Thursday, January 13, 2011

One of my Favorite Sellers MYMOMSBOOKS

The birth of My Moms Books was summer of 1999 after my mom’s passing in June of that year. My Mom was a avid reader with a home full of bookshelves. She always instilled the love of reading and respect for books. So what would you do with her books?




Around this same time in my life I purchased web tv and vola shopping on line. After reading in a few web tv newsgroups about selling online I discovered Half.com a book selling site. At that time Ebay did not own Half as it is a divionsion of Ebay now. On Half you could list books for free till they sold.



This wet my appetite how fun my Mom’s books went to a new home and not a land fill! About a year later and hanging with my web tv friends a girl in Texas mentioned Amazon. I was scared, hmmm the rules were different, could I do this? Still free to list. So I jumped in. Best jump I ever made, did you know books sell faster on Amazon? Ok I’m hooked a book seller is born. Other sites soon followed Alibris, Biblio with my books showing up in Borders and Barnes and Nobel.



Books weren’t the only “stuff” Mom left me. It was time for Ebay. (and a laptop computer) I sold all sorts of things with the idea of clearing out the stuff. My family was also growing with many clothes and treasures of our own to clear out of the over stuffed house. Someday we would like to build our retirement home and move. This stuff needs to go.


Still enjoying my book selling passion I started to source books at library sales, garage and estate sales, thrift stores always an eye open. Learning as you go.
My motto became “Sell what you don’t want buy what you want” How perfect for the budget.



As the years went by my husband’s parents needed our care. We decided to live together for ease of care. Now we have another household to liquidate. A big family homestead that has gone thru depression years with the belief of never throwing anything out. EKKK! Hubby and I are getting older, remember the retirement home?

How do you live in two locations and sell? Our retirement home is only accessible nine months of the year due to a private rural road. We do go back and forth between homes for Doctor appointments for Mom and Dad and other family obligations in our home town. Not always easy as they are three hours apart.

When you sell on line you need to ship timely. My stores go on vacation hold while I’m gone. With the exception of my Ebay store My Moms Books. I have an out of town notice letting my shoppers know when I will return and when their item will ship. I also communicate with them via email.



With all this combined / down size household stuff I need a place to store. The logical place is the attic of the retirement home. I now sell from there on Ebay as My Moms Books Attic. I only do auctions and Buy It Now’s . I have set up a photo area and shipping area for convince there.


I ship from my friendly little Post Office in our closest town. They are so nice! Just like my home Post Office community. You know when you sell on line you get to know the postal employees like family.



While at the retirement home I have my laptop, printer, scanner, camera and high speed internet. All the comforts of home office. Many times I list books and items there that I will sell from the home house. Just pack them up when I leave.


To help make listing items at two locations effortless I use The Art of Books and Turbo Lister. Both programs allow me to switch items between stores and locations as needed. When I list items they are assigned a sku with a location corresponding with a Rubbermaid tote bin. Organization is key in this operation.

I love what I do and will keep fine tuning as I go.


It’s not hard if you plan on paper what sites you sell on, the requirements of confirming shipments timely.



1. What inventory is in what location.



2. What sites you can sell this inventory from each location.



This was my first full year of this new business model. Next year will be bigger as I move stuff the two house way!







Click a link and save gas shopping at My Moms Books

Thank You for stopping by!



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http://www.biblio.com/?aid=BSCB357312

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