My wife's book pricing system on her desk.
So it's been about five weeks since I announced that I was going to promote a proper eBay store and not just sell the occasional book here and there. It's been really tough holding back on selling some of them, and then ready to move on with selling some others. It turned out I have a ton more books than I thought, but then also less at the same time. Sooo many damn hard covers.. so heavy and take up so much space. I wish I could get rid of them all. For this quick post, I though I would go over what sold, for how much, and how much we made. The amount listed of each sale is before shipping (I charge $5 for PB and $6 for HC) and includes estimated eBay fees.
- $18 - The Origin of Crabs - Guy Smith - First PB
- $17 - The Shadow of the Torturer - Gene Wolfe - First Timescape PB
- $30 - The Black Horde - Richard Lewis - First PB
- $20 - Chapterhouse Dune - Frank Herbert - First/First HC
- $25 - Children of Dune - Frank Herbert - BCE HC
- $16 - God Emperor of Dune - Frank Herbert - BCE HC
- $25 - And The Put out the Light - ECR Lorac - First PB
- $15 - God Emperor Dune - Frank Herbert - 1983 PB
- $10 - Dragon in the Sea - Frank Herbert - 1956 HC no DJ
- $12 - Dune Messiah - Frank Herbert - 1980 PB
- $75 - Encyclopedia of Fairies - Kathrine Briggs - First/First HC
- $12 - Alone Against Tomorrow - Harlan Ellison - BCE HC
- $10 - Dune Messiah - Frank Herbert - 1970 PB
- $15 - Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein - 1968 PB
- $13 - The Belgariad Part One - David Eddings - BCE HC
- $11 - Children of Dune - Frank Herbert - 1984 PB 22nd Printing
- $32 - Chapterhouse Dune/Heretics of Dune - Frank Herbert - 1980's PB lot
- $12 - Conan The Treasure of the Tranicos - Robert E. Howard - Ace First PB
- $15 - Shadows Linger - Glen Cook - First PB
- $10 - Count Zero - William Gibson - 1987 PB
- $10 - 25th Spc Ed. Dune - Frank Herbert - 1990 PB
- $15 - Children of Dune - Frank Herbert - Ace 1987 PB
- $12 - Brazen Gambit - Lynn Abbey - First Dark Sun 1994
- $15 - God Emperor Dune - Frank Herbert - BCE HC
- $15 - Witch World - Andre Norton - First PB 1963
- $50 - Heretics of Dune - Frank Herbert - First/First HC
Cute little custom bookmark and stamp
Total amount earned: $721.37, 26 sold, currently sitting at 162 active listings. Almost selling a book a day, but I noticed that people wait until the weekend to shop, so we always have a few to mail on Monday mornings. I pack the books and my wife lists them, we have a good system. We bought a cute little stamp pad and our talented son drew us a custom logo; I stamp each bubble mailer, and the custom book marks that are library cards we put with each order, and of course everything comes in a protective bag with some cardboard backing. In the time that we have sold 26 books, I have been to three book stores and found at least another 25 books that would count as listable, I.e.: Books with a high rate of sale over $10 in sold auction value. 13 of the books sold were Dune books, which I have a ton of, doubles, different printings, you name it. I've read the books and don't have a crazy attachment to them, and I see and have found a few out in the wild already to replace the ones sold for one or two dollars each. In short, this is something we could keep up for a long time with the current inventory.
The goals of this project are:
- Learn how to run a small retail business with my wife without killing each other
- Learn more about books and what sells (It's Dune, at the moment, but these Choose your own adventure books are interesting and rare)
- Make money and pay down some bills
- Use what I know about marketing and sales to be successful
- Manage a target inventory of 500 books
- Have fun
So far we're having a blast, posting more books, and making new memories. I love seeing and touching and opening boxes of books that have not seen the light of day for over 10 years, researching and planning, and of course reading some of them again.
