Yard Sale Economics

Have you ever had a yard sale? I've been to many, but never actually ran one myself until just recently, when my sister and I helped my mother sell some stuff.
First of all, you get a lot of interesting people showing up, who I'd group roughly as follows:
--low income people buying household items and clothing
--frugal people looking for bargains
--hoarders who just can't walk away without taking "good stuff"
--dealers who want to re-sell items
--collectors who are looking for very specific items
--curious neighbors who always wondered what was in your house

Most of these people will want to haggle. They know that whoever's having the yardsale just wants to get rid of stuff. My sister and I didn't have time to tag everything with prices before all the early birds started showing up, so we found ourselves often just quoting totally random prices that were quite low. Sometimes I wondered if we should have started higher to give ourselves more room to negotiate, but on the other hand, I didn't want anyone to walk away from something they might otherwise have bought-- and I wanted them to buy lots of items!

I took charge of selling my father's old CDs, DVDs and books. Most of the CDs were swept up by a guy who showed up at about 7:30am, with a car already full of stuff from other yardsales. He asked if I'd take $75 for "all the CDs". We'd started off quoting $1 per CD, and I knew there must be a couple hundred CDs at least, so I said I wanted $100 considering he was getting that many, and he agreed. But then I realized I'd undersold myself when we started packing up box after box of CDs for him-- my dad was passionate about music, and he'd collected more like six hundred CDs, at least, and we hadn't even set them all out on the lawn yet! While the guy was looking at other stuff, I started telling our friends who were still bringing CDs out of the house to stop, which made me feel a little sleazy... In the end, the guy ran out of space in his car so he didn't really get "all" the CDs, but he knew he'd gotten a great deal-- I'm sure he's reselling them online somewhere for at least $5 a pop now! I was hoping some other collector or dealer would snap up the rest, but we still had a lot left over at the end of the day.

The hoarder types were funny -- several of them bought bags of random stuff that we never thought anyone would want. My sister had put out a plastic bin of weird junk that seemed so lacking in value that she just labeled it "free." A guy grabbed the whole bin and took it away, and gave us a dollar for it just to be nice!

There were times when it was hard to let things go. Ever since my dad's death, I've struggled with this-- I became a booklover from hours spent as a kid looking at all his bookshelves, and there were other odds and ends that had some sentimental value even though I knew I had no use for them and no place to put them. My sister and I both felt some anguish at moments when people seemed dismissive of the value of things that meant something to us... but there was also one guy who made me really happy. From appearances, at least, he would not have been someone who I would think would have anything in common with my dad, but he kept finding stuff he wanted. He'd buy a few things, then come back for more. You could tell he didn't really "need" any of these books and DVDs, or the old shortwave radio or the tools, but he obviously shared my father's sensibilities in some way, and he kept saying that we had some great stuff. I almost wanted to give it all to him for free, just knowing he appreciated it.

In the end, we cleared about $600, and made a lot of room in my mother's basement and garage. It's sad to think how much my parents paid for the stuff that was sold, as I'm sure it was more than ten times what we got for it, but it's more sad just to say goodbye to some of those things, and it will be harder still when I have a dealer come and buy most of the rest of my dad's books. I just have to keep remembering that it's not about the money, and not about the stuff-- it's about the memories, which will stay with me much longer.

Book Review: Free by Chris Anderson

I've been following all the hoopla about Chris Anderson's new book with much interest. I picked up a copy of Free: The Future of a Radical Price for free, appropriately enough, at a Book Expo panel where he spoke. And I have to say, I'm glad I didn't have to pay full price for the book, as $26.99 seemed pretty steep: it was a quick read, at 274 pages including the index and lots of sidebars.
But I did find it interesting. Anderson explores the way we've come to expect to get many things for free, and how businesses are using free stuff to make more money from other products or services. Much of this is not new or earth-shattering: give away a free razor to make people buy expensive replacement blades, give away a free newspaper to sell more expensive advertising, etc. The part of this that really has people riled up is relates to the latter-- free content, particularly journalism.
Personal finance blogs are a great example of this-- there are hundreds of us now, all spewing out various sorts of advice and stories and information that you would previously have had to buy a newspaper or magazine or book to obtain. (Or at least your local library would have had to buy it.) Of course, much of the content we spew out is inspired by or derived from content that traditional journalists and authors were paid to write. But if consumers are trained to expect all this for free, is it really a sustainable model? Only time will tell...
Some other things from the book that struck me:

