Half.com beats the heck out of buying and selling at college bookstores
Written: Mar 11 '07
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Half.com is the sister site to Ebay. The listings are for used and new books and recordings. The site offers sellers a chance to sell their items at a fixed price set by them and the buyers a chance to buy items the same way. The fixed price is a difference between them and Ebay, where many item are in auctions. Another difference is the fact that Half charges buyers directly through their chosen matter of payment and pays sellers through bank transfer. It’s not like Ebay where the sellers can set payment methods and the buyers can choose among them. Yet one more difference is that the shipping prices are fixed by Half.
Well, what makes this review different from the hundreds out there?
I will discuss how you can use Half.com to increase the money you receive for used textbooks and reduce the money you pay for textbooks required for school texts.
My son had a forgettable college career. Throughout, we used the school bookstores to buy books because of convenience. I was noticing that the books were outrageously expensive and the used books were only slightly less expensive. In fact, during his last term at our in-district community college, the books cost more than the tuition. Then, when the books were to be sold back, the stores don’t pay a whole lot for used books, maybe 20 – 25 cents on the dollar. If the bookstores wouldn’t buy them, I could wait for an appearance by a national bookselling service that would pay maybe 10 – 15 cents on the dollar. This was frustrating, as was my son’s penchant to drop courses after the deadline to return books.
So, after once again getting hosed at the bookstore during his second to last term, I looked at the books the store wouldn’t buy and I decided to try Half.com and Amazon.com. I was amazed! There were listings available for most of the books I had. Some of the sellers were pricing fairly close to where the bookstore were. There was still plenty of margin between most of the higher priced sellers and the used price from the college bookstore.
I decided that I wanted to cash out ASAP, so I set the prices comfortably under the higher priced sellers. Maybe I gave up a few bucks, but nearly all the books sold right away.
For the next term, I still bought many of his books at the bookstore because of the convenience. However, I was able to save some money on a book the store was stocked out of. Then, when he dropped his courses again, I was able to recoup much of the prices because the books were in like new condition.
In order to buy books correctly, you do need to be careful. First, you need the correct edition of the book and to make sure everything is intact. You can buy with confidence from Half.com if the seller has a good feedback rating (lots of ratings with a percentage of 99.5% or better). Then, check out the costs and make your purchase.
Of course, some professors prepare custom note, lecture and article packets that have to be bought from a bookstore. Still, hardcover and paperback texts are popular, particularly in introductory courses, and these can be bought and sold successfully on Half.com
For sellers, you might check with a school bookstore to see if a new edition of a particular book is coming out. If so, you might want to drop the price. Still, if a bookstore is willing to buy something back, there should be a decent market for the book.
Seller commissions on Half.com are high: 15% on sales up to $50, 12.5% from $50.01 to to $100, 10% on sales from $100.01 to $250. Still, even with these commissions, I was able to make a whole lot more money that I would selling them back to the college bookstore.
This has been such a popular idea that Half now offers a one-page guide on how to sell your textbook.
For me, the time I spent selling my son’s uses textbooks on Half.com was well worth it. I can recommend Half.com for buying and selling textbooks. Too bad I didn’t figure this out sooner.
I have also used half.com to list my CDs and books that I no longer want. I’ve also used them successfully as a source of books and audio books.
Pros: can sell higher and buy lower than the college bookstores
Cons: Must make sure you have the right edition; like Ebay, there are some ripoff artists
5 stars for me.
Thanks for reading. God bless!
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Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Selling college textbooks
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About the Author
Member: John Temmerman
Location: near Chicago, Illinois
Reviews written: 698
Trusted by: 349 members
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