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$20 Challenge Update

April 1st, 2007 at 08:24 pm

Well, I've been putting some books up on Half.com and have sold six of them for payments totalling $89.29 (minus the extra cost of shipping). I think I'm going to have to up my prices on the coffee table books as the reimbursement for shipping is about half of what it costs me to send them out. The books cost me about $7 to purchase initially. (I LUV Goodwill, although they've now doubled their prices on books here Frown ) The current profit, *drum roll* $82.29. Smile

I really do have way too many books. The plan is to put more up on Half today and a couple of things up on Ebay. I'd like to be over $100 by the end of April.

I Sold My First Book!!!!

January 24th, 2007 at 02:26 am

While trying to figure out what I would do for this year's $20 Challenge, I decided to give Half.com a try. With last year's challenge, I dipped my toe into selling on E-bay and was a bit scared to do so. This year was no different when it came to Half.com.

I listed 12 books last week. Today when I checked my email, I found the notice stating that a book had sold! Smile It was the Culinary Institute Gourmet Meals in Minutes. The price was $17.99, but I won't add that full amount to my challenge as I found out I have to basically pay shipping.

Strange, Half makes money off both the seller and the buyer, I see. Although I'm alotted $2.78 for shipping, they charged the buyer $3.70. Then they also charged me $2.70 for selling the book. So, Half is making about $3.62 off that same book.

I figure, after shipping, including packaging, I'll have made about $15.00. Oh, I need to take off the $1.50 the book originally cost me. OK, so about $13.50 to the Challenge. Smile

Now I need to figure out the best way to package the book for mailing. I know that because it's a heavy book it shouldn't be sent in just a plain manilla envelope. I don't have any padded ones, so I think I'll try to find an appropriate box. The book has to be sent out by Friday. Guess I'm going box hunting tomorrow. Smile

I Knew Paypal Didn't Like Me!

January 16th, 2007 at 03:13 am

I 'tried' to open a Paypal account. Frown I knew it was a bad idea. I've always had a 'feeling' about Paypal not liking me and now I have PROOF!!

It all seemingly went well, although I wasn't sure which account to open. I decided to go with a personal account to start with. The problems started when I couldn't get my primary email address confirmed.

Paypal said they sent a confirmation email but it never showed up in my email account. I waited for hours....NADA! So, I went back onto Paypal and had the email resent....ZIPPO! Then I emailed Paypal through their help system hoping they could figure out what was wrong. I mean, come on, here I am a new account trying to GIVE them my $$.

Guess what....yeppers, that's right...no response! *heavy sigh* I finally decided to try my g-mail account and add it as another on my list of emails. Believe it or not, that one worked PERFECTLY. Problem is, my paypal account is set up under the email that won't work!

I emailed Paypal again last night,through the g-mail account. Yeah, right again, they haven't responded yet! I wouldn't have even opened an account except: 1) it was one of my goals for this year 2)lately more and more Ebay auctions are requesting payment via Paypal only. Usually I pay by money order or cashier's check. Does't seem that's how some people want payment anymore.

On the more positive side,I was able to open up an account on Half.com and list 18 books. *smile* I haven't had any "hits" yet as far as selling any, but I feel confident as I tried to list each book for less than the asking price others were wanting for their's.

Any $$ made from that will be added to the $20 Challenge of which I've added $0 so far. Frown The year is young though. Last year's challenge brought in $1,600 even though I wasn't formally doing the challenge on line.

*fingers crossed* for a year that's just as lucrative! Smile

Stepping into the $20 Challenge

January 3rd, 2007 at 05:39 am

I've been thinking of joining the $20 Challenge for some time. Now, with my goals for the new year in writing, I think the my Journey and the Challenge can go hand in hand.

One of my goals is to get rid of 1/3 of the "stuff" in my house. I've already started to donate items through Freecycle, but have other things that I'd like to get some $$ for. I placed my first Craigslist ad today selling 23 of my cookbooks.

I love cooking, but seem to be a major collector of books. So much so, that I have an entire room filled with them (no lie!). Letting 23 of them go is only a grain of sand in the desert.

Listing them on E-bay, Half or Amazon was just something I didn't have the patience to do. For some of my teaching books, I'll do that. We'll see how this ad goes first.

Anyone with Craigslist experience? Half.com? Amazon? Tips? Tricks?

For the $20 Challenge, I'm starting with nothing. If the books sell, I should have $30 as my seed money. *fingers crossed*