posted on July 18, 2001 04:36:12 PM new
I hate changes. I hate them, I hate them….. Ever since Half.com partnered with Abe.com and went from 15 million listings to 50 million my sales have been way down. I mean downright pitiful. I have relied on Half.com for some time now and it has afforded me a very comfortable living. I have an inventory of over 3,701 books listed and normally sales are pretty brisk. Usually by this point in time I would have made several hundreds of dollars I am standing at $80.00 right now. This is from the period of July 15 – today. I guess with the merger of Abe.com that means a lot more competition and fewer sales in my pocket.
I listed some books today on grababargin.com a new site for book buying & selling but I’ll have to see if they draw the traffic Half.com did. I have tried Amazon in the past and didn’t do well with the types of books I am accustomed to selling which are your everyday authors like: Grisham, King, Steel, Higgins, Clancy, etc.
I sure hope Half.com hasn’t been ruined for some of us smaller book sellers. Seems there are several big boys on there now with thousands and thousands of books listed, They are on Abe.com, Half.com and I even noticed a few on the new grababargin.com
posted on July 18, 2001 04:57:26 PM new
dear colonel,
sorry to hear your sales is down.
yes the big guys are on amzn and half.com and their own websites.
but economy is poor also,and it affect everything outside food and medicine.
food is not immune either,we can always trade down from t-bone to ground chuck.
also those who see lacklustre sales in collectibles and antiques heard all about booksales and have been throwing every book they can find on these sites,along with old dvd,video etc/
the entire cyberlandscape is just glutted with too much supply in a spiralling down,down and down economy.
but here is the good news,if i may qualify it as good news,abe,com dealers are not used to giving their books away,especially those overseas who have american books to sell.
so may be as they give us competition,they also are sharing their customers with us,think of it that way!!!
posted on July 18, 2001 05:01:28 PM new
I've noticed a decline in half.com for some time. True I only have a couple of hundred books listed, but I just stopped making sales on half. I moved over to Amazon with much better results. While it costs more to sell there, at least they are selling (And I have noticed at least for the books I am selling, prices are better on Amazon)
posted on July 18, 2001 08:32:40 PM new
HELLO KOLONEL22,
I'VE BEEN SELLING ON HALF SINCE SEPTEMBER OF LAST YEAR. I HAVE FOUND IT VERY NECESSARY TO GO THROUGH AND CHECK MY PRICING ABOUT EVERY 60 DAYS. I LIST ABOUT THE SAME QUANTITY OF BOOKS AS YOU. THE LAST TIME I WENT THROUGH THIS EXERCISE I STILL HAD TO LOWER PRICES BUT WAS SURPRISED TO ACTUALLY BE ABLE TO RAISE QUITE A FEW AS WELL. THIS WEEKEND WAS SLOW BUT TODAY WAS ACTUALLY THE BEST DAY I'VE HAD IN AWHILE(36 BOOKS)ON HALF.
I ALSO SELL THROUGH ABE AND DON'T SEE THE COMPETITION CONCERN. I BASICALLY SELL ALL BOOKS $20.00 & UNDER ON HALF AND ALL BOOKS OVER $20.00 ARE LISTED ON ABE WITH A FEW LISTED ON EBAY.
THE PRICE COMPETITION IS NOT COMING FROM ABE DEALERS BUT FROM THE MANY SELLERS WITH 50-100 BOOKS TO SELL WHO DON'T LOOK AT HALF AS A BUSINESS BUT AS EXTRA POCKET CHANGE.
posted on July 18, 2001 08:43:58 PM new
I can't explain it, but my half.com sales are also totally down, but the same books, listed in both places, are selling on Amazon.
I'm not really interested in ANY new sites unless I feel they have some name recognition. Amazon has it better than anyone, and as long as I can list for a high enough price, I'll be content with them.
posted on July 18, 2001 09:05:50 PM new
so many people have heard books sell better at amzn,soon amzn will be glutted if not already glutted,so it could be time to exit to where???
ebay???
posted on July 18, 2001 09:46:49 PM new
I think the cost of listing Amazon will at least keep those lowballers out of the arena. I am always happy to buy a .75 book , but I will not sell anything on half.com that would net me less than at least a couple of dollars. In fact, these days if I can't make at least 5.00 I take the book to the used book store for trade in order to get credit for scarce items that I can sell on EBay.<P>Not Canistota on EBay.
