the-richmonds.net

Today marks the first day of the Fall 2010 bookfair season.  The alarm went off bright and early this morning at 4:00 (okay, so it wasn't so bright at that hour).  I'm glad to be back to work, and with the final truck payment having been made over the summer, I'm looking forward to "snowballing" some of my other bills and getting out of the hole that I dug us into in the years prior to losing our house to foreclosure in 2008.  Since those bills won't stop coming until they're paid off, it feels good to be in a place where I can count on a paycheck coming in again!

For those of you that are following the photos on our "Gallery" (not the "Photo Albums" in the menu to the right - those haven't been updated in a loooonnnnng time), I have caught up with uploading the last few month's worth of photos from Heather's camera, and there are some new photos in the "Matt's camera" folder too - Hannah making cookies in November of 2009 and my trip to Maine in July 2010 (yes, my camera still works after 9 years). 

Is it really really early when you set out to start your day and the Taco Bell you drive past is just closing down for the night?  Is it any indication that my day is starting too early when the girl at the 24-hour McDonald's drive-thru says "have a good night" when she hands me my breakfast sandwiches?

I'm done with Books Are Fun.  My contract is officially finished as of December 19th.

Readers Digest has sold off Books Are Fun to it's original founder (see this Publisher's Weekly article for details).  I had been on the fence as to whether I wanted to keep my contract with BAF/Reader's Digest active after this year, but this announcement made the decision for me.  There were various reasons that I have decided not to continue with the new company.

I've been helping Tom with his bookfairs this season, and I may still be available to help him out with his events in the future, but for now I'm going to be continuing to search for new career oportunities.

... it pours all over the inventory on the back wall...

I ventured out through the rain to go into the garage today to get ready for tomorrow's bookfair, and I heard a "drip-drip-drip" coming from the back. Upon turning on the light, I saw a steady stream of water flowing through the back ceiling and down some of the shelves. I haven't totaled up the inventory that was damaged yet. I guess that's what I've been paying insurance over the last six years for.

In light of this discovery in the garage, I checked throughout the rest of the house for leaks. What I thought would be problem areas are bone dry, but there is a couple of places that will need to be re-flashed, as there are leaks in the attic near two of the chimneys and the vent stack.

The rain also brought the mud back in the back yard, so I have to hike all of the books (in Rubbermaid totes, of course) from the garage down to the road to load the trailer.

I almost preferred the snow!

Bookfair season is now officially underway! During our first full week, we did exactly what we were projecting (which was actually a bit optimistic). We are hoping that this is a good indication that our season will be a profitable one!

Our booksale over the weekend was not terribly successful... I was glad that I put up a post on Craigslist, because my biggest sale of the event (over 1/4 of the total purchases) was from someone that found us there. The wind on Saturday blew over half of the a-frame signs that I put out, so we were only getting "impulse" traffic from 101A. We did meet a few more of our neighbors, including a gentleman that used to race Lightning Yachts with my grandfather!

Also - I will not be running the fall bookfairs alone! We're actually importing a helper from Ohio for the season! Adam will be coming to live with us after Labor Day, and with his help I will be able to make it through until Christmas alive!

Our manager had asked us a few weeks ago if we would host a "warehouse sale" at our house this month.  Well, this weekend is it!  I'll be opening up our garage for shoppers tomorrow through Sunday.

If you want to stop by, we'll be open
Friday 10-6
Saturday 9-4
Sunday 11-4

If you need directions, contact us!

It's been said that the one thing you can consistantly count on is change.  This season is going to be a season of change.

We are picking up about a dozen new book accounts from a departed Books Are Fun rep (most of which actually used to be our accounts before we passed them to her), in addition to the accounts that we had already scheduled for this fall.  I've lost a few more events this year to a certain competing company, but I may have gained some new ground as well.

This past Spring was terrible, this fall should be interesting.  A lot of "new" accounts (meaning some that are new to US, and some that are brand new) are coming our way.  We're hoping that the excitement level of the new event will reflect well in our sales this season.

Continue to pray for our business as we put it all in the Lord's hands.  Things will be changing for us in the coming year (for many reasons!) and it would be nice to have a good, solid book season to build our family upon. 

As a follow up to my earlier post, here is link to the official press release regarding our world-record setting Mentos guyser:

press release on prnewswire.com

And here is the link to the You Tube video posted by Reader's Digest media:

You Tube video of Mentos Guyser record

I spent a lot of time yesterday trying to find a way to sell some of my extra merchandise online.

I went first to eBay, thinking that it is the most popular website and would have the best chances for high exposure. I signed up for an account, and was just about to click the "list item" button for my first item when I noticed a line that said "Items like yours typically have a starting price of $1.00 and an average selling price of $1.00". Yikes! I was hoping to get at least $15 for the item that I was trying to sell! I did a product search on all 7 items that I wanted to list (5 books, 1 CD and 1 children's play book). The ones that came up either did not sell or sold for less than $2. Not a route I wanted to go any further down!

After checking out a bunch of other websites, I decided to try Amazon.com's marketplace. There is no upfront charge for listing on Amazon, and they take care of payment collection for the seller. Upon sale of an item, there is a $1 transaction fee, a variable closing cost ($1.35 for any book), and up to a 15% commission (depending on the type of item). These costs must be figured in to the asking price of the item. Amazon will charge the customer for shipping and issue a credit to me that should cover the cost of shipping for that item.

My Amazon Marketplace seller page is at: http://www.amazon.com/seller/matthew_richmond

I'll let you know how sales go!

Matt forgot to mention the awards ceremony that we had on Sunday evening, so I will interject a few thoughts here!

We had a formal night on Sunday evening in which they presented awards for the outstanding reps of this year. After a quick ceremony, and a lovely dinner, we were joined for entertainment by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul, and Mary. He sang very heart touching songs that we all enjoyed very much, and were very peaceful for an over tired Hannah girl! We even had a few chances to sing along.

One interesting thing that he did was read his new book aloud in song to a mother and son on stage. He has put together a lovely book, "Puff, the Magic Dragon", in which he has provided a much happier ending than the sad one we are all familiar with. He kindly signed a copy of the beautiful book for each Rep to take home with them. Inside the book also is a cd with the song performed by him and his daughter, and a few other songs. We will be selling this book at our fairs this season. It should be a lovely addition to our children's section!

One other thing that Matt forgot to mention was on Monday evening we had our regional dinners. At that time, we were acknowledged for beginning our 5th year with Books Are Fun. Our manager handed us a blue bag with a white corded handle and black letters that said Tiffany & Co. After successfully unwrapping all of the fancy bow, box, and blue leather bag, we found a lovely ball point pen inscribed with Books Are Fun and 5 Years! It was fun to get a blue box with a white bow, especially when someone else pays for it! Maybe someday, I will get another box, but next time I just know it is going to be a diamond tennis bracelet. Hey, we all can dream!

That covers most of our trip. Keep watching for a large batch of pictures!