Disable:
1. Go to your privacy settings.
2. Click “Customize settings.”
3. Scroll down to “Things others share.”
4. Find “Suggest photos of me to friends.”
5. Change to what you want (mine is on disable).

Books I do NOT sell

In my years of looking for old books, I have discovered there are a few catagories that are NOT considered valuable, and therefore not worth listing on eBay (or any other online venue):

Bibles

No other book has been printed more often than the Bible. Because they are so common, most Bibles have no significant monetary value. Certain important editions of the Bible, however, are collectible: the earliest printed Bibles dating from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the 1611 printings of the first authorized English (King James) version; and a variety of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century oddities such as the "Breeches" Bible, the "Vinegar" Bible, and the "Wicked" Bible, which have some misprint or peculiar wording. Bibles that contain handwritten genealogical or other family information do not have market value, unless the families or individuals in them were famous.

Sermons and Religious Instruction

Like Bibles, many other types of religious books, such as hymnals and other worship books, collections of sermons, and books of religious instruction, were intended for wide circulation. Great quantities were printed as cheaply as possible, making them both less scarce and less attractive to collectors. There are some exceptions. Early Shaker tracts and the first Roman Catholic Bibles printed in the United States, for example, are considered important and may be quite rare, resulting in greater demand and higher prices. Still, there are some people who collect old hymnals, so be aware of some of these smaller niches.

Collected Editions of an Author's Work

When authors become popular and well-established, publishers often issue collected editions of their works. Such editions may be offered in special bindings and may even be limited and signed, but they are seldom rare. Exceptions include editions published by fine presses or historically significant editors, which may be valued by collectors or libraries for that reason. (Reader's Digest Condensed books fall into this catagory).

Encyclopedias

Since encyclopedias are published and purchased for the currency of their information, obsolete editions of modern encyclopedias have little monetary value, whatever the historical interest of their articles. The eleventh edition (1911) of the Encyclopedia Britannica may be one exception. Complete sets of encyclopedias published before 1800 also have some market value. Single volumes are worth hardly anything.

Textbooks

Old schoolbooks and college textbooks typically fall into the category of second-hand books. There is a market for early American primers in very good or fine condition. The Eclectic Readers of William Holmes McGuffey are favorites among collectors, for example, though prices vary considerably depending on the edition and condition. Illustrated textbooks printed before 1850 are also sought after, as are early examples of textbooks that instructed students about topics now studied, like the place of African-Americans, women, or immigrant groups in society. But then again, some current college level text books are worth selling, but make sure the edition is still in use.

OOPS!

I was listing a men’s tie with a novelty cartoon character on it; and as usual, I list information from the label, which this time included that it was made in Myanmar. Frankly, I’d never heard of Myanmar—but I soon found out about it!  When I got the last page of my listing, a big square note popped up that said:

Embargoed Goods!
eBay prohibits all sales of products of Burma (Myanmar) origin that were imported from Burma (Myanmar) after August 27, 2003.
If you list such an item in violation of this policy, we may remove the item and may revoke your trading privileges on our site.  

If you list an item of Burma origin that was imported prior to August 27, 2003, we encourage you to explain in your listing the circumstances and timing of its importation from Burma.
More information on the current restrictions may be found at the following site:
http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/programs/index.shtml
All I can say, is check your labels!

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.