~ Learn The 20 Ways To Make $100 A Day Online Today!
One of the
easiest things to sell are coupons. I'm not talking about grocery coupon inserts from the
Sunday paper (although you could do this too); I'm talking about coupons for
percentages off of purchases from stylish stores like J.Jill or Ann Taylor that
you find in magazines like InStyle or Southern Living or Better Homes and
Gardens. Trust me--you won't make a lot on these auctions, but they are easy
auctions to write, you don't need a picture to go with your auction (unless you
want to but it won't effect the auction's outcome), and coupons are easy to
ship with just the cost of a first class stamp. One of the better coupons to
sell on eBay comes from Coach. Read my post on how
to get coupons from Coach.
Here's another idea....do you have any artistic talent? Even just a little bit? You'd be surprised what a little bit of paint can do to fetch a good price on a vintage or unique item. If you don't have any artistic talent, you can get some. That's right, you can learn. I was blessed with a little bit of artistic talent but found that basic painting books by Donna Dewberry (see below) can help even the helpless. She teaches easy to learn painting strokes for flowers, leaves, birds, fruit, etc. If you can master a few of these techniques, and use your new found skill on items like mirrors, frames, mailboxes, vases, plaques, etc., you can make yourself a little bit of money.
Here's a little secret: There's a market on eBay for roses. Pink roses. If you can learn to paint decent looking pink roses and apply them on different items, you will sell them. Do an advanced search on eBay for completed items with the terms "handpainted pink roses, " or "hp pink roses," and see what items have sold and for what price. Other popular terms with pink roses are "shabby" or "cottage." I have painted pink roses on black boards, cork boards, frames, mirrors and other items and they've always sold. Are you a handyman and can write clear instructions on how to build a birdhouse or a cottage bench or some other item in great demand? You can sell your detailed plans. The great thing about this is that you only have to write your instructions once, then you can sell them over and over again.
Other things I have sold are children's clothes, designer handbags (I bought on sale at an outlet store), books (I find at Goodwill or other thrift shops), magazines (some libraries give old issues away for free), and my personal favorite....old photos and colored illustrations from books. I learned everything I know about this from an ebook about tearing up old books and magazines and selling them on eBay. You can check out this book here. Purchasing this book was probably one of the best investments I made to expand my eBay business.
I'll tell you why I love to sell old photos and colored illustrations on eBay: you can find them at any used bookstore, or thrift shop. I found a 1912 Princeton yearbook at a thrift shop for $10. As expected, there were plenty of photos of the University's sports teams. I scanned some of the pictures first to see if there was an interest in the individual pictures before I started cutting the book apart. I figured that if there wasn't an interest in the pictures, then I would try to sell the entire book for obviously more than I paid for it. Once I saw that there was an interest in the pictures, I carefully cut them out of the book and sold them individually for $4.99 each. What fun!
When selling colored illustrations from books, you have to be careful of when the book was copyrighted. There are plenty of articles written about this subject so I won't go into it here, but if you find books up to the very early 1900's with great colored illustrations in them, double check if they are in the public domain, but chances are you can cut out the pictures, perhaps mat them to look extra nice, and sell them on eBay. Again, scan them first before tearing a book apart in case you need to sell the book as a whole if there is no interest in the pictures. If selling these types of things on eBay interests you, you have to check out the amazing ebook I bought that helped me earn money on eBay. Click Here to check it out! I'll expect a thank you in the comments below for this tip!
[ebay]
I have also enjoyed taking something old and making it into something unique and different. I once bought some old vanity tray mirrors I found at a consignment shop. I spray painted the gold edges and feet with cottage white. Then I got a few pink beads, and wire at a craft store and wired the beads around the edges so they dangled down. I got more then twice what I paid for the vanity tray mirror, and my time invested was very minimal.
When looking for things to sell on eBay, try to think out of the box. Get creative. Do your research. For instance, if you want to sell vanity tray mirrors on eBay then see what they have sold for in the past. Do an advanced search and check the "completed listings" box. This will give you an idea of how much money you can make and maybe how you can make your product a little more interesting and unique. But most importantly, have fun with it! If it's not fun, then you won't want to stick with it.
Also, don't forget to check out Make Money Tearing Up Old Books and Magazines to get started making money on eBay right away! And visit my new website, EasyThingsToSell.com for ideas on the easiest things to sell on eBay right now!
Be sure to sign up for my RSS feed so you don't miss a new post!
