So over the last month or two, I have finished moving into my new suburban estate, and I have retrieved all my books from Storage and unpacked them. I also consolidated my student loans from Graduate school. My financial picture is a little clearer. Sallie Mae owns me. She will take a small piece of me every month until it finally kills me, which should be sometime about age seventy or so. When I stop and think about it, which I try not to do because it is not helpful, it seems to me that trying to obtain a phd was the single worst decision I ever made. And I say that knowing full well just how many horrible, horrible decisions I have made. I won't go into the logic behind this as it doesn't matter. It's done. I did it. And now I will pay for it.
As I mentioned, I got all my books back after a lengthy stay in storage in the basement of a very kind, very patient friend. I had done just fine without them and had decided that it was finally time to begin cutting them loose. I knew though that I would get pennies on the dollar for some fairly valuable books were I to simply pack them up and head off for the local used bookstores. So I inquired with another friend who sells an occasional used textbook online and he gave me the lowdown on becoming an Amazon marketplace merchant. Within an hour or so I was in business. And business is pretty good.
I did a little research in selecting my first batch of books to sell. And what I learned is that the market decides the value for the book. Period. I can put whatever price I want on a book, but if it is out of touch with what the market thinks it's worth, then it's not going to sell. Unless of course the price is below the perceived value. And that's my basic strategy: make sure I offer the lowest price. To my surprise there were a number of books that were worth far more than I would have guessed, whether because they were out of print or rare academic titles or whatever. So I've made a nice chunk of extra money and it feels like I'm at least getting a little something back financially after being pummeled with the bill from Sallie.
You can have a look at my current listings on Amazon Marketplace. Some of the books listed may already be sold. Between this new venture and the money I'm making gambling on the NFL (more on that later) I'm hopeful I can keep Sallie at bay long enough to devise a solid plan for faking my death. I'm kidding. This blog entry should not be considered admissible evidence in a court of law.
