FAQs

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Wanted

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Listing age, days:
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Groups & Activities

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Note: We periodically receive reports of vague-sounding purchase requests (scams), sometimes for all your books. Please don't email us -- just be wise!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Getting Started

Does it cost anything to use this site?

There is no cost for buying items, or for listing up to 7 homeschool-related items at a time for sale (we don't currently limit the number of wanted items, groups, activities, or pieces of advice). If some of your items sell, list others in their place. Feel free to list items for neighbors, friends, or fellow homeschoolers.

You are welcome to list more than 7 for sale items at a time (we have some people that list several hundred), if you buy a paid registration. We hope you will consider this, since it helps pay for the site.

Another way to list more "for sale" items is to post homeschool groups, activities, or advice. In order to encourage use of these sections of the site, we increase your for sale item "quota" by up to three credits for each group, activity, or piece of advice that you post (depending on quality). This happens automatically and immediately.

How do I register?

In the menu appearing at the top of most pages, click "Register".

Fill out the user profile (general information that applies to all your ads), then click the button.

You are now officially registered and have your own page.

How do I post a curriculum item, group, activity, or piece of advice?

After you've registered (see above):

In the menu appearing at the top of most pages, click "Go to user's page".
Enter your username or email address, then click "Go".
This is your page. Enter your password in the upper right corner, then click "Log in".
Choose the appropriate tab on your page, then click 'Add a "For Sale" item', 'Add a "Wanted" item', 'Add a group', 'Add an activity', or 'Add homeschool advice'.
Add your item.

Help! What is my username (or password)?

To have your username and password emailed to you, go here. In the "Help" section near the bottom of the page, enter your email address, then press "Go".

My emails to the seller/buyer bounce.

Look at the error message returned by the bounced email:

Their server may be having difficulty -- try emailing them at least three times over a period of at least a week.
If their server doesn't accept email from our website, try contacting them directly -- at the bottom of our "Email this user" form, click the "Get this user's email address" link, and copy their email address into your own email program to contact them directly.
If the server says their account doesn't exist, they may have changed email addresses or mis-entered their address -- hopefully they'll eventually realize that they aren't getting any responses and correct the address we have on file.
If all emails continue to bounce, move on to another buyer/seller. Please don't contact us -- we have no other way of reaching them.

My emails to the seller/buyer aren't answered -- are they getting them?

If you are getting a copy, our system is also sending it to them.

They may be on vacation or out of town -- try emailing them at least three times over a period of several weeks. If they are no longer keeping up with their list, their listings will be removed after two months.
Their email system may be blocking messages from our server. Try contacting them directly -- at the bottom of our "Email this user" form, click the "Get this user's email address" link, and copy their email address into your own email program to contact them directly.
Please don't contact us -- we have no other way of reaching them.

Buying

How do I buy items?

Registration is not required to buy items. Items are offered by individual homeschoolers/sellers -- click on the username at the end of each listing to see the seller's page and any other items they have for sale. Contact them directly (using the link below their name) to purchase items.

What is ppd?

Ppd means that shipping is included in the seller's price. If you are selling and you want the buyer to pay shipping, you can choose that option when you list your item, and the ppd will not appear.

How do I check out a seller?

Since May 2007, we've had a reputation/feedback system. Occasional or new sellers may not yet have entries, so you should:

Look at how long the user has been registered (shown below their user name and email as "Active since..." on their page).
Develop some level of comfort through email interactions.
See the "help against fraud" entry below.

At the end of the day, transactions are always "buyer beware", but our experience has been that the overwhelming majority of transactions are honest and uneventful.

Will the sellers ship to Canada (or overseas)?

The curriculum items on the board are offered by individual sellers, who may or may not ship to Canada (or overseas) -- ask them.

I've sent money, but not received my material!

We suggest doing some of the following. You may want to email the seller that you are taking these steps, to give them a final opportunity to make things right:

If you are a registered user, leave "Poor" feedback for the seller, with a clear explanation.
Consider filing a complaint with their email host (aol, geocities, google, etc.) if you can find a complaint email address.
Consider filing a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, www.ic3.gov.

I can't find what I need!

While we can't fully endorse some of these sites, you might try eBay, Half, VegSource, or ThisLittlePiggyStaysHome.

Selling

I have never sold anything over the Internet before -- if I request payment via cashier's check or money order, is it reasonable for me to send the material after I receive payment?

It is very appropriate to wait to send material until you receive a payment in which you have confidence (i.e., money order, cashier's check, or cleared check). This may mean waiting several days for the buyer to get to the bank or post office; waiting several more days for the mail to arrive; and, in the case of a personal check, waiting a week or so for the check to clear. If you do much buying and selling, you may want to consider a PayPal or similar account, which allows an instant, secure payment with a substantial level of confidence.

Can I register several email addresses if I have a lot of items?

No, not if you are honest. Consider buying a paid registration and supporting the site.

How do I post a picture of an item?

If you have sufficient credits, you can add a picture. An "Upload image" link will appear after your listings if you have sufficient credits. If you do not see the "Upload image" link when editing your page, you will need to purchase a higher registration level to use this feature.

