Offering Books, CDs, and DVDs on
Half.com
As if there weren't enough selling options already, eBay also
owns a site called Half.com (half.ebay.com). Half.com lets anyone sell certain types of
merchandise in a fixed-price format. List your items for sale, wait for someone
to buy them, and then collect the money. In this respect Half.com works a lot
like the Amazon Marketplacewhich belies Half.com's original intent to become an
Amazon competitor.
As you can see in Figure
26.5, Half.com specializes in specific types of merchandise: books, CDs,
DVDs, videotapes, video games, and game systems. Listing these items is easy;
all you have to do is enter the item's UPC or ISBN codes and then describe the
item's condition. eBay groups all like items together, with available sellers
listed for the buyer to choose from.
Listing on Half.com
Unlike eBay Express, you have to explicitly list your items on
Half.com; they're not automatically plucked from the eBay fixed-price listing
database. To sell on Half.com, click the Sell Your Stuff link at the top of the
page. When the Sell Your Items on Half.com page appears, as shown in Figure 26.6, you can click a category link
for your item or enter the item's UPC, ISBN, or model number in the Quick Sell
box and click the Continue button. When you've entered the appropriate
identifying information, Half.com then inserts pre-filled item information from
a massive product database. (It's the same database that feeds eBay's prefilled
information in the same categories.)
Half.com doesn't
charge any listing fees, but you do have to pay the site a commission when an
item sells. Table 26.1 lists the
current Half.com commission rates.
Table 26.1. Half.com Commission Rates
|
Selling Price |
Commission |
|
<$50.00 |
15% |
|
$50.01-$100.00 |
12.5% |
|
$100.01-$250.00 |
10% |
|
$250.01-$500.00 |
7.5% |
|
>$500.00 |
5% |
Instead of a buyer paying you directly, Half.com collects the
payment as part of the checkout process. The site sends you your payment every
two weeks, typically via direct deposit to your bank account.
Shopping at Half.com
When a customer searches for a specific item on Half.com, the
site returns a list of all the sellers who have that item for sale, like the one
in Figure 26.7. The list is sorted into
new and used items, with the used items further sorted by conditionlike new,
very good, good, acceptable, and so on. To make a purchase, the customer simply
clicks the Buy button.
As with eBay Express, Half.com buyers can purchase items from
multiple sellers and have all their purchases consolidated into a single
shopping cart and checkout, as shown in Figure 26.8. The buyer makes a single payment to complete
the checkout; individual sellers are then notified of their respective
sales.
Is Half.com for You?
If you sell the types of media-related items that Half.com
specializes in, you should give the site a spin. Many sellers like to use
Half.com for those products that have market demand but won't necessarily sell
in the normal seven-day auction period. Just remember, you have to list your
inventory separately for Half.comunlike with the eBay, eBay Stores, or eBay
Express sites.
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