posted on April 9, 2001 08:38:11 PM new
Any users have thoughts on selling books on half.com rather than ebay? What's been your experience there? Do they just sit and linger forever? And where are the better prices likely to be had?
posted on April 10, 2001 03:19:38 AM new
I've had great luck selling things on Half.com, but I put items up there with the intent to let them sit for a while. I've made over 100.00 without even trying that hard.
I don't think it's a great "marketplace" just a place to put up books/cd's/videos that you no longer want.
posted on April 10, 2001 04:29:58 AM new
I found that the glitches in Half.com's system were not worth the pittance the books sold for, so I closed the account:
1. Their email notification system does not always work ... I got a negative for letting an order lapse, when I didn't know about the order. Yes, they recommend you log on daily and check, but the site is slower than molasses and my browser times out a lot, or runs into a javascript error and crashes.
2. I got another negative for not shipping a book ... I had never listed that book with them, had never owned that book, but their system decided to assign me that book anyway. No chance of getting the negative removed, no way to reply to it, and no way to rate the buyers.
3. They have NO decent inventory management tools ... if you get more than a couple of pages of booksup, you are in for a SLOW time of it.
4. There is no way to contact a buyer - you never see the emails addresses.
5. The postage reimbursement assumes that there is NO paperback that weighs more than a pound or two. They have obviously never seen a softbound car repair manual or computer manual - "paperback" but several pounds of it.
6. Their database of ISBN numbers STINKS! And their advice to me when I could not find the correct edition ... list under any old matching title and author combo, despite that I had the older and more $$ hardbound and not the later softbound. They have no way to easily suggest changes, corrections, and additions.
posted on April 10, 2001 05:06:02 AM new
Hi,
I mostly want to hear from other users as well. I've gone there to look for books but find there's not enough information on most books. I mostly look for books to read there and have actually never purchased anything.
There's certainly a lot of advertising, we got Chinese food the other night and in the fortune cookies on the back of the fortune was one of those 5.00 off for new users with a 'save a fortune at Half.com'. I thought that was pretty inventive.
I sell a lot of books on Half.com. I’m fairly new to book selling. I have only been selling books since being Introduced to Half.com around Thanksgiving of 2000.
Ever since then my sales of normal everyday books have been brisk and frankly Half.com literally pays my mortgage. When I say I sell normal everyday books I mean books by authors like: Stephen King, John Grisham, James Patterson, and Danielle Steel. Not the hard to find or rare authors. In fact I obtain most of my books from garage sales, bookstore sales or library sales.
Is Half.com perfect? No. Does it have its problems? Yes. Is there anywhere else that is perfect? Well from reading all the posts on this message board I’d have to assume no. People here frequently cut down, every auction site there is, every payment service and in general anything and everything remotely associated with auctions.
My advice to you is to try it and see for yourself. Only you can determine what’s right for you. I can’t begin to tell you how many times and how many people said "don’t leave your job, you can’t make money selling on eBay." Well it’s been two years now. I’m still selling on eBay and they are still complaining about their mundane jobs and how they wish they could do what I did. Think about it. How many people do you know in your life that has told you, you can’t do this or can’t do that or that will never work. Yet these people aren’t willing to take the risk of even trying to see for themselves. They have no justification or first hand knowledge, no personal experiences to base their opinion on, nothing to go by. Just that it won’t work.
Frankly the bottom line is people are making money selling on both venues. The only real question is which one is better for you. There will people who will say yes you can make money selling on Half.com vs Ebay some will say Half.com is better some will say eBay is better, Some will tear down both services. List on both and see. The type of inventory you sell will determine your success or failure on either service. Like I said I sell the everyday normal books. They don’t bring much on Half.com but that’s the type of books I have right now. If I were to sell them on eBay I’d probably end up paying more in listing fees and FVF fees than it would be worth. Half,com therefore is better for me. If I had rare and hard to find books well then eBay or some other book related site would probably be a much better choice and would bring in a great deal more money.
posted on April 10, 2001 07:52:50 AM new
After being utterly disappointed over the demise of Yahoo, the zero response on Bidville and the higher fees on eBay coupled with lower prices, I've started to list on half. Three things:
Price to cover postage on heavier items. You have no choice.
Keep your shipping materials as cheaply and efficiently as possible.
Everything pivots on thin profits. Never spend more than a buck or so a book that you don't know will sell. This is a volume business.
It's not for everything. eBay is still viable for many books. Half works for items that have a market but not on eBay anymore.
Half has killed much of eBay's appeal for the bookseller and will probably drive many professional booksellers out of business.
Keep your day job. Sellers are competing against people who just are clearing their bookshelf and could care less if they sell it for .75.
posted on April 10, 2001 08:23:50 AM new
Yes, half.com colects from the buyer and then pays you--and pays you very slowly. For low dollar volume sellers they pay once a month, others are paid twice a month. I believe they will send out a check for the first half of the month if it would be more that $50. But they don't send out checks until two-three weeks after the payment period ends. They have recently added direct deposit which allows you to get the money a week faster.
posted on April 10, 2001 08:28:28 AM new
Half pays people after the sale. If you sell enough you get paid in the same month, other wise it is in the middle of the following month. You could have hundreds of dollars in sales and absolutely no money in your pocket.
That's why you need to have a regular job and/or other sources of funds.
This is a huge cash float for eBay...and a sinkhole for sellers.
posted on April 10, 2001 10:40:01 AM new
half just recently announced it will do direct deposit into checking accounts. They say the deposits will be made automatically every 2 weeks irregardless of balance, whereas right now, if you don't make $50 or something, you have to wait an additional two weeks for a check.
I plan to sign up, just haven't gotten around to it yet.
As for half.com in general, the words of wisdom here are right on. I would only add, don't assume all books go for peanuts. They don't. There ARE sellers, including remainder houses, flooding the site, but they don't have every title. There are thousands - millions - of quality books that are harder to come by.
Second, don't put all your eggs in that basket. Use Amazon marketplace, too. Rotate stock around. I use those sites to "park" books until I feel it's worth a shot on ebay. I don't list books on these sites for just a few dollars [usually] so any sale is a good sale, despite their cut. If they sit too long on half, I dump them or put them on ebay at "last chance" prices.
Half.com is less work than auctions. It's also a crappy site in many ways, but it does generate sales.