• The free classified ad website Craigslist is estimated to have taken $30 billion out of the stock market valuation of America's newspaper companies in the 13 years since it was founded.
• An online game called RuneScape has about the same number of subscribers and annual revenue as the Wall Street Journal's paid online service. As Anderson puts it, "it appears that people would rather pay to cast pretend spells than to read Pulitzer Prize-winning news."
• Chapter 12 gets into an interesting discussion of Maslow's "pyramid of needs," and how a monetary economy can be supplanted by an "attention economy" and a "reputation economy."
• Brazil's government is trying to switch all their computer systems to free open-source software. According to the director of this initiative, "every license for Office plus Windows in Brazil-- a country in which 22 million people are starving-- means we have to export sixty sacks of soybeans."

Despite any controversies about passages lifted from Wikipedia, I did find the book thought provoking and worth a read.

You can also read some of the other reviews and criticism of the book at the links below:
Malcolm Gladwell review
Seth Godin response
PW article
Chronicle of Higher Education

Vote Today, and Get Free Stuff!

Courtesy of Lifehacker, here's a list of free things being offered to people who vote:

• Ben & Jerry's: Free scoop of ice cream between 5-8pm. Originally, materials stated you'd need some form of proof you voted (like an "I voted" sticker), but current materials just spell out "Free scoops!" (locate)
• Books-A-Million: Free cup of coffee after showing your "I voted" sticker. (locate
• California Tortilla: Free taco for showing "I voted" sticker. (locate)
• Chick-fil-A: "Several hundred" of 1,400 Chick-fil-A restaurants are handing out chicken sandwiches (the kind normally $2.70) to adults with proof of voting. (locate)
• Krispy Kreme: Free star-shaped doughnut with "patriotic sprinkles" (i.e. red, white, and blue) for "all retail customers with an 'I Voted' sticker." USA Today reports that 85 of 231 Krispy Kreme locations will participate. (locate)
• Shane's Rib Shack: A free "Celebrate America Meal"—3-piece chicken tenders, fries, and 20-ounce drink—to the first 300 customers at participating locations, according to their press release. (locate)
• Starbucks: Free tall coffee at "any Starbucks." "Tell us you voted" seems to be the bargaining chip, according to their recent TV ads. (locate)
• Vote & Vax: National project by non-profits to offer free flu vaccinations on election day. (locate)

Hopefully you didn't need these additional reasons to get out there and do it! Happy voting, everyone!

Free Printer... for $60

Don't you love those free gifts that end up costing you money? I was visiting my parents again this past weekend and continued some of my clean-up and organizing efforts for my dad (who is doing ok with his treatments so far). One thing he'd wanted me to do was set up a new printer he'd bought.
My dad is such a weird collector-- he gets obsessed with certain things. (Like I should talk, given what I just wrote about pens.) A few years ago, he bought his first printer, a very nifty combination printer/fax/scanner which was amazingly cheap. Then a year or two ago, he bought a new printer. I don't think the first one was broken-- I think he must have just read an article in Consumer Reports recommending the newer model, or the prices on printers had gotten even more incredibly cheap and he thought he should stock up, or something.
Anyway, he set up the new printer, but almost immediately, it didn't work quite right-- the black ink never printed properly, only the colors. On one of my visits before he got sick I tried to play around with it, but I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Dad procrastinated about returning it and eventually bought a new printer, which he hadn't gotten around to setting up when he got sick. I was still using the malfunctioning one when I was trying to set up his budget and print out information about wills, etc. My work-around was to make the font color on everything purple rather than black!
On this latest visit, I finally set up the newest printer for him. The other two old printers were still sitting there waiting to be disposed of and it occurred to me that although I don't need a printer at home, I could use a scanner, and that part of the printer seemed to work fine. So I asked him if I could have the old printer-- you'd think I wouldn't bother to ask, since it would just be thrown away, but my dad tends not to throw anything away, especially out of date electronics. He still has a dusty old reel-to-reel tape deck in the basement.
Anyway, he agreed and I brought the printer home. In order to set it up, I knew I would have to buy a printer cable. I then began to wonder if the printing function really was broken, or if perhaps it just was a faulty ink cartridge or low memory on my dad's very old laptop that was causing the problem. And I found myself deciding that yes, after all, it might be rather nice to have a printer at home. So I went to Staples and bought the printer cables and a set of ink cartridges. Total cost? About $60. I was a little surprised when I heard the total, but it wasn't until later that I thought to look at the prices of brand new printers:


