Selling Books? Amazon rather than Ebay?

Over the years I've acquired some books I no longer need and was looking to move them. I considered putting them up on ebay, but that involves some up-front issues, including listing fees as well as the work of creating a listing. Then you have to hope someone is looking for that book while your listing is open. So using ebay seemed a bit hit-or-miss, and even if the item didn't sell, it cost something just to try.

Amazon.com seems to be a better choice if you are trying to sell some books. First off, there is no up-front fee to place a listing. So you can put your books up and if they don't find a buyer, it hasn't cost you anything.

Secondly, the listing stays active for 60 days, rather than the 7 day auction period on ebay. So you're giving yourself a longer opportunity to have that buyer find your listing and make the purchase. (And if your book is unsold after y60 days they send you a link to restart the listing).

Another benefit is that you don't have to create a listing from scratch. If you have a book you wish to sell, do a search for it on Amazon. When you find the listing, there will be a link button "Have one to sell? Sell Yours Here." It will walk you through setting up a seller account (not complicated, especially if you already have a regular amazon account). Then you basically decide on the price you want, put in a description of the condition of your book, and away you go. Your listing doesn't need a separate listing or photo because it will now appear among all the sellers who have the book available. If you have the lowest price in the used or new categories, it would appear at the top of a buyer's search.

When you decide to list your book, you can take a look at all the other sellers and conditions of their books to come up with a price at which you think yours will sell. (I think it's important to be accurate about the condition so the buyer will feel satisfied after they get it.) Obviously, if you choose to price it lower than others, you stand a better chance of selling more quickly.

Amazon has a standard method for shipping, so you don't set your own shipping costs. They have the buyer pay $3.99 for standard shipping, so that's what they credit to you when you sell it. For anything short of a heavy hardcover book, $3.99 should be more than enough to send it via Media Mail. If it costs you more than $3.99, the shipping would eat into your book proceeds.

If buyers want the book faster, or if they are not in the U.S., Amazon gives you the choice whether to offer Priority Shipping and International Shipping, with credits of $5.99 and $9.99 respectively, which for most cases would give you enough to cover those postage costs. But you are not required to offer more than standard shipping.

Amazon's commissions after the sale are higher than ebay's. On a book selling for $9 the commission may be about $3, whereas ebay's would be about $1. That could beg the question of why to use Amazon as opposed to ebay. But unless the book is really hot or collectible that a lot of people are looking for (when the new Harry Potter book is issued, I'm sure there will be plenty on ebay, so that kind of book is different), Amazon is the type of site that will attract more shoppers of books of a more routine nature. So even if the commission is higher, the fact that Amazon may actually find you buyers (and not cost you anything if it doesn't) gives it an edge for many kinds of book sales.

When you sell books on Amazon, you are competing against major booksellers who can open business accounts that let them sell at lower commissions. Thus, there are some books available for sale at a dollar or less that you just couldn't afford to match -- your Amazon commission would be more than the sale price! But for books selling for $5-$6 and up, you may actually end up being able to clear out those old bookshelves and get some value in return.

Better than just putting all those books into a yard sale and asking a quarter each, if you ask me.

Digital Giggles -- Free after Rebate

When I saw the name Digital Giggles I just had to check...

Fry's has this software for free after rebate until tomorrow 7/12. It's photo-creativity software that lets you transform pictures into fun characters. You can add wacky hairstyles, mustaches, masks, tattoos etc. Sounds like the kind of thing kids might have fun with, waiting out the long summer till the fun of school resumes. Gives them some giggles...

Fry's also has these other software items free-after-rebate till 7/12:
Slide Show Expressions
Fireman 3.0 for burning CDs and DVDs
Nova Arts Explosion: Seasons, Events & Holidays Clip Art
Windows Live One Care 1.5

Office Depot Coupon - $10 off $25 Purchase - Through July 15

Here's a link for a coupon that may be worthwhile if you need to stock up on some supplies... Office Depot is offering $10 off a purchase of $25 or more. It has some restrictions, such as not valid on technology items, HP ink, photocopies and some more, but it still may come in handy if you need to stock up on paper, supplies, other inks or the like -- a chance to save up to 40% and if you combine it with other sale items it can balloon to bigger savings. It expires 7/15 so use it soon if you have a chance.

