Monday Q&A | Selling Books and making Photo CD covers
Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you'd like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!
Two quick ones today because my life is busy right now.
My husband and I have tons of books, some we need and some we don't. I am hoping to sell the latter online. Do you find Craig's List, Amazon, Ebay or (?) easier to use?
-Anna
I actually prefer to sell my books on half.com, an Ebay company. I've written about my love for half.com before, so go check that post out. Half.com is WAY easier to use than Craig's List or Ebay because you don't have to take pictures or make a listing from scratch...just enter the ISBN, choose the appropriate condition and price, and your book is ready for sale.
I noticed you make cd covers for your family photography sessions and I have to know how you did that?!??! I only give my clients a cd with edited pics but I don't have a clever cover!!
-Lauren
It's actually super easy! I use Picasa (a free photo editing program) to crop a photo to a square shape, and then I use the text tool to add a title and date.
I print the photos on 8.5x11 paper, choose the 5x7 option, click "shrink to fit, and then I can fit two square photos onto one piece of paper. The finished photos need a bit of cropping to fit inside a CD case, so just make sure you don't put your text too close to the edge of the photo.
And that's it! Easy and cheap.
By the way, if you're giving photos as a Christmas gift, this can make the presentation a whole lot more gift-worthy.
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Today's 365 post: I love my white Goodwill plate.
Joshua's 365 post: Wanna guess?
Anna and Kristen: Selling your used books on Amazon Marketplace is exactly the same as the process Kristen said is the case for selling on half.com. Easiest thing ever. I have had great success selling there. It is a good idea, I've found, to be strategic about when you post your books for sale. You will wait a shorter length of time if you post your books for sale when people are preparing for the next academic term. Popular novels may not get as many bites because the market for those is already saturated; those are already offered for pennies.
I love to read and I used to spend hundreds a year on books. I found a website where you can trade with other people.
paperbackswap (dot) com.
This might be an option to consider also.
Paperbackswap.com is a great resource for a few books--especially if you're looking to get more to read but just don't have room! 🙂
The CD's cover's look fab!
BookMooch, people!! Best swapping system ever. You donate a book to someone else, get points in return and use them for getting other books from other users. 🙂
I have a question for one of your future Q&A posts. I know you have been doing wonderful at keeping your food waste to a minimum, but what happens when you make a large dish of food that no one in your family likes? For example, I made some soup the other day, and no one, myself included, liked it. It was so mushy that I couldn't think of any other way to use it, so I threw it out. 🙁 Do you ever make a large casserole, or dish of something you just can't think of doing something else with? Do you throw it out, or try to come up with some way of fixing it up?
I also sell on Amazon--love it! Seriously. It's so easy.
Just finished another semester of classes and I have a ton of books to sell - what a timely post! Thanks!