"Be The One"

Friday, March 13, 2015

Selling Books on ebay and Half

Thanks to the "34 Weeks of Clean" challenge, I have been sorting through and selling books these past few weeks. Since I have home school curriculum to purchase for next year, I am working towards a very legitimate and concrete financial goal. Cleaning, sorting, and selling books is not only cleaning and decluttering my house, but it is also helping me to successfully earn money towards my goal.

Many readers of this blog have similar book collections as I do, and would love to successfully turn their book stashes into cash, so I am compiling a list of suggestions that have helped me to make money while selling my books.

Half is a quick and easy way to sell books, especially if you have a large quantity of books to part with. First, spend a few minutes setting up an account and linking it to your paypal account. Then enter ISBN numbers into Half's easy selling page. Half does the rest - it brings up the book's information and cover picture. After reading the guidelines for determining the condition of your books, enter a condition for each book listed. Half automatically adds the media mail shipping rate to your books when they are listed. It also gives you the average selling price for the book you listed, and you can choose what you would like your selling price to be.

There is a handy account page that allows you to manage your book sales, reset prices, and see your currently listed inventory. When a buy makes a purchase, Half notifies you and collects the payment. It is your job, as a seller, to ship the book as soon as possible. Once the transaction is completed, the money is deposited into your paypal account, minus the small fee taken by Half. Really, it is simple and can be very profitable.

In the past I have purchased books from the bag sale at my library, and resold them for a handy profit on Half. At this point in time, I am focusing on clearing the clutter from my own home, so I am concentrating on selling my own unwanted or unneeded books though.

Selling books on ebay can be a little more complicated, but is still fairly profitable. Ebay has recently begun to allow sellers to list books by ISBN similar to Half, which saves a lot of time entering titles, authors, and subjects. Sellers should still describe the book's condition as clearly as possible.

After many years of selling on ebay, I have two major pieces of advice. The first is to know your market. I will often spend weeks watching items similar to those I want to sell, to see the buying trends. If no one is bidding on similar items, I know that mine will also go unsold, and it is not worth the time it will take me to list those items. By watching buying trends, I also learn the hot times of the year to sell particular items. For example, the hot times to sell home school curriculum is spring (when people are spending tax returns, and planning for next school year) and late August/early September (when people are starting their school year and realizing they have a need for something that they don't already own, or perhaps are waiting until the last minute to purchase).

The second piece of advice that will make a huge difference in earning a healthy profit on ebay is to charge properly for shipping. In my early selling years, I got burned badly on shipping several times, and finally learned my lesson about doing the legwork for this before listing the items. Now, I completely package my items in boxes, and weigh and measure the package before listing. I will use the 'calculator' on ebay to pre-determine a shipping cost, and enter the package's weight and measurements while setting up the listing. This way, the buyer will pay the exact shipping price to their zip code, and I won't lose out on profit by undercharging for shipping.

Using ebay's shipping label feature is very convenient, because the money is removed directly from your paypal account, and a pre-paid shipping label is printed. This can be taped onto the outside of your package, and quickly dropped off to the post office at a convenient time for you. Also, using this option will notify your buyer when the package is shipped and allow them to track their package, which most buyers find very helpful.

Taking good pictures, and describing your items carefully is very important when selling items and books on ebay. If there are pages bent, or any marks at all in the books, this should be noted. Think of the information you would want to know if you were the buyer, and put that into your listing for others. If you have a smoke free and pet free home, be sure to note that, even for books. It is very important to some buyers.

Thanks to the inspiration from Michele I am well on my way to getting my books under control, and making some money too!

Friday, March 6, 2015

Review: Egglo Entertainment

Even though it is still cold and wintry, at least where I live, it's not too early to start preparing for Easter, which is coming in about a month! Easter, or Resurrection Sunday, is the central, most important holiday of Christianity. The resurrection of Christ is what distinguishes Christianity from all other faiths in this world, and our children need to understand that Easter is more than chocolate, bunnies, and eggs, but it is all about our Savior! We were asked to review Glow in the Dark Egglo Eggs and The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure Book from Egglo Entertainment. This review came just in time to help us start thinking ahead to our Easter celebration, and get our minds focused on what a special day it really is.

Egglo Entertainment has a number of items available to help a family or church host a special, Christ-centered Easter Egg Hunt that is not only spiritually engaging, but fun. For our review, we received a few special items to use alongside our eggs:

The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure Book
Egglo Treasures Scripture Scrolls
Egglo Bible Verse Stickers
A downloadable version of The Egglo Glow in the Dark Egg Hunt Event Curriculum

About the products: The program is based on the verse "Jesus is the Light of the World". Each and every item is designed to be a part of a fun event, pointing children to Jesus Christ. The eggs glow in the dark because Jesus is a light in a dark world.

