Posts Tagged ‘income’

Snowflake Idea: Selling My Used Books

Today is Internet Sunday chez moi, and I’ve spent most of the day doing things online. Everything from working on my freelance website to listing used books I have for sale on Amazon.ca. This last one is a new idea I had just this week. I was originally going to bring the books to a used bookstore, but I was lazy and didn’t want to bring the box down to the car. So instead today I remembered that I can list things on Amazon.ca as well, so I just spent the last 40 minutes and listed about 15 items on there. A few of them are books from my university career that I no longer want, the rest are just books I’ve accumulated along the way. Again, they’re all books that I don’t want any more. The books currently in my library are ones that I want to keep, but not this box. I’m excited at the prospect of selling them, although I do realize that most of them will probably not sell at all. But I figure I’ll keep them up for 4-6 months, and if they don’t sell by then, I’ll make the trip to the used book store.

Have any of you had any success selling used books on Amazon?

Creating Your Own Snowflakes

As I sat here working from home today because the roads were too slippery to make it into the office, I was admiring all the snow that was falling. It was quite pleasant to watch, and got me thinking about snowflaking and my debt. One good thing about working from home today was the fact that I saved on gas. I was going to have to fill up the tank today, so staying home meant I got to postpone that till tomorrow.

But the real snowflakes got me thinking about my debt snowflakes, and how I need to get a few together to start that whole debt snowball thing. I’ve actually been trying to get a bit of freelance work on the side partly because I want to transition to full-time freelance work in the long-term, but of course it has the short-term effect of lowering my debt. Initially the freelancing money would go 100% towards my debt, but I think once I was able to cover minimum payments on all my current debts, then I might start putting any excess towards topping up my emergency fund. Once that was topped up to my “comfortable” level, I’d start divvying some of it up towards my “fun” savings accounts.

To that end over the weekend I sent out a few emails in response to some job postings I’d found. I’d also installed Google Analytics on my freelance website, and when I checked today, I was happy to see that I’d gotten a few clicks. I’ve started leaving comments on a few freelancing websites with my site in my signature, so it was nice to see that the traffic is slowly starting to trickle in. My main focus will be freelance technical writing, as that’s what I do for my day job. It’s specific enough that I can focus pretty well  on those specific jobs. But I’d also like to branch out into other types of freelance writing, as I do consider myself a writer first, and a computer geek second.The next step is for me to start practicing other types of writing as well, so that I can market myself in those avenues as well, and increase my chances at earning a decent enough income to eventually do it full-time.

I don’t expect the money to start rolling in quickly, but like the snowflakes that built themselves up into a snowdrift on my balcony during today’s storm, I’m hoping that the money will slowly trickle in. Slow and steady is what I’m looking for. The old adage is cliched, but true: slow & steady wins the race.

Don’t Talk Bad Behind My Back!

A few weeks ago I sold some unused items on eBay. Usually things run smoothly for me, and 95% of my items this time sold without any problems. One item in particular has me puzzled.

I sold a book for $0.01, with shipping charges of $10. Now these shipping charges were clearly stated in the auction, so anyone looking at the listing would have seen this. I checked my feedback rating this week, and while the buyer gave me a positive rating, he gave me a backhanded slight that I thought was rather funny. Buddy wrote “book perfect, shipping charge borders on fraud.”

Let me get this straight: someone who was trolling for a cheap book was upset at the shipping charge that was clearly stated on the auction?? Give me a break.

It’s one thing if I did not state the shipping charge on there, and suddenly tell him it’s gonna costs $20 or something. Except the charges were clearly stated, and were actually rather cheap, considering I was shipping it from the East Coast of the continent to the West Coast.

But what had me even more puzzled was that he left me positive feedback. I mean, if he objected that much to the charge, why didn’t he: 1-complain to me directly about the charge, and 2-leave me negative feedback instead? I’ve had people question the shipping charge in the past, but after I explain it they usually understand (or at least give up trying to get the already cheap item for even cheaper.) But this guy did the passive-aggressive thing by not even saying anything to me. I dislike it when buyers do this, because then it makes me feel like I’m charging absurd shipping rates, when I’m actually not. In my opinion these people are just trolling for a super-cheap deal, and then get mad when they actually have to pay something for the item. If they want a 50 cent book or dining room table, then they should be trolling the local garage sales, not looking on eBay. I’ve often discounted auctions on there that had shipping rates I didn’t want to pay.

To each his/her own I suppose, but I just think it’s strange that people behave this way. Don’t you?