Cash Money!

I've discovered a new money-making activity: selling my used textbooks on Half.com. I got sick of spending a huge amount of money on books I never read anyhow which then take up massive amounts of space in my apartment. fn1.

So I decided to put my books up for sale on Half. fn2. I put the first batch up a month ago or so, and since then I have already sold three (family law, federal income tax, and property) for a total of about $100. Obviously, it's only a fraction of what I paid for the books new, but at least it's something, and at least they're no longer taking up space on my shelf.

1. My apartment is rapidly running out of space. I keep buying stuff and am not really getting rid of anything. I think I need to have a massive cleaning/throwing away session at the end of summer, or else I am going to be crowded out of my apartment before I graduate.

2. Half.com is a subsidiary of eBay. It uses a fixed-price selling model rather than an auction model. I think it takes longer to sell things on Half and the fees are higher, but it's more convenient (you don't have to make auction pages and they handle payment collection for you) and I don't have to deal with auction end times, etc. As far as price realized, I think it can go either way. On one hand, the eBay can maximize your price if people get in a bidding war. But it can also depress the price if there are no buyers and everyone snipes at the last second. At least with Half.com, you know you will get a fair price.