posted on June 14, 2001 06:33:11 PM new
Amazon does this on it's Used Marketplace venue and sellers can and do benefit. Some sellers I'm sure get fed up and don't relist all their items after they expire each month which creates less competition for the remaining sellers. There's just too much damn competition on Half to make it worth a seller's time! Too many give-away prices listed on Half.
posted on June 14, 2001 08:44:47 PM new
Half.com is very crude in a number of ways and you've only mentioned one of them. You've just got to take it for what it is, and try to make the most if it.
I've got 1000+ baseball cards listed on half, and it isn't costing me a dime. If it sells, that's fine I'll ship it. From my standpoint, they are missing the boat on many points. I don't really think they know what they're doing at all, like a lot of kids in a candy store, completely indiscriminate of their choices and therefore don't know what they're missing.
But they are making plenty of $$$ in spite of that, and I'm making a few bucks too, so how can I argue ?
posted on June 14, 2001 10:20:33 PM new
I agree I also think that Half should close the listings after 30 days. this would really help. I have been trying to list at half but most of the time I don't due to the extreamly low prices. I also list at amazon and find that there pricing is more realistic and also do better as far as sales.
I also list with ABE.com and have been for about a month now so far. Is anyone doing good at ABE because for the monthly fees that they want I am not getting the sales
to warrent them. Anyone having luck with Abe???
posted on June 15, 2001 01:39:34 AM new
I agree and at the same time I don't. I think items should be deleted, but after 90 days and after the seller is notified. If the seller wants to keep the item listed I think they should be able to do so. A once a month email with a list to the seller would be nice. This would also make it easier for the seller to edit their inventory.
I think they have a goal for listings before they start deleting anything. Seems their sales are so good, they have never met their goal for listings.
I mean face it. The more they have on their sight, the more they can sell. Why would the delete anything?
posted on June 15, 2001 05:59:17 AM new
I want to know how to delete it myself! What if the item is no longer for sale? I cant figure out where to go to take it off the list
posted on June 15, 2001 06:37:17 AM new
Go into your account, then click on Manage My Inventory. You either have to search the whole thing or type in an ISBN if it's a book.
posted on June 15, 2001 06:52:35 AM new
I'd like a bulk lister where I can upload an excel file or something to put up many items at once. I spent last Saturday night putting up over 100 Pokemon cards on half.com (one sale already this week from that). I like being able to put them up there and leave them indefnitely @ no cost unless they sell.
posted on June 15, 2001 06:53:10 AM new
Half.com is a like a two sided sword. On one side you have a great opportunity to list up front with out incurring any costs until your item sells. Between all the fees that I have to pay for up front on eBay this really helps the old pocketbook a lot. Even with there 15% for me it is well worth it.
The other side or down side is, yes books are selling there very cheap. I often ask myself how some of these people are doing it and wish someone would explain their reasoning on listing books for next to nothing. The problem that creates, is it makes me list books low and thus I have a very small profit margin. I do however make a fairly substantial amount of money with Half.com literally paying my mortgage payments each month so for that I am both grateful and happy.
Half.com definitely has a lot of faults but my attitude is I know them, I deal with them, I make money working with them and try not to get caught up in all the negative stuff about them. As long as they continue to "Show me the money" I'm happy.
As for the issue of deleting listings after 30 or 90 days that would be a pain in the neck for me. I currently have over 3,000 books listed on Half.com. To re-list every 30 to 90 days would be a logistics nightmare. However have noticed overtime when I do list there is a huge influx of sales because when you list books on Half.com they show up under a header titled "JUST IN BIN" I guess a lot of people check that feature out because as I said every time I have listed I get lots of orders. So there is something to be said for re-listing every now and then.
Also unlike many booksellers I have NOT found Amazon.com to be good for me. In fact I recently listed a bunch of books on both Half.com and Amazon.com at another one of my many attempts to see which site works best for ME. Again it looks like Half.com is way ahead in sales as usual. See I sell mostly popular authors like Steven King, John Grisham, Michael Crichton, Jack Higgins, Scott Turow, Danielle Steel, Oprah Book Club books, etc. So the books I sell are pretty much the easy to find everyday sort of stuff. I mix them up with remainders and overruns but even those aren’t anything special or hard to get. They are just new books and sell well.
I think where is the best place to sell depends on what you sell. How much you have, how quickly you want to turn your inventory, and of course what you want to get for your merchandise, cost of overhead, supplies, time, energy and what sort of profits you want to see. Because I have got used to Half.com’s ways so to speak. I go for quantity of sales. I have come to grips with the fact prices go low there. When I do sell a book at a nice price, hay I’m happy. Like today I sold a remainder (new) book titled “Lies My Teacher Told Me” for $8.99 now that’s not bad for a book that cost me .61 cents.
posted on June 15, 2001 07:09:17 AM new
I guess it depends on what you sell because I am just the opposite to Kolonel22, I do far better at amazon and sell quite a bit more there, but I sell mostly Vintage, Rare, and Out of Print books. So it there a pattern emerging.
Half.com = Newer Books
Amazon = Out of Print, Vintage & Rare
Abe.Com = ?????
Now if I can only get a line on Abe
posted on June 15, 2001 08:39:13 AM new
One thing I am coming to appreciate about half.com: when it's sold, it's sold. I am currently holding 3 books that Amazon said had "a buyer" but I haven't gotten the "ship now" email. This is tedious. I've found that at times you just never hear anything and you are expected to re-list. I just don't enjoy the "left hanging" problem.
posted on June 18, 2001 07:01:15 AM new
I tend to like the Amazon deletion policy since as luck would have it, sometimes when they go about deleting listings that have reached the 30 day limit, you might be the only seller for a particular item!!! That would NEVER HAPPEN at Half.com!
In addition, my Amazon Marketplace VHS and DVD sales are outpacing my Half.com sales by a 4 to 1 clip over the past month. Every item is crosslisted on both venues. Amazon doesn't have much competition so my items tend to sell more frequently, whereas on Half my items won't sell unless they're the cheapest for a condition which they never are.
Higher selling prices mean higher fees for the selling venue, so why not?
