I Just Sold Two of These Books...My Top 10 Selling Items

Want to sell the same things again and again?

I recently sold two copies from this one set of books. I find these books again and again at yard sales, estate sales, library sales, thrift stores, you name it.

It's almost always still there, even late in the day at sales, so I assume not many folks know this well-kept secret.

Find out what this set is, as well as the nine other items (not just books, but other types of items as well) by buying one of my best-selling ebooks, "Flip It Again."

Just click here for more info and to buy! Get it now before the price goes up this Fall.

Here's a bit more info, below:

Flip It Again: 10 Common Items You Can Sell (and Resell Again and Again) for $50 & Up

Sure, you're out there at the sales, looking for those special one-off items that the other sellers haven't seen yet. But wouldn't it be nice to find a steady stream of items that sell for decent profits -- as in $50 and up -- on a regular basis, and not have to be in line at 4 a.m. the morning a sale starts to get to them?

After 12 years of selling online, I've developed a roster of all-star, "under the radar" items that are often passed over by other sellers. Some of them are unassuming looking, others are more in-your-face, but they are my favorite things to find and sell again and again and again.

I've thought off and on over the years of compiling them into one ebook, but was hesitant to divulge all these gems in one place. But then I realized there are plenty of sales to go around and I want to share these tips with my loyal readers, and attract even more readers. 

Click here for more info and to buy! 

Mr. Lid Food Container Product Review - Part Two

Hey all!

Below is my original post about the "Mr Lid" container for food. It's now about a year later and I continue to use my lidded containers a lot. I use them every day for the little round cat food container after it's opened...one little round cat food fits well into the smallest size Mr. Lid container.

We also use them for leftovers, etc. and I love that they stack, tho my food containers cabinet could be neater; it's not Mr. Lid's fault.

I also wanted to repost this on my Bidbits.net blog, because I noticed when you search on my name in Google, the old post that was linked to my now-defunct shopyack.com blog does not come up. (The post is still alive, just at http://shopyack.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-working-mom-reviews-mr-lid-can-it.html).

Thanks, all!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

A Working Mom Reviews Mr. Lid - Can it Solve Your Refrigerator Storage Woes? **** 1/2 Stars 4 1/2 Stars

I bought Mr. Lid from my local CVS a while ago for $19.95 and been meaning to tell you all how it worked out. (Did I mention I'm addicted to "As Seen on TV" products?).

Is Mr. Lid the greatest thing since sliced bread? It's pretty darn great...you can store your sliced bread in it if you want..or, more likely, that bread from last night's restaurant meal. Here's what their wed site at MrLid.com looks like:

It comes with, as it says, 20 containers...that's a good amount!

They're various sizes, and they're not too tall, so you can stack them with each other when you're not using them, and they fit in the fridge well.

One of the main uses for my smaller Mr. Lid container is for the wet cat food tin I use to give my cat every morning. It usually lasts three days, so I pop the tin into one of Mr. Lid's smallest containers, and voila! it's good to go for the rest of the days I'll be scooping it out to Pop, our kitty.

Here's a pic of just a few of my Mr. Lid containers:

I'd say for $19.95, with their buy one set get one free deal..that's a pretty darn good deal!

The only caveat I have is if you push too hard down on some of the containers to close the lid, it can get kind of "stuck" and difficult to open. So just give it a light punch with the butt of your fist, and it will stay closed enough without being hermetically sealed. ;)

All in all I give Mr. Lid 41/2 stars out of 5..."that's high praise" in the Julia ranking system, as Nicolas Cage would say. (Or rather, as the Saturday Night Live guy Adam Sandberg playing Nicolas Cage would say). 

US Post Office Runs a Kind of "Lottery" with New "Inverted Jenny" Stamps - Might Your Sheet Be a Winner?

The US Post Office is running a kind of lottery.

To celebrate the famous, rare, "inverted Jenny" stamps, which were only one sheet of original
misprinted stamps (where the "Curtis Jenny" plane was printed upside down instead of right-side up) that were sold in 1918, the Post Office came up with a fun idea. (Goodness knows, they could use ideas to make money!).

Each individual original "Inverted Jenny" from 1918 now sells for around one million dollars. (The sheet was long since broken up into individual stamps or groupings).

But with the new reissued "Jennys," the key is finding the right-side up ones!