Here's another idea....do you have any artistic talent? Even just a little bit? You'd be surprised what a little bit of paint can do to fetch a good price on a vintage or unique item. If you don't have any artistic talent, you can get some. That's right, you can learn. I was blessed with a little bit of artistic talent but found that basic painting books by Donna Dewberry (see below) can help even the helpless. She teaches easy to learn painting strokes for flowers, leaves, birds, fruit, etc. If you can master a few of these techniques, and use your new found skill on items like mirrors, frames, mailboxes, vases, plaques, etc., you can make yourself a little bit of money.
Here's a little secret: There's a market on eBay for roses. Pink roses. If you can learn to paint decent looking pink roses and apply them on different items, you will sell them. Do an advanced search on eBay for completed items with the terms "handpainted pink roses, " or "hp pink roses," and see what items have sold and for what price. Other popular terms with pink roses are "shabby" or "cottage." I have painted pink roses on black boards, cork boards, frames, mirrors and other items and they've always sold. Are you a handyman and can write clear instructions on how to build a birdhouse or a cottage bench or some other item in great demand? You can sell your detailed plans. The great thing about this is that you only have to write your instructions once, then you can sell them over and over again.
Other things I have sold are children's clothes, designer handbags (I bought on sale at an outlet store), books (I find at Goodwill or other thrift shops), magazines (some libraries give old issues away for free), and my personal favorite....old photos and colored illustrations from books. I learned everything I know about this from an ebook about tearing up old books and magazines and selling them on eBay. You can check out this book here. Purchasing this book was probably one of the best investments I made to expand my eBay business.
I'll tell you why I love to sell old photos and colored illustrations on eBay: you can find them at any used bookstore, or thrift shop. I found a 1912 Princeton yearbook at a thrift shop for $10. As expected, there were plenty of photos of the University's sports teams. I scanned some of the pictures first to see if there was an interest in the individual pictures before I started cutting the book apart. I figured that if there wasn't an interest in the pictures, then I would try to sell the entire book for obviously more than I paid for it. Once I saw that there was an interest in the pictures, I carefully cut them out of the book and sold them individually for $4.99 each. What fun!
When selling colored illustrations from books, you have to be careful of when the book was copyrighted. There are plenty of articles written about this subject so I won't go into it here, but if you find books up to the very early 1900's with great colored illustrations in them, double check if they are in the public domain, but chances are you can cut out the pictures, perhaps mat them to look extra nice, and sell them on eBay. Again, scan them first before tearing a book apart in case you need to sell the book as a whole if there is no interest in the pictures. If selling these types of things on eBay interests you, you have to check out the amazing ebook I bought that helped me earn money on eBay. Click Here to check it out! I'll expect a thank you in the comments below for this tip!
[ebay]
I have also enjoyed taking something old and making it into something unique and different. I once bought some old vanity tray mirrors I found at a consignment shop. I spray painted the gold edges and feet with cottage white. Then I got a few pink beads, and wire at a craft store and wired the beads around the edges so they dangled down. I got more then twice what I paid for the vanity tray mirror, and my time invested was very minimal.
When looking for things to sell on eBay, try to think out of the box. Get creative. Do your research. For instance, if you want to sell vanity tray mirrors on eBay then see what they have sold for in the past. Do an advanced search and check the "completed listings" box. This will give you an idea of how much money you can make and maybe how you can make your product a little more interesting and unique. But most importantly, have fun with it! If it's not fun, then you won't want to stick with it.
Also, don't forget to check out Make Money Tearing Up Old Books and Magazines to get started making money on eBay right away! And visit my new website, EasyThingsToSell.com for ideas on the easiest things to sell on eBay right now!
Be sure to sign up for my RSS feed so you don't miss a new post!
Where To Find FREE Printable Coupons-My Favorites
It's true. The best way to save money at the grocery store is by using coupons.
But you have to combine coupons with in-store sales for the best savings or you just might be better off buying the store's generic brand of products. If you can combine your coupons with items that are on sale in the store, then you have a good shot at saving 30% or more every time you go grocery shopping. But where besides your Sunday newspaper inserts can you find all those coupons in order to be able to combine them with what's on sale in your grocery store every week? Online of course! Keep reading to learn about where to find free printable coupons.
www.safeway.com, then I go to the following three websites: www.couponmom.com, www.smartsource.com, and www.coolsavings.com. What I especially like about the Coupon Mom website, is that you can search your state for your store and match the savings up with the different coupon inserts that are in the Sunday paper. Basically, all the work is done for you. My particular store isn't listed on Coupon Mom but I still like the website for all the free information. However, if your store is, then you're in for a treat! It's definitely worth checking out.
