Amazon launched an intriguing new digital platform, Amazon Ignite, this week, and we requested an invitation. We love Teachers Pay Teachers having maintained a store since 2012. We will continue to post and sell our products at Barraug Books and Curriculum @TPT but would appreciate the reach of Amazon.
Our TPT Experience
On TPT, we have had teachers from all 50 states and 38 countries download our lessons and resources– more than 30,000 times! It is exciting to think that this reach could be doubled or tripled on a venue like Amazon. We had considered moving some of our products to eBooks, but Amazon Ignite might be an excellent option for us. We can keep our products in the form of bite-sized resources for teachers on the go as digital downloads.
Our Amazon Bookstore
For years, we sold books on Amazon. Carlos and I would get up early on Saturday mornings (leaving the boys at home sleeping) and hit the garage sales to find books for our Amazon store. It was like a treasure hunt. We knew what teachers across the country were teaching or assigning for summer reading, and we knew what kids loved to read.
We would buy the books for less than a dollar and post them for the going rate, usually making a dollar or two on the book after shipping. I remember coming home from school and excitedly checking the Amazon sales queue. We wrapped the books in padded envelopes and printed the stamp from the Amazon shipping software. A special red laundry basket by the door held our orders that we would drive to the post office. The boys would open the shute at the mailbox and drop in the packages. Often, the books would end up on our shelves because we would find books we loved and couldn’t part with.
The Scanner People
Today, entrepreneurs in the used book business arrive at the garage and estate sales with fancy scanners and pick through the books. Goodwill has gotten savvy and often sells its books online, as well. A bit of the mystique is gone because amateurs like us–teachers who loved to read–can’t keep up with the mercenaries.
Memories of Garage Sales and the Smell of Books
We remember those days fondly as a time we spent together in our former life in Miami. We drank Starbucks or Cuban coffee, listened to the Saturday morning NPR shows, navigated to the next sale, and sometimes came home with a haul that would earn us a couple hundred dollars or so. Eventually, we closed our Amazon store and donated our remaining inventory to our classrooms or Goodwill.
Full Circle
The idea that we could sell our curriculum products on Amazon again seems like we have gone full circle. We hope we get the log on and password soon so we can report back a positive new venture.