First things first: I downloaded and read through the 62 page curriculum guide, which is chock full of really creative ideas to host a successful Easter event for any size group. There are printable posters, invitations, and signs, as well as teaching suggestions for a teacher or parent to present the lesson to the participants before they start their search. There are also fun party games and ideas, along with several snack ideas to reinforce the lesson. At the end of the curriculum guide are lovely printable coloring pages for the children to take home.

An Egglo printable coloring page

Egg Hunt prizes: The small scrolls and stickers fit nicely inside the eggs and can be used as special prizes. There are plenty of other creative suggestions to use them though, if you want to stretch them beyond just the eggs. Suggestions for large groups include placing tickets inside the eggs, which lead to a prize, or using the scrolls and stickers as part of a 'scavenger hunt' to discover the truths of Easter.

Small Scripture scrolls and stickers fit nicely inside the eggs.

The Story: Reading the Adventure Book first with the children will get them even more excited about the hunt. All the pieces of the egg hunt are found in the story. It is a 40 page softcover book that features the adventures of 3 children, cousins, who are getting ready for Easter. They have typical child-like problems, which are solved by a pretend adventure they travel on after finding a special glowing egg in the attic. In the story, readers will find the glowing eggs, plenty of sources of light, Scripture scrolls, and signs that match the Scripture stickers. At the end of their journey they find a treasure: a scroll which explains the true meaning of Easter, and a Bible that declares itself a "light to their path".

How we used our Egglo Eggs: My children, ages 9 and 13, both read through the book, and had a blast playing with the eggs, laying them out in various shapes. We "charged up" the eggs by placing them directly under a lamp for about 6 hours. (I assume that sunlight would 'charge' them brighter, but we have very little of it here in New York right now, so the lamp was the best we could do). Once charged, the eggs glowed for about an hour. I thought they were rather dim, but I imagine they would be much brighter if charged in direct sunlight. When it was dark, I hid them all around our living room, and turned off all the lights. The girls came and searched for the eggs, and easily found all twelve eggs pretty quickly. They had a lot of fun searching for them. Most of the eggs were pretty easy to spot in the darkness. We are a "glow stick" loving family, so these glowing eggs were a pretty popular item.

What we thought: As I mentioned, the girls really liked the eggs. They liked how they glowed and enjoyed searching for them. They continued to play with them in the dark after they found them all. The 9 year old was definitely more 'into' them, and the whole story line, then the 13 year old, but I think that's pretty typical and just reflects the age range that these were designed for. The girls didn't like the adventure book that much, because they both felt the story had too much 'pretend' in it. The story is obviously a fictitious adventure, and would probably appeal to a younger age group than my girls. Though we had a difficult time with the paper coming out of the plastic ends on the scrolls when we unrolled them, the girls thought they looked really neat - just like a real ancient Hebrew scroll. I was very impressed with the creativity of the curriculum guide. As a person who likes to find creative ideas and borrow them for my own use, this was very appealing. I love how thorough the program is, and how it can be adapted for any size group, age range, or audience. It definitely can be an effective tool for children's ministry.

Note: Verses in the book and on the stickers are written in the New International Version. The statements on the scrolls are 'based on' verses but do not quote them directly.

Check out Egglo Entertainment on social media:

To read about all the creative ways that members of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew used the Egglo glow-in-the-dark Easter eggs in their home school, click the banner below:

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

The American's Creed

As we study through American history at the elementary level, we are learning about and memorizing important American documents. Before homeschooling, I had never heard of the American's Creed. I think it is a beautiful statement of loyalty to our country, and am glad for the opportunity to learn it.

It was written in 1917 by William Tyler Page. Page, who had many influential Americans in his family pedigree, wrote the creed as a summary of American principles. After entering it into a national contest, his was selected as the best, and accepted by Congress in 1918. At the time, America was engaged in the "Great War", World War I, and patriotism was running high.

We recently completed this project. Kelly colored the paper and crinkled it to make it look "antique". She also memorized the American's Creed, which combines distinct principles from several great American documents, namely the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

Here are the words:

"I believe in the United States of America as a Government of the people by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a Republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect Union, one and inseparable; established upon those principls of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.

I therefore believe it is my duty to my Country to love it; to support its Constitution; to obey its laws; to respect its flag, and to defend it againest all enemies."

Many like to complain about America in 2015. Our government and leaders are often at odds with all that is fundamentally good and right with this country and it's people. But it is still the greatest country on earth, and I am so blessed and thankful to be an American. It is a privilege - one that I did not choose for myself, as I was born here, but one that I am so grateful to have for myself and my children.

Perhaps you would like to incorporate the American's Creed into your home school day as well!

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