Free Pedometer, along with recipes and coupons

Del Monte is having a promotion to encourage people to eat healthier and increase physical activity... if you go to this link you can take a pledge to promote a healthier you. They will send you a starter kit which includes a free pedometer, lots of recipes and coupons. There's also a sweepstakes for a $250 Visa gift card you can enter now and again each week till next April.

The pedometer is a nice bonus that could come in handy, so if you're interested you may want to check it out. They say supplies are limited.

$50 Sale Tickets for Cirque du Soleil Las Vegas Shows!!!

If you click on this link, you will find listings for $50 tickets for Cirque du Soleil's spectacular shows in Las Vegas! They have tickets for almost all of the different shows, including Mystere, Beatles' Love, Zumation ("the sensual side of Cirque du Soleil") and Ka.

The site has some videos of the shows, and there really are many dates available between now and September.

These tickets often go for $100, $150 or more, so $50 is an awesome deal!!! If you are travelling to Las Vegas, a Cirque du Soleil show would be a highlight -- and these prices really make it more of a treat!

School Supplies Alert - 1 Penny or Less!

For parents getting an early jump on school supplies for their kids, or for stationery buffs, Staples has some low specials in this week's circular.

A few items are available for just one cent! Among them are 8-packs of pencils, pencil cases (if you buy 8 pencils, don't you need a case?), pencil sharpeners, and 2-pocket folders.

They also have a 5-pack of Pentel RSVP ballpoint pens in an assortment of color inks for $3.29 with a $3.29 rebate! It's also an easy-rebate so you don't have to mail anything in, you just submit your receipt information on-line. Free-after-rebate is always nice.

They also have Elmer's school glue on sale for 9 cents.

So for not much out-of-pocket, you can get a jump-start on the coming school year!

Summer Weekend Travel Deals Under $250

For someone who's still looking for a little vacation break in the summer, Travelocity has some nice weekend packages available. They've broken down these weekend getaways available for $250/person or less. May be a way to spark up your travels without taking too much time or cash.

This link is for departures from New York, but you can change the city and find deals available wherever you are. If you're looking to get away a bit, maybe this can help.

Today, Act Quick -- Another Day of Spirit Air Specials!

Today only (book by 11:59 tonight) Spirit Airlines is back with some of those low roundtrips I've written about. For those of you new to my blog, it's where I was able to book a 2-cent roundtrip to Vegas!

Some of the low fares today include: New York/Detroit for $6 roundtrip; Fort Lauderdale to Puerto Rico or Washington DC $16 roundtrip; Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale for $110 roundtrip (even if it's not an almost-free fare like some others, $110 coast-to-coast sounds pretty low to me). Fares are for some specific dates, and taxes/fees are added (as with all airline tickets). Click on this link.

Spirit has also started something called the $9 Fare Club -- they have an even wider assortment of lower fares, but the club has a small membership fee: $9 for a 3-month trial and $29.95 annually. But as an example, in addition to the low fares above, a $9 Club member would be able to get some even lower fares today, such as Fort Lauderdale to Jamaica (Kingston or Montego Bay) for $2 roundtrip!

Anyway, travel bargains keep popping up, and I will try and pass some along -- there are so many that I'd fill up my blog if I tried and write them all. If you like looking for special travel deals and haven't subscribed to Travelzoo and Shermans Travel, I would do that. But sometimes these special offers pop up elsewhere too! So keep checking in often!

Free-after-Rebate Stapler Today/Tomorrow

Found this deal at Office Depot... good only for in-store purchases. May not be worth a special trip (what with the price of gas) but if you're going out shopping anyway and are near an Office Depot, you might want to pop in.

They have a Swingline Stapler for $9.99 and there is a rebate of $9.99 for purchases made until July 7th. The sku for the stapler is 517136 and you can look at it here (but don't order it on-line -- the rebate is for in-store purchases only).

Funny thing is that even their website doesn't make a big deal of the rebate, you have to really look. But here's a link to the rebate form.

If a sturdy stapler would come in handy, this seems to fit the bill.

How I Sold a $5 Magazine for $27...

I've mentioned ebay as a spot to find some nice deals, but it can also be a nice spot for selling things too -- handy for getting rid of items you've accumulated over the years. There are ways to improve your ebay odds, and on one particular auction I found out just how nicely it can pay off.

