Thanks to everyone who jumped all over my last post. I needed it.
After some cash buyers flaked today, I'm turning to Hive to share more recent wins to get myself thinking bigger again.
Here are those wins...
This book set was a huge score. I found it one block away from my apartment poking out of the hole of the large black garbage bag. I knew exactly what it was and immediately scooped up the score of the most recent year of a complete MBE grad school study book set that retails for about $900. They didn't have a single pen mark or highlight, and I sold them online for a "discounted" $450 to help a student out. I slashed $100 off my goal, but made sure to considered my cost of $0 to not be greedy.
Another big win was that these were 25 pounds and 11 ounces in recycled packaging. Boom.
This history textbook sold online for $80. This was the first of 16 I had of this exact book from a school that tossed them outside recently. Four additional books look exactly the same, but have a different ISBN number to be worth $130+ each. What a find! The morale of the story is that twenty kids will have the book they need for their studies because of me. Weight with recycled packaging of 6 pounds and 2 ounces.
Multiplying this by 20x over time yields 122.5 pounds net from this one set.
If I can do this repeatedly, I know that YOU can save a few pounds a week in some way.
This textbook was found while waiting outside for my friend to meet me in front of my apartment. I literally stood there watching the woman put her stack of books down and waited for her to walk away before swooping in.
I sold it online for $48. It weighed 2 pounds and 5 ounces with recycled packaging. It wasn't a super current book, but I knew it'd sell at this level in a month or two, and it did.
This Illiad of Homer leather bound book from the 1970's was in near mint unread condition. I sold it online for $48. It weighed 3 pounds and 11 ounces with recycled packaging.
This was the LAST book of 37 I believe found a few years ago. I can't find the pic, but it's down on my blog somewhere. The majority of them were factory sealed new and sold easily. What a shame to see these tossed out, but what a nice feeling to have the opportunity to save ALL OF THEM. This book here only took so long to sell because I forgot I had it on my bookshelf until 2 months ago.
This book sold online for $42 to a dad buying it for his daughter's studies. I found this at the same time as the counseling book above, which goes with the theme that books of the same genre/quality are often found in sets. Weight with recycled packaging of 1 pounds and 11 ounces.
This last book sold online for only $30, but it's a common quick flipper. It's weight with recycled packaging was 6 pounds and 4 ounces. I sometimes leave these behind if my backpack or hands are full due to a lower profit, but I taken them for their weight value when I have the capacity. The math books are often much better and worth their weight.
Summary:
- 6 online sales for $698 in revenue at no inventory cost.
- Total recycled weight of sales of 45.75 pounds. Add in the others I just found that haven't sold yet and it'll be much higher than that over future sales.
- Costs included media mail shipping costs built into my online pricing.
- I also had a cab ride home with all of the history textbooks as mentioned in my last post showing the $2,000+ haul. Splitting that cost between all the books is negligible.
- Bar codes are easy to look up on eBay using their scanner to see what the current listings are going for, but I care most about what they've actually sold for.
It's getting late and I'm tired, but I need to continue to progress on my mission. Nobody else is here to hold me accountable, so I have to do this if I want to be happy with my effort when I go to sleep.
First though, I need to do 50 push-ups and 50 air squats. I've been slacking a bit on my exercising since Summer baseball ended, but Fall ball is starting this Sunday. I'll be pitching for the bulk of one game and hitting in both.
Feel free to share any thoughts or ideas below. I'd love to know of anything you've done lately to help reduce waste for our planet.
Thanks as always for your interest, inspiration, and support.
Some people have too much money to throw away. Then they are slaves of different banks, having God knows how many credit cards maxed out and into debts up to their neck. Unbelievable how many good stuff is thrown away.
About those recycled packages, how do you get those?
Damn textbooks are so expensive
Do you live close to a college? Is that how you're getting these books for squat? That's a great racket after every semester, if that's the case!
There are some colleges nearby, but mostly private secondary schools. I'm in a big city, where there's an overabundance of high-end household stuff and merchandise put out on the curbs on recycling and trash days. I've been plucking and selling stuff for almost 5+ years nearly effortlessly and having a lot of fun along the way. Feel free to check back in my blog or image search my name with recycling to see endless examples. 99% of this stuff is found within walking distance from my apartment, so given the area I'm not covering, the supply is immense.
See my last post for a min to see other types of items, but I find virtually everything you can imagine.
I think that's awesome! I'll take a walk down your alley (old blogs... not being creepy)