Grandpa Jack and I took to the hills on Sunday for some bluegrass music at the last day of the Fiddler’s Grove at Union Grove, North Carolina. It was a perfect day to be outside in the foothills and the music was indescribably sweet. We wished for more fiddling, but the competitions were Friday and Saturday and we couldn’t attend those days. Sunday was mainly a family day for those getting ready to head back home. Here’s my web album of the few pics I caught while there. Shouts to Lauren. Keep practicing, little doll 
Archive for May, 2008
Fiddler’s Grove
Thursday, May 29th, 2008Home
Monday, May 26th, 2008The 8 hour trip from North Carolina to Maryland took 9 hours and I am beat. Will report more about the trip tomorrow… with a few pics!
Lessons learned about selling used books
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008I’ve sold three out of 9 books now for a profit; so I went to the library yesterday to see if they were selling some good ones. I found several excellent quality used books…one is an older first edition. Listed 6 more books on Amazon now. Trying to keep a good thing going.
I used the computer at the library to check which books might be profit makers. It can be a bit tricky as when I entered the ISBN, sometimes I didn’t see any used books listed at all. I was falsely led to think one of the books would sell with no used book competition and later when I got home found it would not sell for over fifty cents.
The library was selling hardbacks for $1.00, paperbacks 3/$1.00 and children’s soft cover for ten cents. I wasted $1.00 on one book that will not bring me profit. I can’t sell books over a certain weight for a under a dollar and make a profit; so this one will have to be donated to charity or sold at a garage sale.
Complication: My Uncle has died and now I have to leave town for some days. Amazon lets me put my book listings on “vacation” but it takes 36 hours to be effective. My business is small now… I’ll just put all the books I have listed in a cardboard box to take along and check my emails while away. It’s easy to quickly pack up a book and run to the PO with it anywhere… but if/when I have a thousand books listed, this will be impossible and could result in lost sales. This won’t be a business that runs on autopilot while I travel around the world!
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Used books do sell on Amazon
Saturday, May 17th, 2008I’m amazed. On May 14, I listed 9 books from my shelf here. First I researched to see which ones would sell for over a dollar. There is not much sense in selling anything that cheap. The fees and expense is too much.
It was pretty cool to get that email telling me to ship one of them late last night. I have a pile more books to get busy and list now. When I finish listing what’s in the house, I’ll begin scouting thrift stores and garage sales.
Maybe by then I’ll know what kind of books are in demand and which sell for a nice price. People selling penny books on Amazon are not making any money at all. I’m not sure why they are doing that.
The book I sold was $4 with $3.99 shipping. Amazon took their commission from that: $2.94 and sent my payment account $5.05. From that I had to pay for shipping and handling (package and gasoline). Postage for this book was $2.93; so I grossed $2.12 for that sold book (not considering my tape and gasoline). Of course it would be smart to have 10 sold books to carry in one trip to the PO. This thing just has to get rolling now.
gotta getta meez
Friday, May 16th, 2008
If you put cursia in the referral box, we both get some extra meez coin.
This is fun! Just click on my picture if you want to get one too.