Our current picture handling is fairly primitive. Images can be any pixel dimensions (width, height), as long as they are less than 100KB in size. We create a thumbnail for any display on the front page, then show the full image when the camera icon (in a listing) is clicked on.

How do show or remove a PayPal button?

If you have a PayPal account (you'll need to visit paypal.com to set that up), you can add a button on your page to take a buyer directly to PayPal to pay you.

Login to your page.
Click on the link (upper right side of the page) that says "Edit your user profile."
Put your PayPal email address in the "PayPal account" field.

To remove the PayPal button from your page, clear the "PayPal account" field.

I'm a reseller; can I post "For Sale" ads?

You are welcome to resell materials, either from your own homeschooling, or that have been previously used or owned by others. So, for example, if you have a business (small or large) reselling homeschool items, from your own library, from friends, from yard sales, etc., you are welcome to list your items.

We have a number of resellers that post hundreds of items each, and welcome those from eBay, Half.com, and other boards -- please invite your friends as well!

I'm a distributor/curriculum creator; can I post "For Sale" ads?

If you are a distributor for new items, or are posting items that you created to sell, you need to use a separate business listing rather than our "For Sale" listings. A business listing is a paid listing with additional detail, web or email link(s), and a bright background. We offer a variety of text and banner options, which allow you to "interleave" your listing both alphabetically and on an appropriate category page (Math, Science, Language arts, etc.).

These ads are a cost-effective way of reaching thousands of homeschoolers each week -- homeschoolers who are in a buying/selling frame of mind.

How do I keep track of a buyer, in order to leave feedback later?

One possible method for tracking (that we haven't fully thought through) is as follows:

When you sell an item, instead of deleting the listing, replace the "Short summary" field with the buyer's email, then set the "Pending sale" checkbox to hide the listing. Once payment is received, leave feedback, then delete the listing. Let us know if this is a workable system, or if you have other suggestions.

Can I temporarily hide items (pending sales, going on vacation)?

Items for sale can be temporarily hidden by clicking on the "Pending sale" checkbox on the item's form. Currently, you will need to do this for each item individually, making this method somewhat impractical if you have many items. If the sale falls through, or when you return from vacation, just uncheck the box.

I need longer listings!

If you have sufficient credits, you can add longer descriptions to your listings -- a "Long description" field will appear in the listing form. This may help make your selling more efficient by reducing the number of questions a buyer may have. If you do not see the "Long description" field when creating/editing your listing, you will need to purchase a higher registration level to use this feature.

Help! I can't edit/post new listings!

If you can't edit or renew your listings (the Edit button has a line through it) or can't add new items, you have as many or more listings than you are allowed. To edit, you will need to delete one or more listings (to get down to your limit). To increase your allowance, please purchase a paid registration, or post groups, activities, or thoughts.

What is your policy on listing material with resale/transfer restrictions?

We can't possibly keep up with the licensing of various curriculum, but we do respond to "take down" notices that show clear evidence of a violation. Switched on Schoolhouse materials and BJU HomeSat videos/DVDs are two curricula that cannot be resold; there are no doubt others as well. Please read whatever copyright or license information is available on your material or the parent company's website, then do what is right and abide by the terms of your purchase.

How soon should I delete a listing after the sale?

You may want to temporarily hide the listing, in case there is a dispute with the buyer. Once the transaction is finished, you can delete the listing.

More Details

How do I edit or delete a curriculum item, group, activity, or piece of advice?

In the menu appearing at the top of most pages, click "Go to user's page".
Enter your username or email address, then click "Go".
This is your page. Enter your password in the upper right corner, then click "Log in".
Choose the appropriate tab on your page, then click the 'Save changes' or 'Delete' link next to the individual listing.

How do I renew my listings?

Go to your page and log in.
Click the "For sale" tab on your page.
Click the [Renew all listings] link right above your listings.

Important note: Listings must be almost a month old to be renewed (we are trying to discourage "renew-every-day" behavior, because we think it is neither helpful to buyers, nor particularly edifying for sellers). The system automatically removes listings that haven't been updated or renewed in more than two months. So, if you renew about once a month, you'll maintain your listings and they will appear as new items at that time.

What do the condition ratings/abbreviations mean?

Our standard condition ratings (and some helpful abbreviations) are described here. There is also a link to this page in the explanatory paragraph at the top of each page of listings.

How do I change my username/email/info/password?

In the menu appearing at the top of most pages, click "Go to my page".
Enter your username or email address, then click "Go".
This is your page. Enter your password in the upper right corner, then click "Login".
Click on the link (upper right side of the page) that says "Edit your user profile."
Change the desired information and click "Update".

I can't contact a seller/buyer!

Some buyers/sellers have reported difficulty getting through the spam filter of those they are trying to contact. To help prevent this, make sure your own filter is not putting replies into your "junk" folder. You may also want to check that folder periodically while you are buying or selling to catch unintended filtering.

