Imagine spending $100-$200 dollars on a textbook. If you’re taking 5 classes that can easily be more than $1000 a semester. You use it during the semester taking care to keep it in good condition. At the end of the semester you bring your textbooks to the bookstore, you think you might be able to get a fair price on it, but when you get there you discover that they’ll only pay you about $20 for the book, sometimes less. Worse they may say that they are not buying back that edition. And they won’t give you anything. Imagine a few semester of that, it can really add up. Wouldn’t it be great if you could sell your textbooks for no less than half of what you paid? Well you can! Imagine selling that same textbook online to someone somewhere else who does need that edition and is willing to pay a fair price on it. They pay the shipping all you do is package it and ship. www.Half.com offers a quick and simple way to get as much money back from your textbooks as possible. Half.com is an affiliate of eBay and holds its members to strict rules similar to the famous auction site. The differences are found in the ease of use, the restrictions on content (more on that later), and prices are fixed. Another minor difference is that half.com doesn’t utilize PayPal so you will need to confirm a bank account before you can sell.
Registering for Half.com
If you already have an eBay account then you’re all set. Login in using that information. If you don’t, just register for the site by filling in the necessary information. You are required to link your bank account, but that is so they can pay you. I’ve never heard of anyone experiencing unauthorized withdrawals on their account. Once you’re registered you can start listing right away!
Listing items
The best part if Half.com is that it costs nothing to start up, a small commission is charged once you’re item sells, unlike eBay which charges you a listing price. Half.com only allows you to sell media; this includes VHS, DVD, and CD’s, Games for computers and consoles, and books. All you have to do is select the sell my stuff icon on the top of the webpage then enter the author, ISBN, or title of book/movie/etc into the search field. Follow the easy steps to complete the form, it asks for a condition and description. Check the help section for specific criteria for labeling an items condition accurately. Then select the price you want to list it for and select list my item. That it. You can also use the search field to find your item and edition and click on it to bring up the items listing, you can then click in the top left of the screen where it says “sell my copy.” And follow the steps above to complete the form
Selling items
Once an item sells you are automatically emailed and you have five business days to mail the item. The majority of the items are to be shipped media mail, but you can give customers the option to get express mail (at their expense.) Media mail generally takes anywhere from one to two weeks so it can be beneficial for you to have the option of faster delivery. I wrap my items in brown paper and make sure to tape it tightly closed. Include a packing label, easily printed from the site and use your address as the return address. When you go to the post office ask for media mail, or whatever is cheapest. Most heavy items will go media mail but DVD’s can go priority for cheaper and if you’re selling a high volume of items you can make a few extra bucks from excess shipping. The customer also receives the item faster so everyone wins.
When I first found half.com I spent 3 days listing over 300 items within two months I sold over $750 in items. Recently my sales have dropped significantly because I’m running out of items to sell. I’ve also noticed that people buy most in January and August the months before school starts. Half.com is a great place to sell your textbooks, books, DVD’s or games. And in this economy it’s also a great place to save on those items.
