The day was finally here and I couldn’t wait to get and start going through the books. I woke up at 7 AM, picked up the pallet jack and dropped it off at the storage unit. Then I headed to get the truck. I rented a 26 foot Penske truck with a lift gate.
When I went to pick up the truck I was extremely nervous. I have never driven a truck that big before. It didn’t look that big when I pulled up to it. But when I opened the door and sat in the driver’s seat I quickly realized how big the truck was.
Image of Truck
After I got situated in the truck I went to pick up the books. My biggest fear was having to back into a loading dock. Driving the truck was hard enough. Plus, I didn’t want to look like a total newbie when I went to pick up gaylords for my first time.
Luckily I didn’t have to back the truck into a loading dock. The books were set off the side and one of the warehouse workers loaded the books into the truck. In a way I couldn’t believe that I made it to this point and I was actually successfully buying gaylords of books.
Once all the books were loaded in the truck I started heading to the storage unit. Driving the truck was extremely difficult. I just went nice and slow. Luckily the storage unit was only 10 minutes away, so the drive wasn’t that bad. I made it to the unit safe and sound. The person who was helping me for the day was already there waiting.
The goal for the day was pretty simple:
- Scan 6 gaylords of books
- Box up all the books that weren’t a good fit for Amazon
- Donate all the boxes of books
- Return the truck by 6 PM
We started by taking two gaylords off the truck and then started scanning them. We put the duds into medium home depot boxes and the good books into ikea bags.
Within an hour we both had about 10 home depot boxes filled with duds. We wanted to clear some space so we put them in the back of the truck. Lifting the boxes on the truck was quite a workout. It also was taking a lot of time.
Then it occurred to me that it might be easier to work on the truck. This way we wouldn’t have to keep constantly moving boxes. Once we started to work on the truck everything started to go much faster.
One thing I underestimated was how time-consuming it would be to box up all the duds. We wanted to utilize each box and make sure it was filled, but that required placing the books in the box a certain way.
But that created another problem … an extremely heavy box. The boxes were so heavy that when we stacked one on top of the other, the bottom box would break.
The day flew by and before we knew it, it was 4:30. We needed to get the duds donated while we still had the truck. We took the last two gaylords off the truck and put them in the storage unit.
We had 50 medium home depot boxes of duds. When we showed up to the donation place they were shocked how many books we had, but they were happy to take them. They lined up empty gaylords for us and we started filling them with the home depot boxes.
Unloading the truck took about an hour. Lifting 80 pound boxes full of books for an hour was exhausting and I don’t recommend anyone doing it this way. The donation center suggested calling ahead next time so they can get the gaylords ready for us.
It then occurred to me to ask if they take Gaylord donations. And it turns out they do.
After we donated the books I returned the truck. Then I took the person who helped me for some delicious craft beers. We were both exhausted.
The next day I went to the storage unit and finished scanning the last two gaylords. I ended up with another 20-25 boxes of duds.
Here are what the numbers looked like after it was all said and done
- Books scanned: 6,000+
- Books for Amazon FBA: 265
- Average rank: 388,016
- Average list price: $21.18
- Cost for Books: $540.00
My first experience with gaylords was pretty good. I learned a ton and I want to do another batch. I will be trying some different techniques to make the process smoother.
Things I am going to experiment with next time
Working inside the truck: Taking the gaylords out of the truck and sorting them in the storage unit doesn’t seem that efficient. We’re almost doing double work since a majority of the books have to go back onto the truck so we can donate them.
Monetizing more of the duds: I want to find a way to get some money for the books that don’t make sense to sell on Amazon … and doesn’t take a lot of extra time.
Donating Duds in Gaylords: Instead of boxing all the duds I want to try put them in gaylords. I think it will help us sort faster and it will make the donation process much easier.
Want to see what i did prior to getting the books? Check out the post “How I Prepared for Getting My First Batch of Book Gaylords.”
Share in the comments what your first gaylord experience was like? Or feel free to leave some tips for me to try on the next batch of gaylords.