The one at the bottom is the equivalent model. !$%!&$

Guest Post: Working The (Library) System

This is a guest post from my pal Kimber at No Limits Ladies:

Last summer, my internet access went on the fritz. It was the worse possible time for it. I was deep into edits for Breach Of Trust. One missed deadline and the very tight publishing schedule would have been messed up. On my first novel (so not good for author-editor/publisher relations).

No problem. I walked to the nearby library and reserved a computer with free internet access. The lady to my right was sending out her resume. The kid to my left was playing a computer game.

A year and a half ago, I was completing research for Invisible, my novel on identity theft. There was a rare book I wanted to read covering bank theft in Belize. It was no longer in print, not sold on eBay.

No problem. I ordered the single copy available in the library system and had it sent to my local branch. Within a week, I had the information I needed.

Last month, an author buddy had a book launch. She is an expert in a niche subject. Due to the book being published through a small press, the larger bookstores weren't interested in a signing. She didn't have money to rent space.

No problem. The local library allowed her to give a free talk on the subject with her book available for sale afterwards. Not only did she meet interested readers but she was interviewed by reporters.

If you live in New York City, you have access to 50.6 million items (including books, maps, and dvd's), 27,790 programs, and 2,328 public computers. And get this, you have access to most of these for free (if you are a New York resident). My favorite price! It doesn't matter what your income, your background, or your credit score is, you can get a library card.

Growing up dirt poor, I depended on the library system to put me on the same footing as other kids. I couldn't afford to buy Merchant Of Venice for that grade nine English essay. Instead I borrowed it from the library.

Today, I still use the public library. I borrowed Guy Kawasaki's Art Of The Start from the library before buying a copy of my own. When I feel that shopaholic urge threatening to derail my investment plans, I go to the library with cloth book bags and borrow 30 books at one time. I exit the building feeling like the wealthiest woman in the world.

When was the last time you used your public library to grow wealth?

Kimber Chin ( http://businessromance.com/ ) writes romance novels based in the business world. She also blogs at http://www.nolimitsladies.com/ . Why would a writer promote the power of the public library? Because she wouldn't have become a writer without it.

Guest Post: Cash Strapped Yet Seen

This is a guest post from my pal Kimber at No Limits Ladies:

"I can't go out," a buddy tells me, "I'm trying to save money."

Huh? What does going out have to do with spending money? Especially in a big city such as New York?

Sure, if your view of entertainment is very narrow, (i.e. you MUST see The Dark Knight on opening weekend, or you HAVE to be seen at Plumm on a Friday night), then it will expensive, but if you are flexible and open to new experiences, you can go out every night of the week for little to zero cash.

What to do?

Every single week during the summer, there is a festival in NYC (http://www.nycstreetfairs.com/sched.html ). There is always some sort of free entertainment at these festivals. There are certainly plenty of interesting people to meet and talk to. Since I often get the munchies and am trying to stay away from fried stuff, I bring my own snacks from home.

There are also free classifieds in student or street papers with listings of events (like book signings or mini-concerts). This search is even easier online. Because I'm into the artsy scene, my source for happenings is craigslist.

The problem with these options is that I discard some free experiences because I might not like it (I don't know but I MIGHT not). To keep myself truly spontaneous, I prefer contests. It takes the choice out of my hands.

I'm a contest hound. I enter every contest going, regardless of what it is for. Then if fate decides I should go by letting me win, I go. Warning: This could lead to interesting entertainment combinations like a Thursday at the Opera and a Friday front row at a competitive eating contest.

