Nine organizations/groups participated and their causes include but are not limited to, American Red Cross, a local nonprofit effort (to be chosen by students at Regis University), World Vision, and several InterVarsity Christian Fellowship chapters in Colorado.
I've included some basic charts with an overview of sales and income to explain the nature of textbook sales.
As you can see from the graph "Books Sold", the greatest number of books sold in one day is 16 and the least is 0 (the average is 3.25). The highest concentration of books sold occurred between August 19th and September 1st (average of 6). Sales of textbooks is cyclical, with a greater demand during the beginning of semesters and quarters. Textbook sales on Amazon are variable because there are competitors adding supply and changing their prices daily, which affects the visibility of your products on the Amazon search page. For example, in a high demand time, a book may be listed as the lowest option on Amazon for $50 and in two weeks, when demand is less, the going price for the same book may only be $25. Either the price must be adjusted to remain competitive or you have to wait for the high demand time to return (which, may be never, if a new edition comes out).
The graph above illustrates how the total books sold increases more rapidly in late August and tapers off after the first week of September. I attribute that to higher supply (and lower demand) after September 8, which resulted in the fundraiser's listings becoming uncompetitive. A simple fix is to readjust the prices, but if the books will be worth more again in December it may be worth waiting.
The chart above ("Daily Income") shows the daily income of the books sold. The highest income came on August 20th when I sold eight books on the Mines campus for an average of $90 per book. I have learned from my experience that in-person sales result in greater income and less risk than Amazon sales.
In the chart "Percentage Revenue" I wanted to illustrate how significant in-person sales were to fundraising this semester. Sales on the Mines campus accounted for 21% of the revenue and only 15% of books sold (25 of 157). The average revenue per book from sales at Mines was $50 and the average revenue per book due to Amazon sales was $36.
The success is staggering, but these figures do not even begin describe the full potential of your donated textbooks. I estimate that there are close to 1,000 books still in inventory that must be put to further use by either being sold in a book sale, donated to a library, recycled, or through other means.
I am glad that all the efforts of students donating books has made such a great difference! I look forward to the college students of the U.S. meeting their potential and far exceeding my expectations again!
