posted on September 29, 2003 06:47:13 AM
Got a notice from half.com today, saying because of "improvements" some ISBNs will no longer be in their database. This will knock 10% of my listings off of half.com. What a joke! Amazon.com, here I come.
posted on September 29, 2003 09:14:40 AM
About 25% of my book listings are going to go away. These are hard-to-find books.
I bet ebay is getting ready to blend in the half items and also use the quick fill media listing format. Any obscure or hard to find items may be deleted.
That's one way to get rid of the seller's Half inventories.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
posted on September 29, 2003 02:25:39 PM
The ISBN numbers are on their list they are just doing away with them. Maybe there isn't enough info for their new 'quick fill Media listings'.
I've often wondered what ebay was going to do with the 40 million books on Half and part of the mystery is solved now as a big chuck of them will be jettisoned by ebay before they have to deal with intergrating them to the main site. I still have no idea what they plan to do with the remaining listings. Hope the sellers get an ebay store and list each book at 60 cents per year? Hope the sellers pay regular listing fees on the regular auctions?
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
posted on September 29, 2003 03:15:32 PM
if they integrate half books into ebay,it would not be fair for the regular ebay sellers who have to pay 30 cents plus for 7 days auction while half books get listed for free??
sounds like free lunch is over!
-sig file -------The thrill is gone!!
posted on September 29, 2003 03:16:22 PM
That the $64,000 question. What are they going to do? Are this going to kiss off the book listings the same way they kissed off all the sportscard listings about a year ago?
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
posted on September 29, 2003 03:22:32 PM
I sure hope that someone else picks up the baton that ebay is so greedily dropping, gobbeling up halfs inventory. I think there is a real need for a site like half.com. I have used half many times to find out of print and hard to find books, that were not located on ebay or amazon. As others have already pointed out no one is going to pay 60 cents a year per title on a nonsearchable format.
posted on September 29, 2003 03:23:56 PM
ebay is a publicly traded company and has to justify each business segment.
if that segment is not profitable or profitable enough,then it would have to go-either sold or scrapped.
you dont have to be albert einstein to do the math,ebay auction versus half.com.
i heard about this lawsuit thing,otherwise ebay can sell half,com to someone who is willing to work harder and make less and hope for the best.
i think there is enough room in cyberspace for 2 -amzn and half.
but then i wonder if half.com alone without ebay can pay the bills.
-sig file -------The thrill is gone!!
[ edited by stopwhining on Sep 29, 2003 03:24 PM ]
posted on September 29, 2003 05:21:52 PM
I am already preparing for the end of half - It really is too bad, because it has been really big business for me. I think overall, I will do okay with the transition, but really would rather half not go away. I've thought about this a lot, and here is my take:
A lot of the lower end stuff popular stuff will go for more, probably a lot more than 75 cents to $2 on ebay. Of course, it may not sell at all, and that is the problem.
A lot of the higher end stuff will sell, but not as much on ebay as half. Just yesterday I sold a children's video for $20 on half that probably would not go that high on ebay.
The unusual stuff can get listed on ebay, and may not sell. There are some decent $10 to $20 items I have that may take 6 months to sell. On half, that is fine, but on ebay, I can't keep listing week after week.
It's going to take a lot more time to list on ebay than on half - Half.com is really easy right now, ebay will just take more time.
My current model is to buy collections and inventories. I can easily handle the cheap stuff and list it, because it does not cost me anything to list on half, and the expensive stuff is where the money is. I really can't be listing $2 items on ebay, it is just not worth my time or money.
Amazon is one possibility. I used to list a lot more on the site, and this week I purchased a classical music CD collection (that did not list on half) and I decided to list on amazon. Things have been selling pretty well, better than I expected. Of course, I don't know how regular stuff will sell. The $1 commission rules out the cheap stuff. What to do with that stuff? I might just have to lot it out on ebay, or garage sale.
My hope is that another company comes in to fill this niche, which I think would be great...
posted on September 29, 2003 05:26:24 PMAs others have already pointed out no one is going to pay 60 cents a year per title on a nonsearchable format.
It's searchable ( at least two different methods ) but it takes some extra looking to find the special ebay stores search methods ( advanced search in regular search engine and this url ) http://tinyurl.com/oinn
Stopwhinning makes some good points about profitability and facing the stockholders with poor business segments. Ebay had no problem getting rid of the low value sportscards segment. I think Half should have raised the minimum list price a long time ago from the 75 cent minimum. What 15% of 75 cents? ( plus their bonus of the s/h difference they charge the buyer and pay the seller ) They should have raised the minimum price to at least $2.50 a long time ago.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
posted on September 29, 2003 05:32:54 PM
on amzn board,the issue why someone list a book for one penny has been discussed to death.
some folks really really want to get rid of their books,some make money on shipping and some are just darn lonely they want to get some non spam emails.
amzn does not care if you list your book for a penny,they get 15% of one penny,bozo jeff always said LOSING MONEY IS GLORIOUS.
-sig file -------The thrill is gone!!
posted on September 30, 2003 08:40:07 PM
Maybe as stopwhining says, half.com is not profitable enough. However, we will just have to take his word for it, because THERE ARE NO FINANCIALS FOR HALF.COM in ebay's annual report. Business segments, even Paypal, have no sales or earnings specified. Wonder why?
I'm not getting mad at ebay's treatment of half.com, I'm just getting even -- Hello, Amazon. Screw ebay. It's getting harder to make decent money over there, anyway.
posted on September 30, 2003 10:39:40 PM
I just got a notice one the books I put on there back in April has sold!! But its been so long since I've even bothered with half.com , I dont even remember what ID I created for the stupid account!! Guess I better go figure out whats what.
posted on October 1, 2003 06:17:49 AM
ahc3,
99 cents is transaction fee ,15% is commish on amzn marketplace.
it could be quite a shocker if seller does not price in that 15% commish.
-sig file -------The thrill is gone!!
posted on October 1, 2003 11:05:49 AM
I've always posted my books on eBay. What were the advantages of posting on Half.com or Amazon? Larger audience, lower listing fees?
posted on October 1, 2003 11:46:45 AM
no listing fee and no renewal of listings of any kind, plus ebay/Half collected the payments and reimbursed the sellers for s/h. Totally care-free selling. In Half's heyday it was a GREAT place to sell, now it stinks as most books have migrated to the 75 cents to $3 level and the rarer books are being forced off the site.
-------------- sig file ----------- *There is no conclusive evidence that life is serious*
posted on October 1, 2003 12:33:12 PM
Ebay is good ole American monopoly in action, meaning less choice and more expense for consumers. First they take over half.com and make it disappear. Then they take over PP and " encourage" users to use it exclusively or get less money (no rebate). What's next?
I think I will write Pres. Bush to alert him to this monopolistic behemoth. He's on the side of the little guy, right? He wouldn't let the big corporation take advantage, would he?
