I've had quite a few email questions about bookselling so I thought I'd repost this ReSelling Tools post. I hope it helps answer some of your questions.
Here you are -
"How do I know if something is valuable?" was the question that so many of you had asked. When I started ReSelling most of my purchases were by instinct or by hope. I didn't have any tools except what you might consider common sense. And that didn't even work a lot of the time. What I did do was bring home boxes and boxes of junk that I thought had to be valuable. I mean it was sweet, old stuff. How could someone not want it. I mean I liked it...right? I would come home, research it and when it was worthless would I cram it into my already packed basement to deal with later. This is what made our move so complicated last year. I had to spend nearly every day dealing with this accumulation of other people's cast offs because I had a crazy idea that it was valuable. Some of it was very valuable though so I wasn't always wrong about my purchases. But I was wrong a lot.
Years later I have come to realize that to be successful in ReSelling I had to have proper tools both at home and out in the field. My goal in business is not only to enjoy what I do but also to make money. I'll be honest with you, I love money. Part of the reason we live frugally is to have the choice to spend money where we wish to which usually happens to be Waldorf Education and food. These are two of my favorite things in life. I love vintage cheese, adore sweet expensive wines and crave at least a pomegranate a day every Autumn. And we won't even go there with my love of Anthropologie and Etsy. A few years ago our money was getting very tight. The children's school tuition was going up as they left pre-school and entered Kindergarten and grade school. I needed to earn money and I had the choice of going out and working for someone else or creating a viable home business. Of course I chose the latter since I don't do well with having a boss.
The thing about this business like any other business is that we need training or education in our field. I kind of consider myself a self-taught ReSeller. I search for ReSelling information on-line, at the library and from magazines. Even eBay has a simple way to look at completed auctions on any subject so that you can get an idea of what sells and what doesn't. Knowing what doesn't sell is equally if not as important as what sells.
Some of my favorite resources are:
-Kovels Antiques Free Newsletter
-eBay Establishings Email List
-Miller's Antiques & Collectible Books
When I started to sell more and more on eBay, I went to Yahoo Groups in search of an email list that could help me with my new business. I found eBay Establishings and it changed my ReSelling life forever. It was there that I discovered that I could buy a 1970's children's book at a thrift store for .81 cents and sell it on eBay for $30.00. I still remember my first auction where a book sold for this price and I was completely shocked. Julie Anna, who started the email list is someone who I consider my mentor. She seriously changed the direction of my life.
Julie Anna shares a lot of free information on the email list, as do the other 2,319 members. There are lots of newbie members who ask very basic questions but there are also many successful sellers there who share their top monthly ebay Auctions.
If anyone is interested in selling children's books, then I highly recommend subscribing to Julie Anna's monthly email list of 50 valuable titles. I used to print off every list, add a photo next to the title and take a binder with me when I went thrifting. I would study it for hours. My most valuable book that I found from her list was a vintage Charley Harper illustrated book, The Giant Golden Book of Biology. I sold it for $400.00 on eBay after buying it for $18 at an Antique store in Grants Pass, Oregon.
What I'd like everyone to ask themselves is what do you want to sell? What is your area of expertise? I didn't even know that I wanted to be a bookseller. I knew that I loved books and that my Great Grandmother was a bookseller but it never crossed my mind to do that myself. I started to realize early on that I had a knack for it but I still felt a bit blind. I started to read websites like Bookthink to get every bit of information that I could about how to buy and sell books. I went to used bookstores and looked at the most valuable books there in order to try to recognize these when I went out and scouted.
When my friend Jacki introduced me to Mid Century Modern, I started going to the library toand look at books full of designer furniture from the 1950's-1970's. Part of the skill of ReSelling is recognizing a valuable item that you have seen before in a book, magazine or website. I visit Hi + Lo Modern as often as I can and I really study the items there so that I might find them at a yard sale. These items are often at Estate Sales, wealthier neighborhoods or Scandinavian settlements. Not always of course...there really aren't any set rules of where you can find a treasure. Visit expensive Antique stores or go to high end auctions. Look at what is selling and how much people are paying for items.
Educating myself in the value of items is part of the job that I love. I crave research and learning about new things. This is what makes the job so interesting. If I get tired of Mid Century Modern, I can switch to an entirely different genre. There is so much to learn about everything. In fact, as I have mentioned many times before, this job is perfect for a what Barbara Sher calls a Scanner.
