I've been in cleaning/selling mode recently. Sick of all the stuff thats sitting around. So I put a bunch of textbooks on Half.com to try to get rid of them and maybe recover a few bucks. Fat chance of that...
I spent about a half hour listing about six books. This time was spent looking at current listings for each, comparing conditions and costs, accurately describing my books, and then setting a price that was in line with the lowest listed price (unless it was an outlier). A few days ago, I got my first email from Half saying that I had sold a book. In this case, it was an accounting book that I had purchased for somewhere in excess of 100 dollars and was going on two years old. When I had looked at all the current listings, the new or like new ones were all less than 20 and the lower conditions were around 5 or 6 dollars. I figured, what the hell, and put it in for $5.99, 3 cents lower than the next lowest one.
So, I start looking around for something to mail this large, heavy book in. I have boxes, but nothing that would fit it without being excessively large (and costing more to ship). I ended up going to Staples and picking up a 12 pack of the largest bubble mailers they have for a whopping 20 bucks. I also picked up a pack of the next largest size for when I sell some of the smaller books. In total, it took about 30 mins and nearly 40 bucks to obtain these kraft paper and plastic mailers.
Got home, wrapped up the book in the mailer as tightly as I could and labeled it. Went to the post office today to ship it media mail. For those who don't know, half.com reimburses you a set amount for postage. For hardback books, that amount is $2.78. I'm thinking that shipping it won't cost much as I've heard about how cheap media mail is. Wrong. It was $4.47 for this 6lb 2oz book shipped to Florida from PA. So then I start thinking...
$5.99 payment
-$1.67 padded mailer
-$4.47 shipping USPS media mail
+$2.78 shipping reimbursement
-$0.90 commission
_________
$1.73 total
I got back less than two dollars and spent around 45 minutes of my life.
I hope you guys can learn from my lesson.
-Sell books IMMEDIATELY after you are done with them
-If they are not going for much money, TRASH them (or recycle if available)
I try to be somewhat environmentally conscious and I sell or give away things rather than throw them out. But in this case, I definitely should not have wasted my time...
I spent about a half hour listing about six books. This time was spent looking at current listings for each, comparing conditions and costs, accurately describing my books, and then setting a price that was in line with the lowest listed price (unless it was an outlier). A few days ago, I got my first email from Half saying that I had sold a book. In this case, it was an accounting book that I had purchased for somewhere in excess of 100 dollars and was going on two years old. When I had looked at all the current listings, the new or like new ones were all less than 20 and the lower conditions were around 5 or 6 dollars. I figured, what the hell, and put it in for $5.99, 3 cents lower than the next lowest one.
So, I start looking around for something to mail this large, heavy book in. I have boxes, but nothing that would fit it without being excessively large (and costing more to ship). I ended up going to Staples and picking up a 12 pack of the largest bubble mailers they have for a whopping 20 bucks. I also picked up a pack of the next largest size for when I sell some of the smaller books. In total, it took about 30 mins and nearly 40 bucks to obtain these kraft paper and plastic mailers.
Got home, wrapped up the book in the mailer as tightly as I could and labeled it. Went to the post office today to ship it media mail. For those who don't know, half.com reimburses you a set amount for postage. For hardback books, that amount is $2.78. I'm thinking that shipping it won't cost much as I've heard about how cheap media mail is. Wrong. It was $4.47 for this 6lb 2oz book shipped to Florida from PA. So then I start thinking...
$5.99 payment
-$1.67 padded mailer
-$4.47 shipping USPS media mail
+$2.78 shipping reimbursement
-$0.90 commission
_________
$1.73 total
I got back less than two dollars and spent around 45 minutes of my life.
I hope you guys can learn from my lesson.
-Sell books IMMEDIATELY after you are done with them
-If they are not going for much money, TRASH them (or recycle if available)
I try to be somewhat environmentally conscious and I sell or give away things rather than throw them out. But in this case, I definitely should not have wasted my time...
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