A Personal PSA

[gerisullivan]

The "Shop at Geri's" debt reduction program remains open for business with framed art, jewelry, fanzines, PEZ, yarn, Candlewick crystal, carnival glass, objets d'art, and other curiosities from Toad Woods for sale. All proceeds go to my creditors to pay down debt.

To date, sales lists, photos, and prices have been handled on a one-to-one basis. I keep working on having Copious Free Time to build sales lists and post them, but haven't managed to make that work yet. I will, and I'll post when I do. In the meantime, please inquire directly if there's anything you're interested in, and check out the framed art I'll have up in the resale area of the Boskone Art Show.

Since Shop at Geri's opened last April, $3,250.50 has come in and gone immediately to creditors, helping to reduce my debt load and thereby saving additional interest expenses on that debt. I also have items on commission at an antiques shop in Sturbridge and proceeds from those sales will be added to the Shop at Geri's balance sheet as they are received.

Many thanks to all who have supported the Shop at Geri's debt reduction program with their purchases and interest in various items. It's been a fun and effective aspect of my debt reduction efforts, and I hope it continues being so for shoppers as well as for your grateful shop keeper.

Comments

[alicebentley]

Are you the "Shop at Geri's" on eBay, or some other Shop at Geri's? I haven't dug back very far on your LJ, but I haven't found a link.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Yikes! I should have looked. It never occurred to me that someone else might be using the name. It seems so unlikely, especially with the same spelling and everything.

No, that's not me. I've been doing one-to-one so far, with sales taking place in person at conventions, here at home, and via email. I have an eBay account, but have been focusing on sales that don't require me to spend money to find out whether anyone is interested in buying a specific item, since money itself is in horribly short supply. I also have very little eBay experience -- purchases I can count on the fingers of one hand and no listings or sales. (Yes, I know. There's only one way to change either of those things!)

So no links yet; I'll post 'em when I have them. Direct queries regarding types of stuff and/or likely price ranges welcome.

[alicebentley]

Well darn. Because my next question was going to be what your experience with eBay had been so far, or what kind of shopping cart software you used.

Diane Duane did a sale on her LJ a while back where she listed items and prices as a post, then lined them out as they were sold.

I've been debating methods to use to unload some of the vast numbers of books I've acquired and really don't need to keep. So far all I've done is get a Dealer Table at a couple of conventions. It does get them out of the house, but I usually land up paying more than I collect. I wouldn't recommend that route for debt reduction.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sorry.

carnyjack has a lot of eBay experience, as does minnehaha K. I can give you Jack's email if you need it -- he doesn't frequent LJ very often.

(I'm sure you have contact info for the Minnehahas.)

I haven't yet had the experience where selling objects cost more than I took in, but I did spend 2-3 hours of prep time and 5 hours of set-up and selling time to make something like $37 or $42 at the Wales Farmers' Market one Saturday last summer. The conviviality of the people made that worthwhile, but the proceeds didn't. Especially since I burned through much of what I had that folks might be looking for when visiting the farmers' market with its couple of flea market-style tables. This next year, I might try a Christmas in July sale there, and also push the bits of outdoorsy stuff I have since lots of the shoppers are weekend campers at the campground across the street.

[casacorona.livejournal.com]

klages also does a lot of selling on Ebay.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I used to sell beads on eBay and also sold some books. The advantage of eBay compared to Amazon is that you can pick your own shipping & handling rates. Another option for books is Abebooks.

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

You could always be the Toad Hall Emporium.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Now that's a title I would expect to already be in use! There's Toad Hall Bookstore here in Massachusetts, Toad HallToys in Winnipeg, MB, and, yes, sure enough, Toad Hall Emporium in Chemainus, BC.

[daedala.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's working really well! I'm glad for you!

For some reason I don't think "Shop at Daedala's" will do so well. :)

[patty1943.livejournal.com]

As far as selling books, you can list them on Amazon as a seller without paying anything. To do this you look up the book, which helps you to set a price because you can see what other used copies go for, but if it is rare or a first edition, I also look them up on bookfinder.com which is connected with a lot of booksellers and has more information on the condition of the book. A lot of Amazon sellers don't know how to describe condition, or just don't.
On the right side of the page when you are at the book's page, the one that has a picture and 'buy now with one click,' etc. below that is "Have one to sell?" which is where you can list it.
I list my book, Recovering from the War, for free and since they give you a 3.99 credit for shipping, and charge some fees, I get about 18.00 for a 19.95 book with each sale. I pay the shipping, media mail. It is a good outlet. You are supposed to pack it up and ship within a couple of days.
I believe you can list things besides books there too.
I have never used ebay. I have listed the book on half.com but I sell maybe 50 copies on Amazon for every one on half.com which is part of ebay.

[daedala.livejournal.com]

Delicious Library 2 apparently allows you to scan in the books, then post on Amazon, really easily.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

That's really good information, for Alice and also other interested parties (like yours truly). Thank you!

[redbird]

What kind of jewelry are we talking about? I might be interested in earrings or necklaces (more likely earrings), and tend to prefer silver to gold. Carnival glass is tempting, and if you're still doing this when cattitude and I have finished the current decluttering project, I may be interested. (Ornaments for home rather than person seem to fit in the tchotchke category, and we're not buying tchotchkes while trying to declutter. We are buying consumables (food, soap, that sort of thing), clothing, aome tools, and some books.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Sounds good, redbird.

I'll have the necklaces available at Boskone for you to look at and consider, and I can easily pack a variety of earrings, too. Any preferred styles, colors, or materials?

Sounds like a good plan on the tchotchke front, too. Good luck with the decluttering!

[laminahospes.livejournal.com]

Well, I'd be interested in old fanzines from my neck of the woods, if you've got any. In particular, I'm looking for three that I know about, and any others I might not. The oldest is TRANSURANIC, which was done in the mid 50s by a club in Charlotte. Bob Madle was involved with that. The next was VERTIGO, which ran from 1969-1980 for 41 issues out of Durham. This is the zine you'd previously scanned an issue of for me. I believe the Murray brothers (Edwin and Terry) may have been involved in that. The only other zine I have reference to is OVERWHELM, which was supposed to be a genzine in the 80s. I don't know who was involved in that. Those, or any others out of NC, or really good stuff out of the South in general, are the sort of thing I'm looking for -- particularly anything that's not online.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

I'll take a look -- somebody else most likely did the scanning for you on VERTIGO, as I don't remember having any of these three titles. Alas, Southern fandom is lightly represented in my collection. I'll let you know what I turn up.

How are you set for Fanthologies? They contain really good stuff from all over, compiled by year. I think I have an extra issue or two of Science-Fiction Five-Yearly from the early years.

[laminahospes.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't actually have much of the older stuff. I suppose I should get ahold of some -- if only to have some classic material to share with my generation so they can see what's come before. Joe had managed to get one of the issues of VERTIGO posted, he may have some others. He was going to go digging and see what turned up. Just let me know what you've got, and I'll see what I can do (although it might be a little while before I turn up the funds -- maybe March or April).