High school students learn some profitable lessons....

High school senior Jennifer Pease understands the essence of business....

She bought around $20 worth of silver bracelets in New York City's wholesale district for $2 each. Over the next few days, she sold them at $5 each, more than doubling her money.

"It was easy to do," she said.

It was an assignment for her entrepreneurship class at Agawam High School. (Probably the best paying school assignment she's ever had to do!)

These are simple ideas, but they could be the seeds to these students' financial independence later in life....

Read the full story at the link below.... :)

- Dien


High school students learn some profitable lessons....

A similar situation with my 13 year old.

Last year my family and I attended the annual Aloha Festival. It is a Hawaiian festival jam packed with hula shows, great food, crafts and fun. One of the items selling is called a Jitter ring, a very addicting toy, for $3 each.

My son bought one and became very good at it. He then took it to school and it was an instant hit. Other kids were offering him $10 for his used ring.

This year we attended the festival again. My son found the vendor again and bought 20 more, without me knowing. When he showed them to me, I was a little surprised to say the least. He said he had saved all year for the one intention of buying more and selling for profit. He even had it all figured out on paper.

Even more surprizing is the fact that my son sold out in 3 days for a profit of $150. I did not help one bit, it was all his working. I then asked what he was going to spend the money on. He looked at me like I was dumb and said "I'm buying more, what else?" I got on the phone and contacted the vendor. He agreed to sell the rings to us for $2 a piece if we buy by the case of 100.

I am impressed with my son and hopefully with the right direction he will learn a great deal from this. The next step would be for me to ask him for a loan LOL!!!

In case you are wondering what a Jitter Ring is click the link below. I have nothing to do with the site, just for your info on the ring.

Dennis


What is a Jitter Ring?

Hi all...

I really think it pays huge dividends to encourage (and teach) children to be self-sufficient.

My son, at 14 made $320 in a single day selling used books on Amazon...

Amazon makes it pretty easy to list used books for sale. All I had to show him was where to find the ISBN number in the book, how to grade books and he was off and running.

To make it a little more interesting he and I had a 'contest' to see who could list the most books- in the shortest time.

He won! He listed 14 books in 10 minutes and I only did...well never mind :-(

He went on to list another 40 books that day...and he sold 32 out of the 54 listed with an average profit of about $10 each and made $320!

He, of course was thrilled. Good experience- learning how to make money without a 'boss'..on your own...independant.

I like that too.

- Dave


Where My Son Learned How To Sell On Amazon

Hi Dennis!

I had a look at the Jitter ring link, but couldn't quite figure out what this device is....

However, it seems there's no doubt that you have a great "budding entrepreneur" there in your son!

I find these entrepreneurial kids to be fascinating, I guess my reasoning goes something like, hey, if a teenager can do it, then anybody ought to be able to do something like it.... However, that's not to take anything away from these clever teens.

Dennis, as inspiration for you and your son, did you know that Michael Dell was a teenage entrepreneurial "prodigy"? You should have a look at the first few pages of his book, "Direct From Dell." In high school, he ended up making more in his spare time than his teachers made in wages, simply by selling newspaper subscriptions! Nowadays, he's ranked in the top 10 richest people in America, at the relatively young age of 35! He's also ranked as #1 on Fortune Magazine's "40 Richest Under 40."

With Dell, I think it was partly his own innate intelligence and skill, and also partly due to nurturing and support from his parents, so parents play a very important role....

I was going to tell here the story of my brother Thomas (he gave me his permission). He had several "schemes" by which he would make money when he was in school.... He's around 10 years younger than me, and is currently an undergrad student at university....

Several years ago, a card game called "Magic" was very popular among kids of his age group. (Don't ask me about the game, though, since I've never played it!) Apparently, as part of playing "Magic" you had some very unique cards.... These rarer cards were highly sought after and collected by Magic card players.

A deck of Magic cards which you bought from the store would have a certain selection of cards, mostly consisting of common cards, with a few "rarer" (and more sought after) cards tucked away within the pack.

Thomas found out that he could make money by buying a pack of Magic cards, and taking out the rarer cards and selling them to his friends at school individually. The games stores did this too, by the way (and sold the rarer cards individually), but Thomas sold them at lower prices, so kids were happy to buy from him.

When I learned about this from him, I thought it was a pretty cool thing to do! Anyone who knew about it could have done it (including those who bought from him), but it takes initiative to get out and do it!