My aspiring screenwriter brother takes his freebie entertainment experience one step further. He enters so many advanced movie screening (see it first, see it free) contests that he sees at least one free movie a week. THEN he gets paid to write reviews on those free movies.

Are you thinking he's taking advantage of the system? Have you ever been to one of these free screenings? Because the movie is "free," most people don't value the ticket and don't bother showing up. Half the seats to even the most popular screenings are empty. It is sad really.

So if you want to stay home, fine, I understand. Sometimes I feel lazy too. Stay home but don't blame it on not having money.

Kimber Chin ( http://businessromance.com/ ) writes romance novels based in the business world. She also blogs at http://www.nolimitsladies.com/ . She blames not going out on having to write her next novel.

Today Only: Free E-Book of Go Green, Live Rich

Here's an email I got 5 minutes ago. It's not as nice as the free Suze Orman book offer, because you can't just download a PDF-- you have to have a Kindle or Sony e-book reader. But if you do and you're interested, enjoy:

Get Your FREE Download of my
Brand New Bestseller Go Green, Live Rich
Today Only!

Dear Friends and FinishRich Community Members,

I'm absolutely thrilled to announce that my newest book, Go Green, Live Rich is an instant bestseller, debuting on both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal Bestseller lists! This is huge news because as far as we know, this is the first time a book on the environment ever opened on the NY Times bestseller list. So thank you so much for helping to make this happen!

I also want to invite you to help us celebrate Earth Day with a very special offer. We've teamed up with our friends at Amazon.com and Sony, to offer a FREE download of Go Green, Live Rich: 50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth (and Get Rich Trying). That's right! For today only you can download the book absolutely free.

Here's all you need to do to get your free download. If you're an Amazon Kindle user, head over to Amazon.com or search Go Green, Live Rich directly from your Kindle and start your download from there.

To download the book to your Sony e-book reader, visit Sony's e-Book Store. You can also download directly to your computer by using Sony's free download client. Click here for further details.

Remember, this offer is good for today only! And please feel free to share it with family and friends!

Free Download of Suze Orman's Women & Money

Via a publishing industry newsletter, I just heard that Oprah is offering a free download of Suze Orman's book Women & Money, but only until 8pm EST tomorrow. You can find the download link on this page (scroll about halfway down and you'll see links for English and Spanish versions).
This is the first time Oprah has ever offered a free book via a PDF download. It's noted that the book is copyrighted, and that you can download it only for your own use and may not forward or copy the file.
Will this end up making more people buy the book? I guess that is the big debate in publishing these days-- how much do you give away for free, and does it help or hurt sales? In any case, if you have been curious about this book but havent wanted to pony up the bucks, nows your big chance to read it!

[On an unrelated note, what is suddenly wrong with my computer! I cant type, or even cut and paste apostrophes! If I try to type one it brings up a "quick find" box at the bottom of my screen! Make it go away!]

NYC Free Summer Fun

Just in time... I've had such a busy summer, here's just a few of the free things I DIDN'T do! New York is such an expensive place to live, but if you want to, you can have an awful lot of fun without paying a penny...

Free swimming in Sunset Park (and other NYC public pools): they have evening adult lap-swimming hours!

Free yoga in parks

Free outdoor movies

Free concerts

Free kayaking (I did do this last summer...)

Free kids activities

Staten Island Ferry: a nice breeze and good views, for those who are too cheap for the Circle Line

NEXT summer, I am going to take better advantage of some of this stuff...

Free Shakespeare in the Park

... Sunset Park, that is...

Sunset Park is kind of a hidden gem that relatively few New Yorkers visit. It's a lovely spot, at the highest elevation in Brooklyn. And apparently you can see free Shakespeare plays there! Or at least I did the other day. And though I'm pretty sure it was Shakespeare, I couldn't tell for sure: this low-budget production was not amplified, so I couldn't hear more than a few words.


But if theater's not your thing, why not head to the swimming pool? It's free! I didn't get a photo of the pool itself, but it's a very large outdoor pool, with a pseudo-beach at one end. There was a line when I took this photo because the pool was just reopening after its 3-4pm close-down.


