Routine Order

What’s the perfect way to spend a weekend? The answer might be “save some money”, or “make some money”, or “no, you dollarhead, money is not everything, dedicate some time to a hobby”. I found the perfect solution for all three groups of folks. Make jewelry over the next weekend.

The jewelry blog has very cool tips on how to make jewelry all by yourselves. The post has a very informative video that shows you how to create simple beaded earrings, wire wrap jewelry as well as heart jewelry. If you decide this is your thing, there is a lot more detail on the page that describes how to make your own jewelry at jewelrymall.com. It ends with a link to an article on how to sell the jewelry you just made. That’s right - that is how you “make some money”. Who knows how many of the item you buy on ebay are actually just made at home anyway?

For beaded jewelry, there is another detailed post on the blog that describes the calculations to find out how many beads you need, as well as bead handling tips. Impressive attention to detail. Though the blog uses the boring default wordpress theme, the content is good. Its almost enough to make me want to buy the tools of the trade and get started on making jewelry.

What happens to those scissors, lighters and the occasional machete confiscated at US airports?

A few of the items go for sale on ebay, a short while later. The Pennsylvania State Agency for Surplus Property sorts out the lighters from the rest and puts them for sale on ebay. Yes, the items are sold very cheap, and in large quantities. 10 pounds of nail clippers, anyone? Maybe 10 pounds of Money Clips, or Pocket knives instead?

I read the news at Yahoo! News: Confiscated airline carry-on items become big sellers on eBay. I was curious enough to try and find out the listing for the PA SASP - which sells the surplus items. So here it is: Items for Sale by the PA State Surplus.

They should really combine the items into a package, and try selling that — a package that woud have one each of a lighter, scissors, moneyclip, plier, screwdriver, nail clipper, pocket knife, etc. I mean, who in their right minds would want 10 pounds of Silver-Toned Pocket Knives?

From Lifehacker I learnt about this cool new mashup website called Wipbox that lets you research a product before listing it for sale on ebay.

You can lookup the average, high and low prices it has sold for on ebay, which enables you to see what you can expect from the sale, or set a reserve price/starting price. You can then lookup product info from Amazon and provide all the information your prospective clients could want. Next, you can create a better looking ebay ad - all from this one website.

It’s awesome - just the way I would have built it if I knew how.