I've been clipping coupons for as long as I can remember. To me, it's like a game. I take my grocery store's circular every week and compare what's on sale in the store to what coupons I have for those items. You'd be surprised how many things you can actually get for free! Recently, I got three bags of dog biscuits and a tube of Colgate toothpaste for free. Once you get something for free, it's hard to pay for it every again!
One coupon strategy I use, is to buy three Sunday newspapers so that I have triple the amount of coupons. That way, when something goes on sale, I can stock up. Another strategy I use is to look online at my favorite coupon websites to see what other coupons I can print out and match up with what's on sale in my grocery store. Now before you start clipping away, you should make sure that your store will accept internet coupons. My store is Safeway. Their policy keeps changing. One week they'll accept internet coupons, and another week they won't. I recently printed out coupons from their own website that said "Safeway" on them. The check-out girl had to check to see if they accepted those coupons. I told her that they were printed from their own website, but still she had to check with her manager (Go figure?!).
My favorite websites for free printable coupons are first, my store's website. Next, I go to www.smartsource.com. Their website is easy to navigate and easy to choose the coupons you want, and print out. In addition, they have online deals listed on their website for other types of retailers. The last website, www.coolsavings.com is a lot like the Smart Source website. After I check the coupons on Smart Source, I'll go to Cool Savings to see if they have anything different from Smart Source. What you'll find is that a lot of online coupon websites have the same free printable coupons. However, it's still a good idea to check out at least three websites to see if you can find different ones.
OK. I left the best for last. My VERY favorite online coupon tool is at http://couponbar.coupons.com. This website allows you to install your very own coupon toolbar. I'm looking at mine right now and it's telling me that I have about 174 coupons that I can check out. The toolbar will include coupons, new coupons and recipes. Just click on the headings and sort through the different categories such as "beverages," "food," "healthcare," household," etc. The recipes selection is great. You can sort through "main dish," "vegetables," "salads," and more. It's so convenient to have this at your fingertips. Be sure to install this toolbar!
So there you have it; my favorite places to go look for online free printable coupons. Have fun and happy shopping!
Where do you find your best coupons? Do you have any coupon secrets you'd like to share? Please leave comments!
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Buying Guitar Hero World Tour On Sale
The Holidays
are quickly approaching and of course, I'm looking for that perfect deal!
The big purchase we're making this year for my 9-year old son for Christmas is Guitar Hero World Tour. I've already started looking for it in stores and comparing prices. I refuse to pay the full retail price. However, if I can get it on sale AND combine it with a Toys R' Us or KB Toys coupon then I'll feel really good about this purchase. The fact is, it will go on sale. It's just a matter of "when." The hard part is buying it too soon, and then missing out on a better sale. I played this game last year and sort of know how it works.
I do have a Toys R' Us AND a KB Toys coupon. I believe one is for $10 off a $75 purchase and the other one is $25 off a $100 purchase. The latter is the KB Toys coupon found in the coupon book sold by some schools as a fundraiser. Why more schools don't do it, I don't know. It's a great coupon book!
Believe it or not, the best deal could come from an internet company or a deal that can only be had online. That's OK. Especially with Black Friday right around the corner, deals online will be plentiful! I'll check Best Buy, Circuit City, JR.com, amazon.com and the toy stores' websites. They may have online deals that don't exist in their stores. Also, I'll keep my eye on the Slick Deals website and their "Hot Deals" forum.
Another strategy I'll use is to go to dealcatcher.com and sign up for their Deal Alerts so that if any store has a deal on Guitar Hero World Tour, I'll know about it!
What deal are you looking for this Holiday season? Feel free to share!
The big purchase we're making this year for my 9-year old son for Christmas is Guitar Hero World Tour. I've already started looking for it in stores and comparing prices. I refuse to pay the full retail price. However, if I can get it on sale AND combine it with a Toys R' Us or KB Toys coupon then I'll feel really good about this purchase. The fact is, it will go on sale. It's just a matter of "when." The hard part is buying it too soon, and then missing out on a better sale. I played this game last year and sort of know how it works.
I do have a Toys R' Us AND a KB Toys coupon. I believe one is for $10 off a $75 purchase and the other one is $25 off a $100 purchase. The latter is the KB Toys coupon found in the coupon book sold by some schools as a fundraiser. Why more schools don't do it, I don't know. It's a great coupon book!
Believe it or not, the best deal could come from an internet company or a deal that can only be had online. That's OK. Especially with Black Friday right around the corner, deals online will be plentiful! I'll check Best Buy, Circuit City, JR.com, amazon.com and the toy stores' websites. They may have online deals that don't exist in their stores. Also, I'll keep my eye on the Slick Deals website and their "Hot Deals" forum.
