Selling books

I actually got a check from Cash4books.net last week.  It was for $7, but it was off of a referral.  Apparently, someone found the link (I’m assuming through this site) and sold some books to them.

I have sold books to them before.  I’ll admit that it’s hard to find books to sell to them as they are very selective, but it’s easier than waiting seven days on eBay and hoping someone buys something.  You can also usually use eBay as a backup if necessary.

Selling books online is somewhat difficult, at least for cash.  This has also proven difficult in real life, as many used bookstores will only give credit.  Even then, there’s no promise that they’ll want any of your books.

Movies and CDs aren’t much easier.  Some sites and stores will take them, but often will only offer 50¢ each.  If you’re selling at a store, it’s often not worth the gas money.  Even if you sell them online, it may not be worth going to the nearest mailbox.

At this point, I’m hoping that you’re not expecting a solution.  I’m actually looking for suggestions, myself.  I don’t know that there is one.  After all, it’s supply and demand.  I used half.com for a while and at best, would sell one or two books per day and that was with an inventory of thousands of items.  If anyone knows of a site that buys lots of stuff or a place near Miami that’s worth visiting, I’d be interested in knowing about it.

ProTypers and Listia

I’ve been using ProTypers for a while now.  While I have cashed out a few times now, I’ve noticed a real lack of motivation to keep at it.  They’ve lowered the rates a few times and I’ve also noticed that it’s harder to get images to process.  I don’t know if more people are signing up or of they have lower demand for their services.  Either way, I only have two referrals and neither one seems to have kept up with it.  You need to have five referrals cash out before you can earn from referrals, so I’m not counting on that as an income source.

Also, it looks like Listia is allowing people to use points to buy things outright.  (I don’t know if I mentioned that before.)  Right now, I don’t have enough points to buy anything and I don’t know if I will any time soon.  I have to see if there is anything I can sell for more points.  (Or get a few more referrals.)

It looks like they have movies, electronics and gift cards among other things.  They’re things definitely worth saving up for.  I wonder how this will affect bidding if people are looking to do the same.  I can see people listing more things to get the points (meaning more competition) and fewer people willing to bid on stuff because they’re either saving up for an iPod or just bought an Amazon gift card.

If you’re thinking of signing up, but you can’t think of anything to list, I can recommend a few things.  The first two auctions I listed were gift codes that I got from Fribiz.  Since there was no physical card to mail, there was no need to spend money on postage.

Another similar idea is the codes you find for special promotions that you find in soda caps and candy wrappers.  I’ve found that a lot of times, I don’t use enough of the product to save up enough codes to get anything.  The down side with this one is that it’s hard to get a lot of points unless you list at least a half dozen codes together.  It’s worth a shot if you have them laying around, though.

For right now, it seems the easiest way to get money is to have a job.  That’s my best income right now.  If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Fribiz Lives! and other things worth getting excited about

It looks like I was misinformed.  Fribiz isn’t shutting down.  (Yes, that’s the referral link and yes, I’m using an adf.ly interstitial link.)  They’ve been posting new auctions well past the date that they were supposed to be going offline.  I don’t know if they changed their minds or if I was reading something wrong, but I can’t say I mind.

In other news, a Where’s George app has been released.  It’s very basic, only letting you enter bills.  It doesn’t look like you can refresh at all, which I can’t say I mind.  It is a very early version.  My only issue is that it doesn’t always get the ZIP code right.  I haven’t tried entering a bill with it yet because of this.  I’m hoping it’s resolved in a later version.

Yes, it’s 99¢ and the only money I’m making off of it is the money I get from adf.ly when you follow the link.  It’s not so bad, I suppose.  I was getting these nag notices whenever I tried to enter a bill using Safari on my iPod Touch, so that alone was worth it.  I’m also supporting something that a lot of people were looking forward to.  It was definitely worth the download.