Half.com: Millions of Items for Sale, at a Discounted Price
Written: Dec 27 '01 (Updated Oct 24 '06)
| Customer Service: |
 |
|
| Selection: |
 |
|
| On-Time Delivery: |
|
|
|
| Full Review |
Half.com is an on- line service that is an affiliate of Ebay, offering discounted prices and the opportunity to buy and sell used merchandise. Unlike Ebay, which auctions items to the highest bidder, Half.com offers sellers a price for their goods, and then lists them in the site for immediate purchase. There is no bidding necessary.
Types of Items Available:
Half.com has nine main categories of merchandise to buy and/or sell, and a tenth, miscellaneous category for everything else. The nine main categories are: books, music, movies, video games, computer software, electronics, sporting goods, trading cards, and toys.
Becoming a Member:
Items can be bought and sold in all the categories, but before you can get involved, you must first establish an account. To do this, you simply follow the link and enter your first and last name, e-mail address, and a Half.com member name and password. You must agree to the terms of the member agreement and click the box confirming that you agree with these terms, before you can complete your registration. It’s free to register, but membership is limited to people in the United States only. Also, keep in mind that you must be a registered member not only to sell items, but to buy items, too.
Selling Merchandise:
If you have some items that you would like to sell, you begin by clicking on the link that says “sell your stuff”. On the next screen, you click on the appropriate category for the item that you wish to sell. For example, let’s say that I wanted to sell my camcorder. I would first go to electronics, then I would select the sub- category for camcorders. A drop- down menu will then appear on the next screen, where I would then select the manufacturer of my camcorder and the model of my camcorder from the next drop- down menu. On the next screen, I would need to identify the condition of my camcorder (new, like new, very good, good, or acceptable) and type a brief note about the item. There’s also a place to upload a URL image of the item, so that potential buyers can see exactly what it looks like. You don’t have to upload an image, if you don’t want to, but it can help in some instances, depending on what you are trying to sell. Note: in order to continue at this point, you need to make sure that you have an account setup with Half.com. If you don’t, you will be required to establish an account, before you can continue.
With Half.com, you, the seller, get to decide what price to offer your item for. You need to be careful not to go too high, or the item will not sell. Also, remember that Half.com will take a percentage of your selling price (about 15 percent) as its commission.
Buying Merchandise:
Shopping for items to buy in Half.com is easy and fun. You just select a category, and then a sub- category (you can also search for a specific item of merchandise by entering the name of the item). The next screen will display a list of items, in groups of 25, listed in order of sales popularity. With each item, it will show you the list price, along with Half.com’s lowest price. If you want to check out more information on pricing, you just click on the item name, or on the price, and it will take you to another screen that shows the different condition categories; the prices for each; the seller; and possibly the seller’s rating (see below, for more information on this rating). The categories will display with the best- condition selections listed first, all the way down to the selections in the least- desirable condition.
Let’s say, for example, that I’m looking for a specific book on travel. I would begin by clicking the book link, then the travel category. Once I’m in the travel section, half.com will show the top sellers in groups of 25. If you want, you can narrow down your selection further by selecting another sub- category, like Mexico, for instance. You will still get the most popular books, in groups of 25, but it will be more narrowed- down.
When you select an item, you need to remember that the quoted price is the lowest one available. In other words, it means that the item for sale with the worst condition rating will likely be the one offered at the lowest price. If you want something in better condition, you will have to pay more money.
If you’re curious about the seller, you can click the user id, and find out information like the number of items that the seller has already sold, along with the number of orders, the average time to confirm a sale, and the shipping methods that the seller is willing to use (like Fed Express, Media Mail, Priority Mail, etc.). There is also a rating, for each seller, from 1 to 5. This rating indicates how reputable the seller is, and it’s based on what other buyers have experienced with that seller. The higher the rating, the more honest the seller is considered to be, by the Half.com community.
If you decide to buy an item, you just click the icon “buy now” and you will be taken to a subscreen that will show the contents of your shopping cart, along with the shipping charge for your selected method of receiving the package.
What if I Cannot Find What I Want?:
If the item you’re looking for is not available, you can add it to your wish list. Half.com will notify you when the item becomes available.
Paying for Your Order:
This service accepts four of the major credit cards: Mastercard, Visa, Discover, and American Express. It also will accept a debit card, provided that the card has one of these major credit card logos.
After your order has been placed, Half.com sends an alert to the seller who then has 48 hours to respond, to confirm the sale, and 24 hours to ship the selected item. When the seller has confirmed the sale, Half.com will send you an e-mail notification.
Final Thoughts:
Half.com is a very good service, with more than 100 million items currently for sale, including some hard- to - find items that may not even be sold anymore as new merchandise. It has tons of things to buy, and very good prices, too.
One thing that many people forget is that the name of this site, Half.com, is only a title. It doesn’t mean that everything you want to buy will be offered at half price. Some things will be offered at half- price, and often even less. But other items will not carry such a deep discount. If you’re looking for something that is currently popular, like a book on the best- seller list that’s only published in a hardcover version, then the discount price that you get might only be 10 or 20 percent off, not 50 percent. Also, you need to keep in mind that the quoted discount uses the list price of the item for its comparison. Usually, this list price is unrealistic because sites that sell items new almost always have a discount from the list price. For example, a new book with a list price of $25.00 will often be quoted in Amazon.com with a selling price of just $20.00. In order for Half.com to match this deal, the book would have to be offered for more than 20 percent off.
There is also no guarantee that the desired condition that you are looking for will be available for you to purchase. For example, you might have your mind set on buying a specific make and model of camera, in very good or better condition. But when you lookup the camera, it might only be available in good condition. You will either have to accept it in good condition, or check back in a few days and hope that another Half.com member offers to sell the same camera in better condition.
Shipping costs can really add up with this service, because each and every item that you buy will carry its own shipping charge of anywhere from $2.00 to $50.00 or more, in the case of a large item like a desktop computer. There is no reduction in shipping costs, from buying more items, because each piece of merchandise is shipped from a different place. Also, some of the less expensive items (like a used paperback book) could carry a shipping price that’s almost as much as the item itself.
When you add everything up, though, Half.com does give the consumer a pretty good deal. Even with the hefty shipping costs, most items will carry a significant discount from the cost of a comparable new item. Most all of the items for sale are very good in quality. You need to exercise a little more caution with electronics, computers, and things that are powered. But for items like books, sporting goods, trading cards, etc., the deals that Half.com offers are very good for what you get, and you can feel pretty confident that they will be in the stated condition.
If buying used merchandise doesn’t bother you, then you should consider adding Half.com to your list of browser favorites. You can purchase tons of things in this site, for a fraction of the cost of buying brand new.
Be Sure to Click the Links Below to Read More Reviews of Book- Related Web Sites:
Amazon.com
Barnes and Noble
Books- A- Million
Mystery Guild
Zooba
Doubleday Book Club
Amazon Marketplace
History Book Club
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Books
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2008 Shopping.com, Inc.