posted on July 19, 2001 12:26:26 AM new
I don't think half.com can be affected by ABE yet. ABE says they are just starting beta testing. I saw one book from ABEBOOKS and checked their feedback. They have one single feedback of a "1". This was about midnight Wednesday 7/18/01. Looking at books on ABE I am seeing a lot more ISBN numbers. But it'll take a while for everyone to put them on. And how the descriptions and condition rating will work - I can't guess.
posted on July 19, 2001 01:49:35 AM new
do not get so nervous .it's summer and a lot of people are on vacation. in addition every tax payer will be getting a few buck s back from the IRS this should help.Bush rebate is coming. Also here is point. I have about 2800 books on amazon,half com and abe. Yesterday I went to a shelf of books that wsa old. I took out a pile that were previousely listed. I found that some of my prices were cut badly, I lowered some.I switched some from half to amazon and some from amazon to half. Some got raises as well. And some book sI took off the market and threw them out.In addition, I found about 10% were not even listed at all.They probably fell off the internet somehow.Don't give up, keep buying books a flea markets,garage sales and auctions. Keep listing. In Sept you will get a benefit. Competition always increases because everyone is a little piggy. Especially the ebay people.I do not think ABE will have a great effect on half com. Think of half com as your clearance center.your bulk basic books goes to Amzon. and if you have old or rare books try ABE. Its a clean sweep that way and you can list every book. In addition, if you get a group of low value books rather than throw them away group them on a box lot sale and take them to sell on Ebay. All of this will increase efficiency and make you more money. I have been in retail both in a brick and mortar situation and on thr internet and I have learned that we all look for excuses why business is bad but the bottom line is that you must keep plowing through, push, grind and list. Never give up. look for solutions to problems rather than dwelling on the neagtive. It is hard emotionally but that is the only way to go. thats the way we live here in the USA
posted on July 19, 2001 04:23:30 AM new
it is summer everything on the net slows down. IN August it slows down to an almost still for some people. Some sellers even take August off.
posted on July 19, 2001 04:53:39 AM new
retrolink: hooray, well-said. I think it's helpful to share selling experiences - it isn't just dwelling on the negative - but once the problem is identified it's time to try new things, adjust what you are doing, and generally keep on problem-solving.
So far I personally haven't entered the hallowed halls of those booksellers who trade in priceless rarities all the time, so I do find the "secret" [which isn't a secret] is to just keep on listing. Remove the dead wood as needed, but never stop scrounging for new books to list. Books sell constantly, I think it's one of the strongest possible fields to work in.
I'm also looking at those ebay listing fees as a cost of doing business just like buying shipping supplies, and I'm listing as much as I can manage, without worrying too much about auctions that close unsold. If my sell-through rate collapses, I'll have to re-think, but so far the majority does sell, so the more I list, the more I make.
posted on July 19, 2001 06:13:16 AM new
My sales on half are starting to pick up finally. I am not intimidated by the big guys because they tend to have higher prices which supports all the energy they need to list the same thing in half dozen different places and most don't seem interested in having the highest level of service.
posted on July 19, 2001 06:24:03 AM new
but amzn marketplace is becoming glutted too,i see sellers willing to sell a good book for 6.95 which used to go for 15-20 dollars.
it is okay to list 75 cents paperback on amzn as the cut is the same,so is the shipping allowance.
but i would raise the price to over a dollar.
posted on July 19, 2001 10:40:21 AM new
Half.com makes me nuts. That site is SOOOOOO slow I take naps between page loads. It's always been like this, not just since the merger.
It takes me 30 minutes to go through my wish list, with a couple of crashes, pre-order list is just as bad.
I hardly ever go there because of the time it takes me to get things done.
---and I'm on Cable connection, I can't imagine what dial-up is doing.
posted on July 19, 2001 06:33:18 PM new
Picked up slightly after doing 50% + firesale markdowns on the remaining inventory. And that last 8 buck direct deposit check from halfass.com saved me an overdraft! Woohoo! I can't wait to sell even more $25 new books for $2.99 and then get those wonderful 4.0 "It's not as new as I expected, and more than I usually pay" one-way lying feedbacks.
posted on July 19, 2001 06:44:17 PM new
My sales on Half have remained pretty steady, but mostly videos lately. I'm amazed at some of the prices they've been selling for there too, often 2 - 3 times as much as I could have gotten on ebay.
posted on August 8, 2001 12:54:43 PM new
we started listing books on bargainandhaggle about a month ago - just a dozen or so... so far we've done alright...so we keep listing a few more books daily there...
, but I will not sell anything on half.com that would net me less than at least a couple of dollars. In fact, these days if I can't make at least 5.00 I take the book to the used book store for trade in order to get credit for scarce items that I can sell on EBay.<P>Not Canistota on EBay.