Books in Burbank.

[dejapooh]

I've been making a mint on Books. I spent the weekend in Burbank. Now, Burbank is working class, but many of the people there work in the Studios. Disney, Nick, Warner Brothers, Universal, CBS, NBC, and several other smaller studios are in Burbank, or within 10 minutes of its border. Because of that, there are a LOT of artsy type of people who work in the studios. That means there are a lot of crew gifts (gifts given at the end of production to the members of the cast and crew... The stars usually get a nicer gift). That can be watches, jackets, Barbe-ques even Bikes. These are usually interesting sellers (if they are small enough to ship). The best thing about the studio people is they generally have a LOT of books. They also have College age kids. that means text books (easy cash). Art books (about 1 in 20 are good, $10 or more each), religious books (non-christian eastern religious books do VERY well), and so on. Now, Art books (especially x-rated "art" books) and text books are always worth a check... does anyone else have any other Categories of books that have been good for them?

Last, but not least, The most fun is meeting people who produce the entertainment we enjoy. I met a guy who spent his career at Disney, Nick, and WB studios in the Cartooning Department. He had just retired and was selling off all of his old crap (at garage sale prices). Lets just say I filled my car. The best thing from him was a crew gift for several animated feature films. They made models of a cartoon Character and mounted them on stands and put a plaque on the side thanking them for their service on that feature. Very cool stuff. I also bought a Lalique glass vase from Moon Unit Zappa. She was very nice. She was selling a lot of the art that she created, and did not identify herself until I mentioned that she was selling a lot of Moon Unit stuff. "Well, that's because that's me..."

 

[Beans]

I did really well last year on books. I bought out an Estate of all the books they had (Close to 1000) for $250. The estate belonged to a University Professor and Book reviewer for the local paper back in the 60s and 70s. Majority of the books had inscriptions and signatures by the Author. Although most were Western all were first edition. I did very well on those. It was a once in a life time find.

 

[jerseyben]

I've been making a mint on Books. I spent the weekend in Burbank. Now, Burbank is working class, but many of the people there work in the Studios. Disney, Nick, Warner Brothers, Universal, CBS, NBC, and several other smaller studios are in Burbank, or within 10 minutes of its border. Because of that, there are a LOT of artsy type of people who work in the studios. That means there are a lot of crew gifts (gifts given at the end of production to the members of the cast and crew... The stars usually get a nicer gift). That can be watches, jackets, Barbe-ques even Bikes. These are usually interesting sellers (if they are small enough to ship). The best thing about the studio people is they generally have a LOT of books. They also have College age kids. that means text books (easy cash). Art books (about 1 in 20 are good, $10 or more each), religious books (non-christian eastern religious books do VERY well), and so on. Now, Art books (especially x-rated "art" books) and text books are always worth a check... does anyone else have any other Categories of books that have been good for them?

Last, but not least, The most fun is meeting people who produce the entertainment we enjoy. I met a guy who spent his career at Disney, Nick, and WB studios in the Cartooning Department. He had just retired and was selling off all of his old crap (at garage sale prices). Lets just say I filled my car. The best thing from him was a crew gift for several animated feature films. They made models of a cartoon Character and mounted them on stands and put a plaque on the side thanking them for their service on that feature. Very cool stuff. I also bought a Lalique glass vase from Moon Unit Zappa. She was very nice. She was selling a lot of the art that she created, and did not identify herself until I mentioned that she was selling a lot of Moon Unit stuff. "Well, that's because that's me..."

Now that is cool!!!

 

[Tallone]

does anyone else have any other Categories of books that have been good for them?

Antique medical books do well especially leather bound editions.

 

[Baltimore]

I just had a great book score myself! I work for the Facilities Maintenance dept of my old college on occasion (great every once and a while gig for free stuff), and we were cleaning out a closet. There were 11 copies of this book in there, and it's a required textbook for some lower level Graphic Design classes! They sell on Amazon for about $30, sold them for $20 a pop and made $200 cash in a few days! not bad for free!



Are you selling your books on amazon or ebay? How easy is it to be a seller on amazon?

 

[dejapooh]

Perhaps my best book find ever was a copy of Vogue, the 50th anniversary (or something like that). I bought it in a lot of about 40 books. Paid $100 for the lot. I sold that one book for $550, I sold several other books in the $100+ range. easily cleared $1200 for the lot, and donated about 25 to the local library.

 

[diggummup]

Are you selling your books on amazon or ebay? How easy is it to be a seller on amazon?

Ditto.

 

[dejapooh]

It is very easy to become a seller on Amazon. You just have to have a bank account for them to deposit your earnings into. It takes maybe 30 seconds to list an item that is already in their listings (if amazon sells it, or if anyone has ever sold it on amazon, it is in their listings). I've never had to create a new listing. Some items, you are not allowed to sell (there seems to be no rhyme or reason to this). Some items you can sell used, but not new (again, no rhyme or reason). Some items you are only able to sell new (like underwear... I mean YUCK). The commission is high, the shipping allowance is low (I lose about $20 a month to shipping), however, overall, the final prices realized is generally much higher than on Ebay. Especially for books.