I love half.com. It’s my new best friend, seriously.

Mark and I had 11 text books to sell from last semester and I decided to go with this little brother of ebay to go about business. I don’t know if you guys have any experience with the original ebay.com, but trying to get something online for people to buy can appear tricky. What shipping to offer customers? How much should I charge? How can I catch the customer’s eye and accurately describe the product? (okay, that doesn’t sound bad, but trust me, it can be a confusing task with many options to chose from for a newbie). And, they get you with the little fees. And, you can only have an item up for about a week and either it sells in that time, or it doesn’t.

Well, what I like about half.com is that it takes all that guess work out. It’s made for just media type things (books, CD’s, movies, video games, etc.) to sell/buy at reduced prices. It’s really great for buying textbooks (that’s all we’ve bought/sold so far, haven’t tried the other categories of products) at lower prices, because university stores are ridiculous. With 11 books, it took me hardly any time to get our items listed. I was able to tell them the exact product (what edition/cover/author/everything!) with just entering the ISBN number (therefore, saving time), entered the quality of the book, described the book (like, if it had markings), and listed the price. Click. Done.

What I really liked? Instead of the guessing of what I should list it for, it gave me a recommended price based on what other people had/are listing it for so that I could list it competitively, but fairly. It was usually spot on, too. And, what I really like? No bidding. I like that I can buy a book at ebay prices without sitting at the computer for an hour fighting over an item. And what I really, really like? It doesn’t have a time limit. It stays up until it sells, or until I take it down. And, no listing fees. It just takes a very small percentage out after a sale is made (like, two dollars).

Within just a few hours? I’ve already sold 2 books. Score.

Of course, the extra cash will go right back into buying new text books. School starts for Mark on Wednesday, and myself on Thursday. Ugh. I’m not ready for vacation to be over.