Book Selling Online

Ok, so this isn't food or homeschooling related but I've been asked several times about selling books on Amazon so I figured I'd post the info here.

For those of you who were interested in selling books on Amazon, here are a few thoughts. One place to start is http://www.booksalefinder.com/ You can find out where and when there are used book sales near you. Library book sales and thrift stores such as Goodwill are a great source for cheap used books. Some sellers use a handheld scanner and their cell phone to scan a book, see how much it's worth on Amazon and then decide whether to buy it or not. We haven't gone that route yet.

Another resource we found helpful when we were starting out is here:

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y201/m06/abu0039/s05

It discusses selling on eBay, which is another option. But it's got lots of useful advice, be sure to read the subsequent chapters as well (there's a spot to click at the end of each article to take you to the next one.)

We started out selling our books from college and graduate school and then went on to selling nonfiction. Fiction doesn't sell for very much usually, unless it's something very rare or a very new bestseller. Nonfiction tends to sell for more. Academic books can sell quite well but be careful of textbooks, they're only good if they're very recent. I'd say, find a niche and get to know what sells well in that area. Then you can expand to other subjects. Obscure is usually better than popular. An obscure book may not sell as quickly but it will likely sell for more. For example, I know my husband got a bunch of old quilting books really cheap once. They weren't much to look at but they were worth a decent amount. Some shiny new book might only go for 50 cents. It's not necessarily about looks... although you generally don't want to buy something that's in really bad shape.

We have chosen to only sell books that list for more than $5. We found that anything worth less than that wasn't worth the space to store them and the time to wrap and mail them. Anything we bring home that's worth less than that we just donate. It seems counterintuitive but when you've only paid a dollar or less for a book it's ok to take some losses. All you need is one that lists for a good price to more than make up for any others you bought that were only worth 50 cents. Say you buy 30 books for $30. If you list half of them for an average of $10 each, then you've easily made $120 (once they all sell.) As you get better at choosing (or when you get lucky and one of those books goes for $100) you can make much, much more.

We started out wrapping books in brown paper bags and tape which is practically free. Once our inventory increased this wasn't feasible anymore and now we buy mailers in bulk at:

http://www.cornellrobbins.com/2.htm


And now back to our regularly scheduled posting on food and homeschooling. Well, I guess it's only been food so far. And I haven't been posting at all regularly either. Maybe my next post should be a list of the materials we're using for our unit on medieval times...

Cheesy fish crackers

More yummy food discoveries, thank you Nigella Lawson again. In our pursuit of food for "regular" kids we discovered an awesome snack. They are cheese crackers which she calls "cheese stars." We dutifully used a star cookie cutter but as soon as we tasted them it was clear we had to get a fish cookie cutter, because they taste just like Goldfish. They were delicious and it was hard to believe they're homemade. Nigella really knows food for kids.

Cheesy Fish (from How to Eat by Nigella Lawson)

1/2 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

pinch salt

2 Tablespoons butter (softened)

2/3 cup grated cheddar (we used KerryGold Blarney)

1/4 cup grated parmesan (KerryGold Dubliner)

Mix well, it's crumbly at first but will come together when you knead it. Roll out to 1/8 to 1/4 inches (depending on if you want them more moist or more crunchy.) Once again Nigella's estimate is way off, it says to roll out to 1/2 inch but if you do that it only makes a few crackers. My sister pointed out this may be a problem or mistakes with the translation from metric.

Anyway, cut out with cookie cutter and bake at 400 degrees for 6-9 minutes (depending on thickness.)

I imagine the flavor will vary considerably with the cheese you use. But I think they'd be good regardless. They were definitely a hit at my son's birthday party.

My new best friend ...

My new best friend is a 40something Amish farmer. Well, ok, not really but he is an exciting new person in my life. Why? Because he went way above and beyond to find out which of the products he makes and sells are corn free. After several weeks of checking he was able to sell me ground beef, ground pork (for making my own sausage because his sausage processor wouldn't make any for me because he was afraid of getting sued), chicken, eggs and cheese. Woohoo! I ought to have introduced them slowly to make sure they were all safe but I was so excited to have all these new foods that we had some of each today. So far, so good (although the organic pluot from across the country that I tried didn't go over very well... itch, itch, sigh.) Local is good. But that's another post.

Oh, and then there's the wonderful beekeeper who sold me two pounds of honey from bees which are never fed corn (oh yes, they do feed corn syrup to bees. Just one more on the list of animals who are given corn but were never meant to eat it.) He assured me there was absolutely no corn in this honey. I had some of that too. Let's hope all these corn free claims are correct or I'm going to wake up feeling pretty awful tomorrow. But I was starting to feel deprived and in desperate need of something new to eat!

Sounds a little silly, you say? Getting so excited about the basics of life, like honey and cheese? Well, walking around a world full of food I can not eat has been wearing on me a bit lately. So safe foods, that I didn't have to drive to another state to acquire, make me happy!