posted on September 23, 2000 05:06:59 PM
Do non-cheap books sell well on half.com or is the market there only for cheap books? What is the experience since half.com started allowing the listing books above half price?
Any statistics?
How can you list a book if it doesn't have an ISBN?
posted on September 23, 2000 07:08:56 PM
I have listed quite a few books on half.com and sold several. Lowest priced book I have sold was about $1.50. Highest price $25.00.
I believe there is a good market there for the slightly unusual items. Just depends, I guess.
I had listed the $25.00 book on eBay a couple times. Got one bid at $4.99 the second time out. The buyer's payment got lost somewhere and we ultimately agreed to just cancel the deal as he was buying it for someone else who dropped out of the picture in the meantime. He was grateful to be let out of the deal, and in the end I was also grateful!
I have not tried anything at greater than half. I expect that would work for something highly desirable, though. (I know I would pay more than half for some books.)
I do not think it is possible to list a book on half.com that has no ISBN.
posted on September 24, 2000 03:56:03 AM
It most certainly is possible to sell a book on half.com without an ISBN #. Just put the title of the book in search and click go. Your book will come up, click on the title, and there will be a "do you want to sell your copy" click on the upper right side of the list.
Susan (swoose on eBay)
posted on September 24, 2000 04:30:09 AM
I use half.com in two ways. I have an inventory of books there that I don't plan to list on ebay at all. I try to list those at the lowest amount currently being offered. If I can't get enough to clear some profit and insure that I don't get ripped off on shipping (ex: heavy paperbacks), I don't list them.
Another category is books awaiting photographs and listing on ebay. I list these at higher prices, so I love the more-than-half option. For example, I "parked" a speciality craft book there at $25 and it was gone in 2 days.
I also listed two hardcover, OP genre romances that were clearly on someone's "want" list because they were gone in an hour. I sold another book in the series on ebay for more money, but the quick sell & ship on half.com satisfied me.
posted on September 24, 2000 08:03:21 AM
If your book is not in their database (and a lot of mine are not) you can not sell it on half.com.
Half.com will not even give you the courtesy of a real reply (I received an ebay style thanks for asking a question canned e-mail), and they will not enter it into their data base.
posted on September 24, 2000 08:11:59 AM
Many sellers post books by title to other editions as described above, others consider this wrong. I'm not sure whether any policy is in place on this, but feel that when one does so they should very clearly describe the substitution.
No data but I think that enough people aer looking for books on half.com for it to be a great place to list htf items at appropriate prices. Did have a textbook w/list price of $105. sell sufficiently quickly at half that I suspect I could have received more.
posted on September 24, 2000 08:12:01 AM
swoose -
It is DANGEROUS to list a book you have only identified by title and author. For starters, the ISBN varies with each edition of a book, and you may end selling a scarce edition for a lot less than it is worth OR have an irate buyer who got the second edition when they NEEDED the updates that are in the third edition.
posted on September 24, 2000 09:52:02 AMgrobe ~ As far as I know the only books without ISBN numbers that can be sold on Half.com are the ones that have more recent editions that do have ISBN numbers.
posted on September 24, 2000 11:01:55 AM
I have listed some books that didn't match the ISBNs a couple of times. Once I had to refund the money, cuz it definately wasn't what the buyer wanted. Another time, I had a special rare PAPERBACK advance reviewers copy of a new book, which was only available in HC. Even though I said that in the description, the buyer was unhappy it wasn't a hardcover (and gave me a poor rating).