Another strategy I'll use is to go to dealcatcher.com and sign up for their Deal Alerts so that if any store has a deal on Guitar Hero World Tour, I'll know about it!
What deal are you looking for this Holiday season? Feel free to share!
Price Comparison Shop At BeatMyPrice.com
I discovered
a new website today called BeatMyPrice.com--maybe the best price comparison
website out there.
What I like about this price comparison website is that it's people-powered. That means that consumers can submit best deals on items that they find across the internet (sounds a little like the Hot Deals forum I visit at SlickDeals.net but BeatMyPrice.com is more consumer friendly). Not only that, after the website searches millions of prices across the web, they are linked with coupons from another great website--www.RetailMeNot.com.
I don't know about you, but after visiting BeatMyPrice.com, I think I'll feel pretty good that I got a great deal on the item that I want to buy!
What I like about this price comparison website is that it's people-powered. That means that consumers can submit best deals on items that they find across the internet (sounds a little like the Hot Deals forum I visit at SlickDeals.net but BeatMyPrice.com is more consumer friendly). Not only that, after the website searches millions of prices across the web, they are linked with coupons from another great website--www.RetailMeNot.com.
I don't know about you, but after visiting BeatMyPrice.com, I think I'll feel pretty good that I got a great deal on the item that I want to buy!
What Is Cyber Monday?
I was just
on the website, RetailMeNot, a community-driven coupon and discount code
website, and they have a poll going. They are asking shoppers if they are going
to shop on Cyber Monday and if so, are they going to shop from work, home, or
not at all on that day. There's also a choice to click if you have no idea what
Cyber Monday is. I was surprised to see that so far, 58% of people said that
they didn't know what Cyber Monday was. I guess because I'm all about the
coupons and discount codes, I know all about Cyber Monday and thought everyone
else did too!
For those of you who don't know what Cyber Monday is, it's the online retail industry's name for the Monday immediately following Thanksgiving, during which stores and retailers offer great sales online. It is the official day for retailers to kick off the online holiday shopping season.
Cyber Monday was introduced within the commerce community during the 2005 holiday season for those that missed those great Black Friday deals. Regardless of all the hype surrounding this day, Cyber Monday is only the 12th largest online shopping day of the year.
I plan on shopping online on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Last year I found tremendous deals online. Not only did I get some of my holiday shopping done, I purchased things that I could resell on Amazon and eBay.
How about you? Will you shop on Black Friday or Cyber Monday or both?
For those of you who don't know what Cyber Monday is, it's the online retail industry's name for the Monday immediately following Thanksgiving, during which stores and retailers offer great sales online. It is the official day for retailers to kick off the online holiday shopping season.
Cyber Monday was introduced within the commerce community during the 2005 holiday season for those that missed those great Black Friday deals. Regardless of all the hype surrounding this day, Cyber Monday is only the 12th largest online shopping day of the year.
I plan on shopping online on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Last year I found tremendous deals online. Not only did I get some of my holiday shopping done, I purchased things that I could resell on Amazon and eBay.
How about you? Will you shop on Black Friday or Cyber Monday or both?
RetailMeNot.com--MAKE Money From A Coupon & Discount Code Website
I've written about the website, RetailMeNot.com in my "What Is Cyber Monday" post and also in my "Price Comparison Shop At BeatMyPrice.com post. RetailMeNot is a cool, community-driven coupon and discount code website. The majority of the coupons and discount codes listed on the website have been contributed by about three million shoppers who visit every month. What a lot of people don't know is that not only can you save money at www.retailmenot.com, you can also MAKE money at this website.
Let me digress for a second....RetailMeNot is one of the web's leading consumer destinations for online coupons, discount and promotional codes for all sorts of merchandise, travel and services. It's considered an online community that posts, uses, recommends and ranks over 50,000 online discounts and promotions at more than 10,000 retailers, including Amazon, GameStop, Banana Republic, Macy's, J.Crew, Old Navy, and the list goes on and on.
RetailMeNot has implemented a revenue sharing program which means that anyone who has a Google Adsense Client ID can earn 50% of the advertising revenue for any new thread they open.
Don't know what Google Adsense is? Google AdSense is a quick way for website publishers to display relevant, unobtrusive Google ads on their website's content pages and earn money. I'm sure you've seen Google Adsense ads on most of the websites you visit! Directions on getting yourself a Google Adsense ID is found on RetailMeNot's home page.
