posted on November 29, 2000 08:45:32 AM
Is anyone having much luck on there these days? My check for the 1st of December will be $450, but as of today, my check for the 15th will only be $250. Things have really slowed down the last two weeks, and I thought that they would really pick up with Christmas coming soon.
One thing I have noticed is the difference in feedback. I have one account I sell used books on, and one account with brand new books. On the used book account I only averaged 1 in 20 feedback, on the new book account I have one for every single book that has arrived. I have more feedback than that seller we have all seen who has sold 2000 books, I have sold 71.
Does everyone think that it will pick up for Christmas? Is it even worth it to sell used books? I want to get out of selling those. I am thinking that buyers have much higher expectations on used items than what they are getting? How is everyone elses sales?
posted on November 29, 2000 09:11:50 AM
snowydays: I was doing fairly well on Half.com over the summer (I listed about 100 books, would sell 3 or 4 a week). Come fall, business completely died off for me, to the point where I was selling 1 or 2 a month. I checked on my listings and found that even though at the time I listed my books were the only ones, over a few months others had listed the same titles, often for less. (And these were some fairly unusual art and history titles by the way). They have been flooded with listings at all levels and that has cut into sales. Also, a customer who didn't understand the length of time that Book Rate Mail could take left me a nasty feedback about failure to ship (when in fact I had shipped her book the day after getting the order). Half.com refused to remove this feedback so that, too was influencing buyers (altho it was false.) I decided to pull all my Half.com offerings and list them on Amazon marketplace....about 50 books were left. So far, business has been very good (2-4 books a week selling for nice prices).
posted on November 29, 2000 09:18:33 AM
snowydays - I don't have all that much listed on Half.com (about 90 books) but I have noticed a slight change in the past few days. I was averaging about a sale a day, but it looks like now I will only have about 4 in a week.
I have been in the used book business for several years, and have never found that Christmas made much difference. MOST people don't give used books as gifts, unless they really do look new, and I think they would like to see the book and know for sure about that before buying it.
I ordered one book from Half. that I intended to give as a gift (it was described as like new) and it has too much shelf wear to be described as like new.
Probably because so many people get money as a gift, I have always had a surprising number of sales immediately after Christmas. I expect that will happen on Half.com.
posted on November 29, 2000 09:22:41 AM
I pulled all my Half.com listings a week ago. I've had no sales since July. Period.
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not SilkMoth anywhere but here
posted on November 29, 2000 09:26:04 AM
Hi - I have also seen a slow-down in orders, but in my case I think it's because most of my better bets have already sold. I've also starting running more auctions since the goto Free Listing Day, so I have less inventory overall.
I'm thinking of taking advantage of the AW promotion to get the rest of it onto ebay at least once. If they don't sell then, I might give a bunch to charity, at least the ones that have been sitting on half for 4 months or more.
Also, a bunch of books I would have sold via half.com have sold on Amazon instead.
posted on November 29, 2000 09:27:53 AM
brighid868: I also am using Amazon, I can get much higher prices for my books there than at Half. Seems most people have not discovered the Marketplace. It also helps that you are not competing against a bunch of morons who have books listed for .01. I only sold, I believe it was 10, when I transferred my first balance on Tuesday. Amazon's fees look bad, I made $200 but am only getting $150 of it, but I think it is worth it for the higher price.
I went to an auction for a bookstore that was going out of business and got about 300 books to sell on the different sites. I did not buy any popular fiction, way, way too much competition there, but got all non fiction and have done so well with all of them. I got a 3/5 the other day because bookrate took 14 days, like I could help that. I did sell many on the pre-order while I was listing them on Half. Now, I am scared that I will be stuck with a couple of hundred books since my sales took a nosedive.