Thanks for sharing the story of your son and the Jitter ring, Dennis, it was inspiring! :)

- Dien

Thank you Dien for the response and the Dell and Magic story. I will definitely look for Dell's book and share it with my son. I have every intention on helping my son learn and in the process learn something myself. I believe we can learn a lot from our children, we just have to give them the time to teach us.

My son and I take the ring to malls and parks. Talk about a crowd builder that turns into a sale builder, again another idea of my son's

I found another site that explains the ring a little better if you are interested. I tried to find videos, but the ones I found were bad quality.

Take care all,

Dennis


jitter ring

Dave,

Great story .... good for your son.

Question. What topic/type of books were they that sold so well?

Thanks,

Ron

Hi Ron,

That's what I get paid for ;-)

In general the best books to sell on Amazon are industry specific (and once expensive) business books. Example: Tony Plummer's out-of-print, Forecasting Market's is a much sought after book and Gordon Bing's, Due Diligence Technics (sells new for $75, but you can find used copies for $10-$15).

Newer books on business, computers and the Internet sell best.

The secret is in buying books cheap enough to make a profit.

Used bookstores are great for books in the $4-$5 range you can sell for $15-$20 each if they are in good condition. I recently sold a book on stock trading techniques that's out of print (Steidlmayer on Markets ) for $55.00. The price on the jacket was only $37.95. I bought it for a $3.00 at a local charity auction.

If you see a book that's
1) 2-4 years old
2) A business title (industry specific)
3) Had an orginal price of $30 or more

It's probably out-of-print and much sought after by people in that industry.

Newer books on business, computers and the Internet sell best.

The secret is in buying books cheap enough to make a profit. Used bookstores are great for books in the $4-$5 range you can sell for $15-$20 each if they are in good condition. I recently sold a book on stock trading techniques that's out of print (Steidlmayer on Markets ) for $55.00. The price on the jacket was only $37.95. I bought it for a $3.00 at a local charity auction.

To find books to sell I frequently visit used /remainder book sites online to make bulk purchases such as:

http://www.abebooks.com
http://www.bibliofind.com
http://www.bookopoly.com
http://www.remainder-books.com/

And I use http://www.bookfinder.com to search multiple sites at once.

Hope that helps!

- Dave


Total Internet Profits Website

> Hi Ron,

> That's what I get paid for ;-)

Thanks Dave,

I didn't notice you have a paid website until after I asked you. :-)

Sounds like a good deal.

Thanks for the good information!

I have 2 girls who would like to earn some extra money this summer. I'll mention the book idea to them.

It's interesting that the last 2 books I bought on
Amazon were used. I was planning to buy new
versions but when I found the book, it showed me that there was also a used version available for each one at about 25-35% of price.

Naturally I bought the used versions.

No wonder Amazon always shows a loss :-)

Ron

> In general the best books to sell on Amazon
> are industry specific (and once expensive)
> business books. Example: Tony Plummer's
> out-of-print, Forecasting Market's is a much
> sought after book and Gordon Bing's, Due
> Diligence Technics (sells new for $75, but
> you can find used copies for $10-$15).

> Newer books on business, computers and the
> Internet sell best.

> The secret is in buying books cheap enough
> to make a profit.

> Used bookstores are great for books in the
> $4-$5 range you can sell for $15-$20 each if
> they are in good condition. I recently sold
> a book on stock trading techniques that's
> out of print (Steidlmayer on Markets ) for
> $55.00. The price on the jacket was only
> $37.95. I bought it for a $3.00 at a local
> charity auction.

> If you see a book that's
> 1) 2-4 years old
> 2) A business title (industry specific)
> 3) Had an orginal price of $30 or more

> It's probably out-of-print and much sought
> after by people in that industry.

> Newer books on business, computers and the
> Internet sell best.

> The secret is in buying books cheap enough
> to make a profit. Used bookstores are great
> for books in the $4-$5 range you can sell
> for $15-$20 each if they are in good
> condition. I recently sold a book on stock
> trading techniques that's out of print
> (Steidlmayer on Markets ) for $55.00. The
> price on the jacket was only $37.95. I
> bought it for a $3.00 at a local charity
> auction.

> To find books to sell I frequently visit
> used /remainder book sites online to make
> bulk purchases such as:

> http://www.abebooks.com
> http://www.bibliofind.com
> http://www.bookopoly.com
> http://www.remainder-books.com/ And I use
> http://www.bookfinder.com to search
> multiple sites at once.

> Hope that helps!

> - Dave