I owned a collection of magazines dating back into the mid-1950s, and had some extra issues. Thinking they would make good birthday presents (for milestone-type birthdays like 40 or 50), I decided to list a bunch on ebay. Before I did, I checked to see if others were on sale and what they were fetching. To my dismay there were several of many issues and they were getting about five bucks apiece. Not as much as I'd hoped but these were still excess issues so I still wanted to move them.

One of the things I've found about ebay is the importance of using the 55-letter title as well as possible to get the most views. Many sellers just seem to list a bare-bones title with rudimentary information, and miss the chance to list a few other details. Those extra details could be the make-or-break in whether a potential buyer even finds your auction. They may be searching for something slightly different and with those other words may get to yours. The more buyers who see your listing the better the chance that several will bid.

So before listing any of the magazines, I skimmed through the issues to find items of interest, which I then added to the title block for my listing. For many of them, the item of interest was easy to find, whether a famous person's interview or pictorial or some other special feature. I reached an issue where there just didn't seem to be anything. November 1957, I believe. No big names, nothing that jumped out. The best I could find was a small 4-page item with pictures of private planes...

Since that was the only thing I could find, I used it. The title had the name of the magazine and the issue date, the idea of a birthday gift, and a couple of the planes' names... Cessna, Pilot etc.

Funny thing was that this issue then became the target of a small tug-of-war between two bidders! Based on their ebay names it looked like both of them were interested in airplanes and/or were private pilots. Back and forth it went for a few days, and by the end the higher of the two had bid the price up to $27!

All this while several other issues (same month and year) were still up on ebay in the five-dollar range. Once the two bidders had latched onto my auction they never went back to search whether the same issue was offered elsewhere by just checking the basic name/date of the magazine. They had gotten interested because of the private plane pictorial and were intent on winning that auction.

This reinforced the importance of cross-promoting -- trying to find ways to interest people from two or more areas to get interested in your offer... if you can expand it beyond the "typical" market, the results might be a pleasant surprise.

512 Mb Laptop Memory just $10 after Rebate

Buy.com has a deal going on for 512 Mb memory if you want to expand your laptop. It's a US Modular 512 Mb PC2 5300 667 Mhz 200 pin DDR2 card. The item normally lists for $35 but they dropped the price to $29.95 and have a $10 rebate until July 11th. Shipping is free so your final net is $9.95. Here's the link.

If you have a laptop that could use a memory boost, this offer may be for you!

$75 Off Coupon for Caribbean Escapes on Travelocity

For the month of July, there's a coupon available on-line to get an extra $75 off on last-minute escapes to the Caribbean booked on Travelocity! Hmm, more incentive to go to those white, sandy beaches, to see that crystal-clear blue-azure water, to feel the warm breezes swaying the palm trees... oh, where was I? I got lost in the daydream!

Anyway, the coupon link is here. The promo code is 'escape today.' This offer is valid until July 31st, on packages for two or more people with a pre-coupon price over $700. The link takes you to a page where you can search the last-minute packages and find one (or a bunch) that appeal to you.

For example, I just found a 6-night package to Negril, Jamaica including airfare from New York, hotel (garden-view room), taxes and fees for $424 a person, so the coupon would bring the final price for two down to $773!!!

These Travelocity last-minute deals are for travel planned fairly soon, not for long-ahead planning. So if you have some flexibility to plan a quick getaway, keep this coupon in mind.

This One Put a Smile on My Face...

I was hunting today for great deals and ran across an item that made me chuckle, and wonder just what it is that you can't find anymore...

There is a bit of a sale going on but it's not the price that got my attention -- it's the item itself. A toilet-roll dispenser that also serves as a dock for your iPod!!! So you can add the bathroom to places where you can listen to your music! The specs are lovely: four moisture-free speakers for high-quality sound, charges the iPod while it's docked, speakers fold in for use as a stereo dock (but then where do you keep the toilet paper?)

Newegg does have a sale for $8 off and it's lower than other retailers on the internet, so if you want to see this, here's the link.

But seriously... really?

64% Off Right Now! Packs of Organic Bare Fruit!

If you're into organic dried fruit (and shouldn't we all be?), here's a quick offer that'll help you stock up and fill your pantry with some tasty treats! Great snacks for the kids at camp, in convenient sized bags as well. And shipped to your door for free.