On rare occasions, a user's internet provider may inappropriately block mail from Homeschool Classifieds. To get the user's actual email address, at the bottom of our "Email this user" form, click "Get user's email address". Use this address to contact them directly from your own email account.

The "Email this user" button doesn't work!

We've heard from several people about problems with the "Email this user" button, but we've been unable to reproduce the problem. Some suggestions:

Clicking the button opens a separate window that may be hidden by other windows if you have already used it or have other applications open. In Microsoft Windows, use Alt-Tab to page through open applications and bring the email form window to the front.
If the email window appears, but doesn't work properly, you can click at the bottom to get the seller's email address, then paste it into your own mail application.
On the person's page, directly below the "Email this user" button is a link to get the user's email address. Copy their address into your email package, and email them directly.

If none of these steps solves the problem for you, please let us know.

How do I leave feedback about a transaction?

Only registered users can currently leave feedback. If you are registered, log in to your page and go to the Reputation tab. If the transaction is shown, click on its "Edit" link to add your feedback. Otherwise click on the "I was a buyer" or "I was a seller" link (at the bottom of the page) to leave feedback.

How do I read the feedback others have left for me?

Go to your page, but do not log in. Click on the Reputation tab. Click the "[Details]" link at the end of any transaction line.

Do you provide any help against fraud?

To keep this in perspective, we are aware of only a few disputes out of many thousands of transactions each year. While we cannot offer any guarantee, we do take a couple of simple steps to prevent fraud:
1. We provide a reputation system (see the tab on each user's page) where feedback can be left about a transaction.
2. We also have a page dealing with general scams.
3. At the top of each of our curriculum ad pages, we warn buyers not to send money without checking the complaints page.

This won't eliminate occasional instances of fraud, but we believe it helps reduce them. It is still up to each buyer to decide whether or not to send money to a particular seller. We recommend you send something traceable -- like a check, postal money order, or PayPal payment -- made out to a person at a street address (rather than cash to a P.O. box). While we haven't tried them, there are escrow services that, for a fee, will hold your payment until the merchandise is shipped (see information on eBay).

Do you delete listings you think may be duplicates? I'm curious, as some of my listings are missing. I teach two children in the same grade, and have two copies of each student text. Would you prefer that I list them together, indicating that I have two to sell?

Yes, we delete apparent duplicate items because some users post more than once. Deletion is done very quickly, without a great deal of examination, as there are many new items each day. If you genuinely have duplicate items, you have several options:

Preferred -- A single listing, with the single book price, perhaps with wording like "2 copies avail." or "Two to sell" at the end. This is less work for you, and won't be in danger of deletion.

Alternate method -- Separate ads, with some distinguishing wording -- i.e., different condition descriptions, or "copy 1" vs. "copy 2". Make sure we don't think it is the same item!

Why do my listings keep disappearing?

Your listings may be deleted if you use EXCESSIVE CAPS, repeat the publisher or grade in the title field, list materials that cannot legally be resold, or commit one of various other infractions (just be very careful to follow the instructions on the form).

We don't mean to be hard-nosed about format, but we believe our listings are easy to scan precisely because we try hard to standardize them. It would be nice to notify users of offending listings, but there are simply too many listings to make that practical.

I'm not getting a copy of the email I sent.

This doesn't necessarily mean that the recipient is not getting the email. Several thoughts:

Sometimes it takes minutes (or perhaps even an hour or so) for an email to show up, due to servers only polling their mail periodically. Make sure the email isn't just delayed.
It is possible that your email system is blocking messages from our server. If your email system uses a "white list" of approved email sources, make sure homeschoolclassifieds.com is on it.
You may have mis-entered your email address.

Can you match up those who wish to donate a book or two with families in need?

We suggest you:

Describe your offer (with whatever qualifications you want) in your profile information.
Put some standard text (i.e., "Donation possible" or "Free to family in need") in each listing you want to include.

People can then see the offer on the specific item, and get the details at your page.

Groups and Events

Can I post my homeschool service/music lessons/paid classes in the "Activities" section?

Yes, currently, such free listings are allowed once you have registered (see above), but multiple listings from the same business are subject to deletion.

Some states and categories have dozens of listings (in which yours may get lost), so you may want to consider a paid business listing. Business listings have a bright background with strategic bold text, allow web or email links, and all of the listing detail is shown on the main page (not after the link), so you can effectively "make your case" to every viewer. Business listings can either be "interleaved" alphabetically and on an appropriate category page (Math, Science, Language arts, etc.) or, if more appropriate, targeted to a particular state and zip codes near yours. These ads are a cost-effective way of reaching thousands of homeschoolers each week -- homeschoolers who are in a buying/selling/engaging frame of mind.

How can we edit edit the information about our group or event?

At the bottom of each group or event page, there is a "Corrections? Updates?" link that will take you to the page of the user who posted that item. You can contact them to make changes, or, if that fails, update the information yourself.

The original poster is no longer in our group. How can someone else make updates?

Email us the name of the group, the state, the Homeschool Classifieds username of the person who should be responsible, and the reason for the change. We will transfer that listing over to the new "editor."