Wednesday, August 16, 2006
So is half.com a rip off for selling text books?
I thought it seemed pretty great until I sold a couple of case books. Both were requested to have expidited shipping (how do I turn this option off?). So I sent off a torts book and the shipping cost me $10.80. What?? Half.com only reimburses $5.40 for expedited hard binding books. So this seems like not so good of a deal. Am I missing something? How does everyone else sell their books?
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I've sold hundreds of books on half.com with no complaints...
You can change your shipping options under My Account/Seller Shipping Options
we listed my books on half for the first time this month. we had one little snafoo (or potential snaffoo) where we received an order on Sunday with a request for expedited shipping, and my SO took it to the Post Office the very next morning, and sent it priority. I don't remember how much it cost. But that night, Monday, we received an e-mail from the buyer all frantic that class was starting on WEDNESDAY and he needed it ASAP. My SO is a very highly rated seller, and we did sell my law books on his account, and now we're kind of nervous that this is going to be his first negative comment. But the buyer's expectations were a little insane. I mean, INSANE. Even with expedited, I think Half gives a seller 3 days to ship (i.e., take it to the post office!), instead of the usual 7. So, we didn't even HAVE TO mail it until after this person was in class!!
We're still selling, though.
Years ago, I had expedited shipping as an option. I turned it off once I sold a book for $10 that cost $14 to ship. Since I no longer allowed expedited shipping, I didn't have a problem....until today. I sold 3 books, and 2 were expedited, even though it wasn't an option. I looked in my shipping options, and sure enough, they had changed! I didn't change them. So now I have to pay to ship 2000-page hard-cover book (probably around $20), so that I can be reimbursed $5? If I cancel the sales, I'll receive negative feedback!
I also do not understand how my account started to changed to offer expedited shipping?? Sold a book for $8.50 and got $5.40 for expedited shipping. To ship Priority Mail would have been $14.50 for Priority Mail flat-rate box or $22 otherwise. 7lbs and zone 8
Great Deal for buyer -- Seller gets screwed!!
I will no longer sell on Half.com.
Half.com is just simply a rip off. I used it for three days, and I pretty much paid people to take books off of my hands. Half.com actually charges the buyer full shipping, and then keeps an actual chunk of the shipping charges, and underpays the seller. It's a huge scam. I don't understand why it has been allowed for so long. YES, they pocket shipping charges on top of commision. Why don't you actually go to purchase a book and see how much shipping you actually get charged? See for yourself. I was disappointed because I had a ton of books most places wouldn't buy back. I was excited to find half.com but later found out I was better off donating all my books. At least that was free for me.
Then again what do you expect from a company like ebay. The same company that pocketed millions on Hurricane Katrina donations conducted by non profit organizations through Pal Pal fees, and got away with it.
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