posted on October 15, 2001 05:08:53 PM
I've noticed that many sellers choose to list their paperbacks under hardcover even when there is a paperback category for the particular book.
A few of my searches today showed paperback books listed as hardcover. But they are close to half the price of the lowest hardcover and usually a few dollars more than the going paperback rate.
Only once in my 500+ listings on half have I come across a paperback that had the same ISBN as the hardcover book on half. In which case I did list and sell it under the hardcover and stated "paperback" in the description. But IF there was a paperback of this book on half I would've listed it under such.
Perhaps these half sellers just aren't keeping up with their category listings when half has the paperback listed? All of the sellers that I've noticed doing this have rather low listed inventory so it wouldn't be difficult for them to update, if that's the case.
What do you think? I know I'd be very peeved if I wanted and put the hb edition on my pre-order buying and ended up with a softcover.
It would be nice if half had a means for cleaning up some of their listings!
posted on October 15, 2001 06:50:55 PM
I hate it when sellers do that!!! I understand their reasoning - their (paperback) listing is so much cheaper than the (hardback) listing, they often get a buyer who's just interested in reading it to buy from them instead.
I don't have as many problems with a hardcover being listed under a paperback listing. But I would prefer if everyone would put their listings in the correct category.
posted on October 15, 2001 07:06:50 PM
One of the reasons this happens is because Half has a real crummy search engine and or bad title/authors. Can you blame a seller for wanting to list a book that has a correct title and author? Half has completely dropped the ball on bad listings and I suspect it will get much worse in the reduced staff in California. This is crippling enough for serious sellers, but the poor search engine and slow servers make it absurd to prep a listing in a reasonable length of time. I simply do not have a half hour to rummage through Half to do so for a book that might sell for five dollars or less.
Keep in mind that most buyers on Half want a book cheap. You have to price the book out first, than list it. Then you have to periodically go back in and see who has lowballed your listings by a nickel just to get a sale.
The real reason some Halfers put their softcover books in the hardback section is to get a better rate to ship the book--dishonest but understandable.
posted on October 15, 2001 07:09:40 PM
I am curious how do you choose which edition you are listing? I have noticed on a few of mine, when I put the isbn # in they have come back under the wrong one. I cancelled the ones I caught. Is there another way of putting books in the proper category?
When your at the end of your rope:
Tie a knot and hang on!
posted on October 15, 2001 07:14:41 PM
there is another reason some seller do it. The buyer is charged more for shipping for the hardback and the sellers gets a little more reimburstment for shipping them as hardbacks even though they are paperbacks. The automatic system doesn't know.
I know some sellers who if they can list them all in hardback even if they are paperback for that reason.
posted on October 16, 2001 01:13:37 PM
connorscorner; this has happened to me recently. I had a 2001 edition which supposedly had the same ISBN as the 1999 edition. Since the ISBN was the same and there were no other editions on half I listed it and put the year edition in the description. It sold quickly!
I have noticed that other sellers have done this as well. Mostly they have the older edition and list it with the newer ed. because there's no other place to put it. I'm not sure I would do it though. I wouldn't want someone getting cranky w/me because they didn't READ the comments on the book.