RetailMeNot is allowing Adsense revenue to be shared on forum pages, not the main coupon codes and discount pages for 15,000 online stores. Also, the revenue sharing program kicks in only after you have contributed ten posts. They do keep an eye out for any spam-type posts such as posts with information geared specifically toward promoting a website, service or business. In addition, the posts have to be relevant to the topic of the forum thread.
If you're interested, go to www.retailmenot.com and scroll down to close to the bottom of the page. Information on this program is located on the right-hand side.
Subscribe to my RSS feed if you want to be updated on a regular basis of cool ways to save money, make money, and find that perfect deal!
How I MAKE Money With BARNES & NOBLE Books
If you've
dropped by my blog before, you know that I sell new and used books on Amazon as
a way to earn my mocha money. In one of my posts, I list where I find some of
my books. One place that I get books to sell that I didn't mention before is at
Barnes & Noble. That's right, I can walk into a Barnes & Noble store
and come out with books that will put $30-$50 in my pocket. Not bad considering
I only spend 20-30 minutes in the store!
Let me clarify....this doesn't happen all the time. The strategy to finding books to sell from Barnes & Noble (I haven't tried this at Borders yet), is to frequently visit your local Barnes & Noble store. If you've been there before, then you've probably seen their large Clearance book section. There isn't much money in contemporary fiction books so I stick to the nonfiction books. I also find better books on the bookshelves and not on the tables. However, you may want to check if there are stacks of books under the tables. Sometimes these books are clearance books AND signed by the author!
You should still check out the books on the Clearance tables even though I've only had limited success with these books. (I found a large Dale Carnegie book on a Clearance table that had three of his bestselling books compiled into one large book. I bought a bunch of these and made $5 per book and they sold really fast!).
You want to visit the store often because new books are added to the Clearance sections all the time.
How do you tell what a book is worth?
You need to have an internet-ready phone to look up what a book is going for on Amazon.com. Just go to Amazon's website and enter the ISBN number listed on the back of the book into Amazon's search field. Find out if Amazon is selling the book, and if so, at what price. The next thing you need to do is check out what the Marketplace books are selling for. These are the books that booksellers are selling either new or used. Your book will be new so you want to check out these prices.
You also want to look at the Product Details page and check out the book's Amazon ranking. You want a low ranking in order for the book to sell fast. Anything under 50,000 should do OK in this situation. The higher the ranking, the longer the book will take to sell.
If your book looks like it is selling fast (i.e. has a low ranking) and you can make some money on it, then buy multiple copies of it if they are available. I'll buy five or more copies of a book at a time if I think they'll sell fast and I can make a profit.
Will you visit Barnes & Noble with a whole new mindset now? I bet you will!
Let me clarify....this doesn't happen all the time. The strategy to finding books to sell from Barnes & Noble (I haven't tried this at Borders yet), is to frequently visit your local Barnes & Noble store. If you've been there before, then you've probably seen their large Clearance book section. There isn't much money in contemporary fiction books so I stick to the nonfiction books. I also find better books on the bookshelves and not on the tables. However, you may want to check if there are stacks of books under the tables. Sometimes these books are clearance books AND signed by the author!
You should still check out the books on the Clearance tables even though I've only had limited success with these books. (I found a large Dale Carnegie book on a Clearance table that had three of his bestselling books compiled into one large book. I bought a bunch of these and made $5 per book and they sold really fast!).
You want to visit the store often because new books are added to the Clearance sections all the time.
How do you tell what a book is worth?
You need to have an internet-ready phone to look up what a book is going for on Amazon.com. Just go to Amazon's website and enter the ISBN number listed on the back of the book into Amazon's search field. Find out if Amazon is selling the book, and if so, at what price. The next thing you need to do is check out what the Marketplace books are selling for. These are the books that booksellers are selling either new or used. Your book will be new so you want to check out these prices.
You also want to look at the Product Details page and check out the book's Amazon ranking. You want a low ranking in order for the book to sell fast. Anything under 50,000 should do OK in this situation. The higher the ranking, the longer the book will take to sell.
If your book looks like it is selling fast (i.e. has a low ranking) and you can make some money on it, then buy multiple copies of it if they are available. I'll buy five or more copies of a book at a time if I think they'll sell fast and I can make a profit.
Will you visit Barnes & Noble with a whole new mindset now? I bet you will!
Refurbs Rule! Best Refurbished Product Websites Revealed
The refurbished product market has come a long way. No longer do you have to worry about the "fly by night" operation that's here today and gone tomorrow. Now, some of the largest retailers and manufacturers have their own "pre-owned" electronics department or website. This is good news for those of us that love electronics but don't want to spend money on all the latest and greatest gadgets that become outdated in a matter of months.
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