Of course views are free almost anywhere-- but there is nowhere else in New York where you can get these ones. The red arrow in this photo marks the distant Empire State Building:


And in this one, the red arrow marks the Statue of Liberty.


What a great place to spend a sunny Sunday...

Lukewarm News

As always, I like to bring you a variety of links to interesting money stories from all over (all over the New York Times), keeping you up to date on what is going on (or was a few days ago).

First of all there was Friday's article about Freegans-- see commentary at Millionaire Artist and Frugal for Life. I'm all for getting used stuff for free, but I'm pretty selective about what I'll pick out of the garbage. And I will definitely not be eating any dumpster-dived food.

Friday's paper also had an article about the decline in smoking in New York City. Unfortunately the online version doesn't reproduce the graphic that showed the dips when higher taxes and the ban in restaurants and bars went into effect, but take my word for it that they were pretty dramatic. Smoking is such a deeply addictive habit for many people, I was kind of surprised that a financial incentive to quit would be so effective. (The tax raised the average price of a pack from $5.20 to $6.85.) It would be interesting to know if the people who quit for that reason had been truly heavy smokers or just the kind of social smokers who might have one or two when they're out in a bar... I also wonder if anyone has kept any stats on the average income level of smokers. If people who couldn't afford the higher cost were the ones who quit, you'd think smokers' average income has gone up. Do you think that's been the case?

I was also fascinated by this story about some leadership squabbles in the Pequot tribe, the ones who own the Foxwoods casino:

Even with its disputes, life on the Pequot reservation resembles the Magic Kingdom compared with the grinding poverty that afflicts many Native Americans. They typically confront unemployment rates of about 40 percent and per capita incomes of less than $13,000, a fraction of what a Pequot might spend on a car.

The gated community here, near the tribe’s $18 million golf course, features rambling homes, manicured lawns and driveways filled with luxury cars. Under the tribe’s profit-sharing system, each member 18 and older, working or not, receives a monthly payment that averages about $100,000 a year, tribal members say.

Tribal leaders make more. One tribal council member, in a court filing several years ago, said she had made as much as $1.5 million in a year. Each Pequot is also guaranteed a job, free medical care, day care and tuition at any private school or college.

Some tribal members say it has been too much too fast.

“My own nieces and nephews are ruined,” said Robert Hayward, Richard’s brother. Two of his sisters said their children were refusing to work or go to school. Tribal officials have acknowledged that some Pequots have also struggled with drugs....

“I wish I could get him to work,” Ms. McKeon said of her 19-year-old son, who she said had dropped out of high school. He receives $8,000 monthly from the tribe, she said, and has bought three cars in the last six months, including one that has already been repossessed.

Just as it's possible to be too thin, sometimes people can be too rich.

And today (ooh! today!), there was this article about baby showers:

What began as an informal gathering for close friends and family has become a major event — and often several events — for expectant parents.

“People love to celebrate the different stages of life,” said Peggy Post, the etiquette expert. “Traditionally, baby showers were small and intimate, just the way wedding showers used to be. But we live in a consumer society and people just love to shop.”

For those in the baby gear business, the growth in showers and registries has been a boon. The concept began about 12 years ago, Ms. Post says, and since then, the number of people using baby registries has mushroomed. It was a $240 million business in 2006, up 9.6 percent from 2004, according to Mintel International Group, a research firm based in Chicago.

I couldn't go to the latest baby shower I was invited to, and I'm kind of glad. I did mail a gift, but I think I would have felt pressured to give something fancier if I'd actually gone to this big sit-down lunch at a country club!

That's it for now... tune in again next week, when I'll bring you the best of this week's hot news!

Why you should always take advantage of free things

Holy Crap. I just read that Prince and Maceo Parker played a concert in Prospect Park last night!

There is a series of free summer concerts called Celebrate Brooklyn. (They suggest a $3 donation if you get into the actual seating area, but you can also sit on the lawn nearby and hear perfectly well, and even see the whole show, depending on where you're standing.) Usually I'll manage to go to a couple of these concerts each summer but I hadn't really checked the schedule yet this year. If I had seen that Maceo Parker would be playing, I definitely would have gone-- I mean, come on, he played with my main man James Brown! And though Prince is not actually one of my huge favorites, I do like some of his music a lot and I'm sure he puts on a great show-- and how cool is it that he showed up at a free concert in Prospect Park as a complete surprise! Apparently word spread fast, as they even announced it over the loudspeaker at the Food Co-op!