I never leave home without this collection of tools. Here is my book scanner which scans book bar-codes to tell me whether a book is worth buying or not. I upload new date every week from a subscription that I buy from A Seller's Tool. People either love or hate scanners. I even have opinions about the scanners that I see on steroids in this area. They are like piranhas and shove people out of their way and leap over tall piles of books to get there first. I consider myself a stealth scanner. I don't really like to use the scanner in public and tend to be cautious and shy about it and above all polite. But I need to know what to bring home and what to leave behind. I pay $25.50 a month for this service.
I also find that my iphone pays for itself ten times over every month. I picked up a Sodir convection oven from a rummage sale for $20 after typing the name into Google and clicking on the Shopping button. This is the info I saw which told me to buy it. The model I bought is valued at around $850. I still have it and am very tempted to keep it. When will I actually go out and buy an $850 convection oven for myself?
Terapeak, is a somewhat expensive but valuable tool for doing research. It lets you search for items on ebay that have sold in the last 90 days. eBay only has a 14 day search on their site. It can give you an idea of sold items but not a clear picture. I now know how to price items using the Buy It Now feature because I have the over all eBay value of an item. At the end of the day, an item is only as valuable as someone is willing to pay for it.
The iphone (or other smart phones) can let you search on eBay, Amazon, bookfinder and Terapeak. I'll be honest with you, it can be tricky trying to research something at a yard sale. Sometimes I'll memorize a name, go back to my car, research it and then go back and buy the item if it is worth picking up. If I'm at a rummage sale I'll just type in my search and while it loads I'll continue shopping. I especially do this with expensive, big ticket items. I still gamble on things if the price is cheap and if I have a gut feeling that I can sell an item either at my own yard sale or on Craigslist.
I also carry a jeweler's loupe so that I can look for gold and sterling. The loupe pictured in the above photo was purchased at a yard sale for .25 cents. In Sonoma County there are many gold hunters and they are so quick to whip out their loops and start looking for gold, especially at estate sales. I try to stay out of their way.
I found these in the last month. The gold is 14K with 4 opals. I found it in a bag of jewelry for $1. I didn't know it was there until I was home. I bought the bag because of the faery dust necklace and hadn't seen the gold. The sterling napkin ring was .25 cents at a thrift store and the sterling comb cover was .50 cents at a yard sale. These valuable metals are everywhere, you just have to be persistent in your search for them. My goal is to uncover a small gold bar in a dusty and dirty basement one day. I have had a few dreams of doing this and am so disappointed when I wake up to discover that it was all in my head.
I carry a measuring tape and mini screwdriver. Neither will make me rich but they are very useful when you are at a sale.
The last tool in the photo is a pen light ($5.00 yard sale). It actually has a red laser light, a black light and a LED light. I don't use the red light except to amuse the cat, the black light it useful when looking for diamonds, vaseline glass or other collectibles and the LED light is great for dark nooks in an attic full of vintage books and old fabric.
I use an Ott-Lite ($15 thrift store find) mostly when I am listing books. I need to describe every flaw that is visible in order for the potential buyer to see what they are buying without a photo. The Ott-lite is a favorite among my bookseller friends.
Un-do is probably the least eco-friendly thing I have in the house. But it takes off labels like a charm. Peanut butter or oil work well too but I like how Un-du evaporates to nothing and it doesn't leave an oily residue. Plus peanut butter could be dangerous if you are selling an item to someone who has an allergy. I mostly use Un-Du for labels on book covers. I'll warn you it gives off some serious fumes so you may wish to use a mask or better yet, use it outside.
The little electric eraser might seem like a silly gadget to buy, but it is perfect for erasing both pen and pencil marks from books. A clean book can add quite a few dollars to the price of a book.
As you can see, some of these tools were purchased 2nd hand. I didn't buy them all at the start. If any of these tools interest you and money is tight, just put them on your radar next time you are thrifting. Or search for them on Craigslist or ebay. It took me a couple years before I could even think about spending that much on a cell phone. I had another phone and could get limited access to the internet but I found it so frustrating because it was very hard to work. I'm a believer that time is money and I wasted so much time on that little cheap cell phone.
When we are frugal it is sometimes hard to spend money. It's a business though and in every business you need to invest in it wisely. That doesn't mean buying Amy Butler pillows for a chair in your office. I own a Zebra thermal label printer which cost me over $400 new. I even sigh thinking about the cost now. I purchased it after I sold some large items on eBay. I was tired of printing out labels on my printer, cutting them out and taping them on. Now I print them off in 3 seconds, peel off the backing and stick them onto my package. I often sell 10-15 items a day and I don't have time to waste by dealing with paper, paper cutters and tape. I want to be efficient because efficiency makes me money. It also gives me time to thrift and list more items. The right tools will help you bring in more money.
I'd love to hear what next step you wish to take to help you become a successful ReSeller.
