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Half.com

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For the city formerly named Half.com, see Halfway, Oregon.
Half.com
Type of site
Online shopping
OwnereBay, Inc.
URLwww.half.com
CommercialYes
LaunchedApril 16, 1999; 25 years ago (1999-04-16)[1]

Half.com is a subsidiary of eBay, in which sellers offer items at fixed prices, usually items that have a UPC, ISBN or other kind of SKU, rather than rare, old or collectible items. The items available on half.com are limited to books, textbooks, music, movies, video games, and video game consoles.

There are no fees to list items on Half.com, but rather the company takes a commission of every completed sale. As of January 2009,[2] the commission is 15% if the fixed selling price is $50 or less, 12.5% if the price is more than $50 but less than $100.01, 10% if the price is more than $100 but less than $250.01, 7.5% if the price is more than $250 but less than $500.01, and 5% if the price is more than $500.

The seller is responsible for shipping any item within three business days of a sale and paying the actual shipping costs. A shipping and handling fee is added to the transaction and is (partially) credited to the seller as a reimbursement. The buyer can choose either USPS Media Mail or expedited delivery. Depending on the weight of the item, the reimbursement amount may often be less than the actual shipping costs. For example, the current shipping reimbursement for any DVD sent USPS Media Mail is $2.39. On the other hand, the reimbursement amount may exceed the actual shipping costs. In this case, many sellers will offer a "free upgrade" to first class shipping, which is not much more expensive than media mail for small items such as CDs.

Half.com was founded in 1999 by American entrepreneur Josh Kopelman (Infonautics, Turntide, Comcast Interactive Capital, First Round Capital) and Sunny Balijepalli (who more recently founded ZoomIn.com).[3] As an advertising gimmick, in December of the same year, the company paid the town of Halfway, Oregon US$100,000 and donated 20 new computers to change its name to "Half.com, Oregon" for a year.[4]

eBay purchased Half.com in 2000 for roughly $350 million,[5] integrating its user management system, buyer/seller feedback, and account information into eBay. Like its parent company, Half.com is not a retail site and has no physical stock or inventory. Rather, the site offers a place for individual sellers to list their items and potential buyers a central location in which to view them, offering both a standardized transaction and money exchange process. Unlike its parent, Half.com is not an auction site; sellers offer their wares at a bid price of their choosing. Like Amazon.com, Half.com plays a large role in the used textbook and CD markets. eBay planned to integrate Half.com into eBay and eventually close down Half.com.[6] Many of the features that made listing media items such as CDs & DVDs quick and easy have been integrated into eBay, but eBay have chosen to keep Half.com running separately primarily for the textbook market.

Half.com began accepting PayPal in January 2013, ten and a half years after eBay acquired PayPal.[7] Sellers are paid by pre-arranged deposits into a designated personal checking account.[2]

On November 17, 2016, it was announced that Half.com commission rates would increase significantly, with lower-priced item rates going from 15% to 25%. The rates go into effect on December 16, 2016, with the initial notification to sellers being sent out less than a month prior and right in the midst of the holiday shopping season. The move is being seen as an attempt by eBay to force the closure of Half.com in the near future.[8]

Sellers do the bidding

Half provides a platform where sellers competitively "bid" against one another, based on Universal Product Code. The seller can see the average sale price and most recent sale price for any particular item to determine the selling price desired. A potential buyer sees the available inventory for any particular item and can choose the seller. This is the opposite of eBay where buyers bid against one another. The Pre-order feature allows buyers to set a price and quality rating of a particular item they would like to buy. Sellers see the pre-order listed when they put an item up for sale and may sell it to the buyer if they agree with the buyer's price.

Features

  • The "quality rating" of an item (Brand New, Like New, Very Good, Good and Acceptable), is disclosed to buyers before order placement, along with a text description entered by the seller. These ratings indicate whether or not, in the case of a CD, for example the artwork/inserts will accompany the CD, a part of the product which is often missing on used CD web purchases elsewhere. The condition of the CD is also clearly described.
  • The feedback about each individual seller is disclosed before order placement, linking the eBay feedback system, which allows the buyer to choose their merchant.
  • Buyers can sort the search results of available CDs (Performer by Best Selling, Price, Alphabetical or Release Date).
  • CDs and many older video games can commonly be found at the entry level of US$0.75.
  • Standardized shipping prices across all merchants.

Customer Satisfaction

The following list provides a small sampling of customer satisfaction ratings for Half.com services as of May 2015:

  • Better Business Bureau: Rating 'F'; Scale: A+ to F (>200 complaints) [9]
  • Consumer Affairs: Rating 1; Scale: 1 to 5 (40 reviews) [10]
  • ContactHelp.com: Rating 2.5; Scale: 1 to 5 (184 votes) [11]
  • ResellerRatings.com: Rating 1.33; Scale: 1 to 10 (15 reviews) [12]
  • RipoffReport.com: no rating given (100 reports) [13]
  • SiteJabber.com: Rating 2.5; Scale: 1 to 5 (18 reviews) [14]
  • Viewpoints.com: Rating 3.5; Scale: 1 to 5 (66 reviews) [15]

References

  1. ^ "Half.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info - DomainTools". WHOIS. Retrieved 2016-07-19.
  2. ^ a b "Half.com Policies - Seller Payment & Commissions". Half.com Inc. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
  3. ^ Choudhury, Uttara (10 October 2007). "Millionaire created the best of Amazon, eBay". DNA (Daily News & Analysis). Diligent Media Corporation Ltd. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
  4. ^ "What Ever Happened to Half.com, Oregon?". Design Observer Observery. The Design Observer Group. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
  5. ^ "eBay Broadens Scope with Half.com Buy". E-Commerce Times. ECT News Network, Inc. 14 June 2000. Retrieved 22 February 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |authors= ignored (help)
  6. ^ Gilbert, Alorie (6 March 2003). "eBay to close Half.com". c|net. CBS Interactive Inc. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
  7. ^ Cohen, Brian (10 February 2013). "eBay's Half.com Begins Accepting PayPal". ecommercebytes.com. Steiner Associates LLC. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
  8. ^ Steiner, Ina (17 November 2016). "eBay Hikes Fees for Half.com Sellers up to 200 Percent". Steiner Associates LLC. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  9. ^ "BBB Business Review". Better Business Bureau. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  10. ^ "Half.com". ConsumerAffairs.com, Consumers Unified LLC. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  11. ^ "Half.com Customer Service". ContactHelp.com. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  12. ^ "Half.com (an eBay company)". ResellerRatings.com, an Answers company. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  13. ^ "Half.com". Ripoff Report. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  14. ^ "Half.com Reviews". SiteJabber.com, GGL Projects Inc. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  15. ^ "Half.ebay.com (formerly half.com) Reviews". Viewpoints. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
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