I'll have to do a post about all the free stuff that happens in the summer here. Concerts, Shakespeare in the Park, outdoor movies, kayaking, etc etc. There are so many free things to do, I don't know how anyone has time for the things you have to pay for!

Cheap and Free Fun

A commenter asked about what I do for fun, and how to do it cheaply. Here are a few suggestions:

Gym: I haven't researched the cheapest gyms in the city, but I think the YMCA is a pretty good deal. Other ideas: in the summer, all the outdoor city pools are free. Most offer dedicated times for adult lap swimming in the early morning, and some in Manhattan also have times in the evening. You can also join the city recreation centers that have indoor pools for only $75 a year.

Free kayaking: Head to Pier 26 on the West side for the Downtown Boathouse free kayaking. It's fun to paddle around and get a different view of the city. Just don't expect to go too far, as you have to stay within an enclosed area.

Staten Island Ferry: it's free, and a great way to cool off out on the water. You get wonderful views of lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty.

Battery Park City: there are free ping pong and pool tables in one of the parks along the river, and in general it's a nice place to hang out.

Foreign language lessons: Again, I haven't researched all the options but I know the Alliance Française (French) and the Instituto Cervantes (Spanish) offer classes and can help you find a private tutor. See if other people at your office would be interested in sharing a small class during lunchtime. Baruch College also had reasonably priced classes last time I checked. See if your employer offers tuition reimbursement. Also, check out Craigslist for people who would swap conversation practice. Sometimes conversation groups also meet in bookstores such as Barnes & Noble.

There are millions of other fun things to do for free, here in New York and in other cities-- check out TimeOutNY magazine, or whatever paper has the local listings.

But if all else fails:
Get drunk, get naked, and vacuum.

Free Inflation Calculator for Palm PDAs

There is a fun and free piece of software for Palm devices that allows you to enter an amount and any two years between 1800 to 2005 and see the effect of inflation. For instance, my $79,000 salary today is the equivalent of earning $3,427 in 1900!

Rule #8: Work for free...

Free stuff, that is!

• Work where you get something you love for free.

I do not work in a high-paying industry. 15 years into my career, I probably still make less than most first-year law firm associates, and I think I've had a better than average, if not stellar career path compared to other people in publishing. But I've always had a few perks that made it worthwhile. I don't mean perks like free espresso and ping pong tables in the office. One of mine is books: I've always loved to read, which is why I was drawn to publishing in the first place. If I'd had to buy all my books at full price, I'd be many thousands of dollars poorer. The other big perk I've had has been travel. At one of my jobs, I had to go to Europe 3 or 4 times a year, and was usually able to extend my trips into at least a few days of vacation time. I also racked up a lot of frequent flier miles than I was able to use for personal travel, again saving me thousands of dollars. I also save money in other small ways because of my job. I occasionally get free meals. And when it comes to tax time, I can deduct everything under the sun: internet access, movies, plays, museums, magazines-- all of these things very legitimately contribute to my awareness of the book market!
I'm sure I could also have been happy working in some other career where I made more money (and had the espresso and ping pong), but I'm sure there are many paths I could have taken that would have made me miserable. I kind of stumbled into what I do, but I've always felt that it is a pretty good balance in terms of its challenges, its time demands, and its benefits.

Free annual credit report

Just added a link for a site where you can get a free annual credit report. It's not available to people in the Northeast until Sept. 1, 2005, but the rest of the country can already use the site. Always a good idea to check for any irregularities and be prepared to deal with them before trying to buy real estate, get a loan, etc.
If you have credit cards you don't use, make sure the accounts are really closed, otherwise they may be counted against your total credit limit.
When I rented my current apartment a few years ago, I found a few dormant but still open accounts that needed to be cleared up, and I consolidated my credit cards down to 3-- one Visa that I regularly use, one spare Mastercard that I rarely use, and an Amex for those rare occasions when that's the only card they'll take.