The USPS issued all the new sheets with the Jenny planes upside down, as a commemorative edition, and only 100 sheets apparently have the right-side up planes.

They are sold sealed, so you can be sure they weren't tampered with.

Open one up, and see if you get the "new" inverted-inverted Jenny, which is actually right-side up!

Below is a scan of the sealed sheet I bought today at my local post office (they only had one left):

Here is a good article about the original "Inverted Jenny" and that lucky first buyer of the sheet.

Business Buzzwords of the Year

If I had a nickel for every time I heard "reached out" in a business context, I'd have...well, at least a dollar.

Other phrases: "the notion that..." (I believe this was started by President Barack Obama)

"The narrative..."

Starting a talking head opinion with "Look, ...."

" "     "OK, so...."

Any others?

Update: another one:

"curate" or "curated"

 

Books Always Worth Grabbing for Resale

This is the first in a series of posts I'll write about books that are almost always worth picking up for resale.

I lay out several of these in my ebook, "Flip It Again." One of them is a beautiful multicolored-dust jacket set titled "The Story of Civilization," by Will and Ariel Durant. In good condition these can fetch around $100 on amazon.com.

Here's what they look like:

I have found these bad boys at estate sales, library sales, and probably even yard sales. But they're out there.

Will Durant is an author also well-known for his book, "The Story of Philosophy," which started as part of a series. According to wikipedia, it was "written in 1926, which one observer described as "a groundbreaking work that helped to popularize philosophy."

For more like these, buy the ebook! I guarantee that if you do not make several times your money back pon the purchase price, after a few weeks or so of regular scouting I will refund all your money.

Flip It Again: 10 Common Items You Can Sell (and Resell Again and Again) for $50 & Up

Shop Amazon - Top Holiday Deals Event

Your Online Business – You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure – Part I

Your Online Business – You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure – Part I

[Guest Post by Chris Taylor]

I’m an eBay seller. And running a successful business, big or small, means understanding my numbers. What’s my profit? Do I make a profit?? How much am I paying in fees? What is my inventory costing me? Do you know all of these answers? As Jim “Griff” Griffith, Dean of eBay Education and Senior Manager of the Selling Experience team at eBay says, “The numbers…you can’t manage what you do not measure. And a business you can’t manage, you can’t grow.” And he’s right.

Learn from Griff’s Words

Griff recently did a webinar called “Know Your Numbers: Managing Your Business to Greater Success.”  I know, not quite the appeal of The Avengers. But I’ll bet Griff’s webinar will do a lot more to make your online selling efforts more successful! (Although who couldn’t use a few super heroes now and again?) Anyway, I transcribed his presentation and wanted to share a few of his recommendations.

The Important Numbers

Naturally we want to turn our attention to how much money is coming in versus how much is going out. But what about the numbers behind profit/loss?

Well, how much did you sell last quarter? Last year? What were your shipping costs? How much did you lose in returns? If you don’t know off the top of your head, can you get those numbers quickly? If the answer is “no” to any of those questions…you have some work to do.

In order to better understand why your business is successful or struggling, Griff suggests creating a Profit & Loss statement. Here’s what it contains:

·         Gross Sales

o   All the revenue you took in during a specific period.

·         Cost of Goods Sold

o   In order to sell goods, you need to buy them. So this is that cost.

·         Gross Margin

o   Pretty straightforward - subtract your Cost of Goods Sold from your Gross Sales.

·         Operating Expenses

o   These should be broken out into specific categories. There are some common ones and others that will be appropriate for just your business. These could include: facilities, selling fees, shipping costs, supplies, losses, advertising & promotion, and everything else. Add these all up.

·         Net Income

o   This is the magic line. It means everything to your business. Your Gross Margin minus your Operating Expenses equal your Net Income.

Part II

The next post will talk about another set of important numbers. These have to do with your conversion rate, format mix, sales velocity and more. You can wait….or you can watch a recording of Griff’s entire “Know Your Numbers” webinar right now as well as download the guide that transcribes his comments and incorporates with his slides into a PDF for easy access. 

Best success!

Chris Taylor,

Chris Taylor is VP of Marketing at Page Mage. Page Mage, a recipient of eBay's 2011 Ecosystem Champion Award, offers free custom eBay listing templates for eBay sellers looking to stand out from the competition