Clean ... SOME OF the things.

[feuervogel]

Anyone who's been in my house and seen the 4th bedroom/bonus room/Ben's room is probably familiar with the massive clutter on the floor in front of the bookshelves. Today I decided to go through it. I was looking for something (the piece of paper that proves I de-registered with the police in Marburg in 1997, which I may need to take to the police in Berlin in the event Operation: Move to Berlin actually happens). I didn't find it, though I found the paper I wrote for the end of the literature class I took, the Scheine from the classes I took in Marburg, and all of my notes (in German), a bunch of xeroxed things from my classes at JC, all the papers from the non-chemistry classes I took in Marburg, a stack of fanzines, and my notes from The Medieval Mind (fall 1995 I think).

I had trouble reaching that shelf because of all the books stacked in front of it, but also because of the huge plastic bag (with giant hole in the bottom which Claire chewed) full of calendars and assorted other things. So I sorted through that, then went through my shelves and put books away. Some I pulled off because I didn't like them all that much; some I pulled unread. I have a few non-fiction health policy books, and I've attempted to read one of them. It's really damn dry, and I'm never going to get through it. Then I pulled more books and shelved more books, and I have a couple boxes of books I would like to sell. I'll catalog them and list them here so my friends can have first dibs.

Anyway, now it's possible to walk up to my second bookshelf. Nonfiction, Literatyoor, foreign language, and reference are still pretty inaccessible (or require a bit of gymnastic ability), but my genre fiction is reachable. And double-stacked in some places. I really need to scan the bazillion old photos in boxes and albums, and possibly scan the negatives. My old Mini has the scanner drivers and photoshop elements; I have no idea if the MacBook can talk to the scanner. I can boot up the Mini and play with that at some point.

I'm not sure what to do with them after that: list on ebay or sell through Amazon. Does anyone have experience with either of these? I listed some stuff on ebay once, like 5 years ago, but I've never done that on Amazon.

Notes on the beer festival later!

Comments

[yhibiki]

You'll have to check the going prices and the rates ebay/amazon charge to see if it's worth it; my sister sold a bunch of games recently but realized that about half of them it would cost her more to list than she'd be getting in revenue. As a buyer, I prefer amazon, though if you've got something rare that you think might start a bid war ebay is probably the better place.

(And if you can't seem to sell them, may I suggest donating the books to the local library?)

[yhibiki]

oh, I forgot. I haven't done it myself, but I think there's places online for bookswapping, you might be able to trade your useless books for something you'd prefer? Goodreads seems to have one, but I could have sworn there was one that was more international...

[feuervogel]

Amazon has two levels of selling things: pro and not. The pro version is 39.99/mo, and the other version is 0.99 per sale (not per listing) plus commission and fees (which aren't in the general information on the website, of course). Amazon does seem like a much easier place to sell things, and I remember ebay charging you just to list something, even if it doesn't sell. I don't know if that would be better or worse than Amazon's fees, though.

I do have some weird, old fan shit, but I have no idea whether anyone wants it or cares about those fandoms anymore...

Swapping books could be cool, except I'm trying to clear out shelf space. Eventually I might get an e-reader so I can keep e-versions of books I thought were OK but don't otherwise need to have taking up feet on my shelf.

[beth_leonard]

I've sold a very few things on EBay before. It's fairly straightforward, they take their cut. The most important thing is to have good photos of your items -- the best tip is to have lots of light coming from diffuse sources when you take your photos, I can go on and on. If there is a barcode and an official picture you can use, do so. I've never sold through Amazon before.

--Beth

[feuervogel]

I sold some things on ebay a long while ago, and unless they've changed it, they charge you straight up to list it, then take a cut once it sells. I looked into the Amazon thing, and they don't charge you to list, but they charge 0.99 plus fees per sale (or 39.99/mo if you expect to sell more than 40 items per month and want to classify yourself as a pro seller). While I have a lot more than 40 things to sell, I'd rather not pay the per-month fee.

[warpig1979.livejournal.com]

The other factor as far as selling stuff on Amazon is that, with a few exceptions for sought-after rarities and such, used books don't sell for shit on Amazon. IMO your best bet would be to just truck them over to Ed McKay's and see what you can get in cash or store credit.

[feuervogel]

Yeah; I was thinking $2.50 for the paperbacks and $5-10 for the hardbacks. All the books I bought new are in good condition, because I'm not a spine-cracker. I have an oversize arms and armor reference (paperback) that goes new for $40, which I'd sell for $10.

Ben's emailing Andy about the manga on the list, because I have a lot of full sets.

The last time Ben took a bunch of my used books around to shops, 80% of them ended up at the PTA thrift shop, and he didn't even get a donation receipt to write off the $100 on our taxes.

[kirin]

It also may be worth a shot listing the general nerd interest books on my forum once; I can do it if you hand/mail me a list.

[feuervogel]

I think I'm going to make a spreadsheet.