Right now for a limited time (maybe just today), Amazon.com is offering assorted Bare Fruit Organic Dried Fruits at almost 2/3 off the regular price. The offer is for Dried Cherries, Dried Fuji Apple Chips, or Dried Mangos. A box with 24 bags of 2.6 ounce servings is available for $30. The regular price is $83.76, so that's a nice break in the price. Plus Amazon qualifies this for free shipping over $25, so $30 is your final net cost. Here's the link.

I looked on the internet to check on the value and at the Bare Fruit store, they offer these bags individually at $3.29. Another retailer has them at $2.99 apiece. With this deal, you get 24 bags for about the cost of 10! Since it's dried, the fruit should last a while, so you can save a lot compared to buying them a couple of bags at a time.

A review I found seems to like the products of Bare Fruit.

So if this tickles your palate, stock up on the savings now...

Ebay -- Some tips to use it well

I figured it's about time I write about ebay. It's really changed the face of buying and selling products, and it comes with its own benefits and drawbacks. It lets you buy items from around the world which you otherwise might not have found, but you are also dealing with sellers who are somewhat anonymous. I've been able to find some great deals and also to use it for selling some things effectively too. Along the way, I've learned some ideas about using it well.

So here are some tips to consider when shopping on ebay, in no particular order...

Use the feedback system. Each seller has compiled a rating that gives you some sense of their trustworthiness and whether their customers have been happy. But don't just look at the number and presume the higher the number the better the vendor. Look at the percentage of positives and click on the feedback number to pull up some detailed feedback. If I have a seller who has a small percentage of negative feedback I try and find some of the negative postings and read what the complaint was. Based on that, I can infer whether it was a particular customer's problem or whether it's a wider issue. Gives me a sense of whether I'd feel comfortable doing business with that seller. The amount of feedback I check usually corresponds with the amount I may need to spend.

Do a real good search to see if there are several of that item on ebay at the same time. One of my early tendencies when I started with ebay was to keep increasing my bid on an auction I had already gotten into, instead of conducting a new search. The result was I sometimes paid more than if I had just gone to another auction and started bidding there instead. Once you are around ebay you will see whether certain items keep popping up, so that if you miss out on the item this time you know it will come up again soon. Unless you need the item quickly you might save if you wait for the next go-round and hopefully have fewer (or no) other bidders.

Two other ways to help yourself do that: do a search-by-seller, and include completed auctions in the search parameters. The same vendor may often offer the same items over and over each week or so. By checking this you will see whether that's the case and the range at which his/her auctions ended. Also do an advanced-search on the item and search for completed listings. This will show you the final prices people got for the same item over the last thirty days. So as you bid, you can gauge whether the bidding has gotten too hot and it's worth backing off.

Do factor in shipping costs. This can be the make-or-break between a good deal and a bad one. Because ebay's seller commissions are based on the sales price, there is an incentive for dealers to settle for a lower auction price and jack up shipping to make it up. Ebay frowns on the practice, but determining what's a "fair" shipping cost is not easy for them to judge. So you will occasionally see a seller listing a small item for $0.99 and having a shipping cost of $12 for something fairly light and not fragile.

But aside from that, if there are multiple sellers of the same item (i.e. DVDs you might buy) then check the net final cost to you if you win. Sometimes you'll find the seller with a $1 higher bid but whose shipping is $3 less. It's the final total you have to pay which matters after all.

Search creatively. Look for items that might have different ways of describing them and check for both. For example, I've seen similar items described as statuettes and figurines, and one word might draw more bidder searching than the other -- and the more competition/bidders, the higher the auction will probably end.

Search for possible misspellings, if there is a word or name that people might get wrong. It isn't frequent but it does happen occasionally and you may be one of the few people who finds that item and gets in on the bidding.

If the item can be spelled as one word or two, do a check with both possibilities. Some people might write lawnmower and other might write lawn mower. Some people might write Spiderman as Spider man. The search engine won't see them as the same thing, so if you find the less common way to list it, you might get less competition.

Before you bid, do a regular internet search for the item and see what the comparative price is at other on-line stores. It's not uncommon for prices to drop at a retailer and ebay sellers are still selling at older higher prices. Also, if an item has a rebate at an on-line seller, generally the rebate isn't valid if you get the item on ebay -- so your final net might be higher.

