As promised, I'll bring you some updates on various sales.
I've attended the Corning Book Sale in the back (held in East Corning at the Fire Hall, annually). I've done rather well there (they had a free section, and the items I picked up there went for a couple of hundred dollars. This year, alas, the free section was Readers Digest Condensed Books and National Geographic Magazines- known in the trade as 'boat anchors')
I scheduled a day in Corning for work, and stopped by at lunch.
I walked in and saw books galore. Then I saw the price list and saw why- they wanted $2.50 for an adult hardcover (usually the going rate is a dollar).
I did see a Specials Table- which had higher priced books.
It was a couple of days into the sale, so it was 20% off (Saturday is Bag Day where you can fill a bag for a few dollars- I did see stuff that I would take that way, but not enough to make it worth driving back down)
I was able to find four items- I bought a comic book trade paperback for $2.40 that I priced at $11.
I bought a short story book from 1951 which included Faulkner and Capote for $2.20 which I priced at $12.
A 1935 magazine from Japan that I bought for $2.40 and listed at $32.
And an undated book titled Views of Kyoto (I'd guess early 1900s) which was missing four pages (I knew that going in) for $4. I priced it at $92,
Of course I can price things at whatever I'd like...so that doesn't matter- but I spent $11 and can potentially get $147 back less expenses. Believe it or not, 10 to 20% is generally what I pay on items- but with my eBay store- it costs me nearly $500 a month JUST to keep it open- in other words if I sold nothing, I'd still spend $500. A lot of people don't take these expenses into account.
Not nearly as successful as I had hoped, but at least I picked up a few bucks on lunch.
-Zjabs (Rochester's Official Columnist)
PS Also stopped by the second day of the Summerville Church Sale- a lot fewer books than usual. Went to the boutique section and picked out three books- they were marked at a dollar each but it was half-price day. I got two turn-of-century kids books (roughly 72 pages each) in rougher shape that I've priced at $20 each, and a small Night Before Christmas book with beautiful chromolithographs- a beautiful book EXCEPT there was a stain throughout...and the front cover was detached! I listed it for 20 bucks...and it sold in a few hours. Cannot argue with that- which means I'm ahead on the last two sales I went to....though not enough to afford the paper for the month....
© 2012 Zjabs - 4/23/12
