Auction Power Guide

The book author is Bower, the title is The Gringo’s and published by Little Brown Company. The book is in fair condition.

Many older books that seem like they ought to be valuable aren’t. Leather bound classics, in good condition, printed from the 1860s-1930s in the US are worth an average of about $2 – $3 each–if you can find a buyer. For many people finding a box of books in the attic or as part of grandma’s things, owning old books is worth more than you could sell them for.

There are, of course, exceptions, and you should seek your specific book at points of sale like ebay and at abebooks.

Hopefully you still have the dust jacket, in really good condition. If you don’t have the dust jacket, the value of any book declines dramatically.

I’m good at sewing and crafting, and I’ve been asked to donate to a charity auction. I want to make sure that they will get good bids on the items I donate, but I’m not sure what to make.
What would you consider bidding on at an auction?
Thanks!

Will there be new mothers there?

Maybe you could make nursing shields? They’re very simple, basically a yard of fabric and you’re just finishing the edges, adding a strap, and some plastic boning at the neck. There are free patterns online
Otherwise you could make infant slings, also very easy once you buy the "sling rings" for them

Just a thought!

Otherwise, what about some really cute aprons? Not the boring ones your grandma wore .. I love sassy aprons 🙂

My grandma wants to start selling things on Ebay, and we were wondering how you go about shipping the items? Also, if anyone can explain the whole Ebay selling process to me, I don’t know how this stuff works so any info you have will be great! : )

To start selling on eBay, start with the EBAY SELLING BASICS page http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/howtosell/sellingbasics.html

Remember though, if you want to earn serious money from eBay, you need to have a well-thought out business model. Selling on ebay is getting tougher — just look at the number of auctions that closes without a bid. Go to the boards on ebay and you will hear even oldtimers complaining about how stiffer competition plus higher fees make it so much harder to sell on ebay.

The key success factor is: Sell products that people actually want.

It is important to determine exactly what the hot items to sell on their marketplace. Use eBay Pulse = "a daily snapshot of current trends, hot picks, and cool stuff on eBay".

As for items to sell, you can:

1. Buy bulk liquidation items such as those at Liquidation.com. The capitalization may be big, but the idea is to sell the items individually and profit from it.

2. Find manufacturers of items you want to sell and buy discounted items from them

3. Make deals with retailers in your area, and offer to buy their unwanted items for deep discounts. jayandmarie – the most successful ebay sellers – made deals with music stores where they will buy the entire inventory in the discounted bins, and then sold the items on ebay for 1-cent starting bid.

4. Look for possible partners on the Web, preferably outside of the US. Import items from them and sell them on ebay. There’s huge profits to gain from this approach.

5. Check out deals from outlet stores. Focus on brand names, which you will find to be easier to sell.

As for shipping, many sellers have bought weighing scales that can give the weight of the item. You can then use that information to put in on eBay so eBay can calculate the shipping for you.