Read the item description to make sure it's the exact item and that it's in the condition you want it. For machines and electronics, pay note to whether the piece is brand new or factory-refurbished. I wouldn't say not to bid on a refurbished item, just to be aware and go in knowing that's the deal. Read all the payment and shipping details as well. Since many of the sellers aren't regular traditional stores, the policies can vary far and wide.

If there's any detail of which you are uncertain, ask the seller before bidding. You really don't want to try and rescind a bid because you found something out after the fact. It can lead to poor feedback being left for you, possibly giving you some issues with future transactions as others may be hesitant to deal with you. I figure asking questions also gives me another view into the reliability of the seller. If he/she doesn't have time to answer my questions, I'm not sure I would be comfortable doing a transaction with him/her. (I'm not suggesting just asking a question for the sake of seeing his/her responsiveness -- ask if/when you really need to ask).

Ebay is its own world and this is just a quick primer into some of the tips to use it well. I'll revisit ebay again soon, and focus on how to use it well as a seller too. Stay tuned. And have fun the next time you go on ebay!

Getting Your Credit Report for Free

Checking your credit report every so often is a wise step to gauge your financial situation as well as to make sure the credit bureaus have correct information. Like many of you probably have, I've seen commercials for places that offer free credit reports, or gotten flyers as credit card inserts about getting my reports free. For the most part they all seem to give you the free reports if you join some sort of service. Usually there's a free trial period and then a monthly or annual fee. Other companies get you your credit reports as a regular service they sell, generally packaged with tools to give you advice on improving credit scores -- I have to confess that I signed up for one of these paid services after watching a financial management presentation... oops!

Turns out that the three credit bureaus were mandated by the Federal Government to allow consumers to get a copy of each of their reports at no cost once a year. I guess businesses were smart to grab all the website names with "free" and "credit report" in their titles first, so the obvious names freecreditreports etc. actually take you to services you will pay for.

The website for the Federally-required credit reports at no cost to you is http://www.annualcreditreport.com/. You are entitled to get an annual copy of each report: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. My suggestion is to stagger them throughout the year, so you have a wider view of your credit scores and any changes or issues.

Once you get the reports, you can check on them for any incorrect information which you have the right to correct, or any red flags that may show an area that is causing your score to be less than ideal. Since your score will impact things like credit card interest rates, types of offers you receive, mortgage and car loan interest, and sometimes even your insurance rates, it's wise to keep those scores up there.

It's nice to know, though, you don't have to pay to simply get the information.

Batteries.com 35%-Off Promo Code till July 4

Batteries.com has a 35% off discount available for orders till the Fourth of July... I'm not just talking about run-of-the-mill alkaline batteries you get at the store, but specialty batteries too: for laptops, camcorders, cellphones, cameras, hearing aids and more...

Just enter this promo code into your shopping cart: 4th

They knock 35% off their prices which are already lower than list. I checked a battery for a laptop which listed at $94.49, they had it at $78.74 and this offer knocked it down to a final $51.88. So if you have the type of device that needs a particularly expensive or hard-to-find battery, maybe this site has an offer that can catch your interest.

One Small Extra Step On-line Can Pay Off

On a couple of deals I've posted I've mentioned promotional codes that lead to things like extra savings or free shipping. I think it's worth taking a quick look for promotional codes before making an on-line purchase. Sometimes there's a code that's just right and waiting for you to use. It's like extra money back into your pocket.

While there are sellers who send promo codes to customers who've signed up for e-mail alerts, there are also a number of websites that compile lists of codes by each store. I've seen a bunch and I don't have a single favorite site that I always check. What I do is just do a google search with the name of the store and these words: promotional code coupon (that way I also find sites that call them coupon codes).

The websites will often have a list of several coupons for the store, sometimes for specific items, sometimes for whole departments, and sometimes for type of customer (buy.com has coupons geared to new customers for example). The sites will usually also show the expiration date.

Applying the code at the store's checkout almost always lets you recalculate the total before you decide to proceed with the purchase, so you can check and be sure the code has taken.

The search is quick and easy and the code is there anyway, so why not get the best deal the store's offering to give?