Still loving Half.com

[disneysteve]

Ouch...i offered expedited shipping on a book and ended up spending $8.90 for priority mail, when the reimbursment was only $5.something. I am now not offering expedited shipping. I should have thrown the book into a Priority Mail flat rate box.

A flat rate box is $9.80 so that wouldn't have helped. A flat rate envelope is $4.80 so that might have worked if the book fit.

I ship all books Media Mail. It never occurred to me to send them any other way. The only exception is when I sell collectible books on ebay but then the buyer is paying the full cost for Prioirity Shipping and insurance.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I was able to use media mail!
I am wondering why the post office has such drastically separate charges between media mail and parcel post. The same item going to the same place is $2.50 through media mail, or $6.00 through parcel post? Why such a big discrepency when there is no change of service?

I don't know why that came to be, but I've always been fond of it. I think of it as our country saying that what is in books is so important to us that we want to facilitate them being passed from person to person across the country. That is probably a little romantic of me.

We used to buy and sell quite a few books when my kid was homeschooled. We made use of media rate mail. It used to be called book rate, but was expanded to include more modern ways of recording. Unbound material is not included in media rate. So, notebook style binders of material can't be sent that way, nor packages of of printed notecards, flashcards, or even spiral wirebound material, says my post office clerk.

[cptacek]

Thanks for clearing that up, poundwise. My advice to everyone is to print your postage at home. It is free and easy.

Yes, thanks, poundwise!

[gamecock43]

I just sold another book on half.com! That's 6 books in 4 days! Only 13 left to go! I will love the look of my clean neat bookshelves once I get moved into my new home in 2 weeks!

[disneysteve]

I just sold another book on half.com! That's 6 books in 4 days!

That's great! I've really been shocked by how quickly things can move on half.com.

[cash330]

I used to sell all my textbooks on Amazon.com through Merchants and just tried Half.com this past semester. I liked it a lot better. I got a larger cut through Half.com (they take 15% for books costing up to $50 and 12.5% for books from $50 to $100 which is usually what I sell at) and they were usually selling higher. I also bought books cheaper.

I've always loved selling my books online. I've heard other students in my class getting as low as 10% to 30% of the purchase price back when selling back to the school bookstore where I can often get up to 80% back. That is a huge difference when it comes to a textbook costing from $100 to $150.

I always ship media mail. I think it's cheaper because it supposedly takes longer and they are less cautious with books. I always go to the Post office because it's easier and it's only 3 minutes from my house.

I just sold a DVD christmas gift from a White Elephant for $4 (after shipping). I think bad Christmas gifts that I can sell are much better than those I can regift because I actually get some cash out of it!

[cptacek]

I just sold two books. "He's just not that into you" and "The 5 love languages". Yes, I did have romance problems in the past.

It's only $3 for one, and $1 for another, but I'll probably make some money on the postage because "he's just not that into you" is a hardback but very small.

I'm not going to update the totals until I buy the postage...post office was closed by the time I wrapped them up. (I'll print the postage next time, but my printer is out of ink right now).

[disneysteve]

I just sold two books.

Great. I listed another item tonite and I was just about to check on 2 more to see what they are going for. I also reduced the price on a previously listed item by 4 cents to make it the cheapest one.