You
can save a bundle by buying and selling books, CDs, and DVDs online.
Two of the largest sites are half.com and Amazon.com.
The way the websites work is that people list their books, CDs,
etc. and s
tate the condition, other important features (cover missing,
pages dog eared, or highlighting on pages), and the price.
Buyers find the item they need and decide which one they want
– the brand new one or the used product.
The buyer clicks on the chosen one, pays by credit card and
waits for the item to arrive by mail.
The sellers pay a very modest fee, computed by the selling
price, for this service only when the product sells.
There
are differences between Half.com and Amazon.
When listing on Half.com, you reserve the right to remove the
object when you decide it isn’t
going to sell and not pay a penalty.
Amazon.com demands that you keep your item listed for 90 days
and only then will permit you to remove it without paying the fee.
I learned this the
hard way, when I took down a book that had sold elsewhere.
I no longer sell on Amazon for this reason – stuff happens:
coffee spills, books fall and get wrinkled, puppies chew on anything.
Half.com
also gives you the ability to edit your sales products without any
financial penalty. I’ve
had some books listed for over a year and then lowered the price. On
others, I’ve simply deleted them because they weren’t salable
after a long time.
Both
entities have dispute resolution available to resolve problems when
buyers or sellers are unhappy with the transaction.
In August 2005, I bought a textbook on Half.com.
After the last date the book was to have been delivered and in
my hands, the seller mailed it to me.
However, I had given up on the deadbeat seller and purchased
the same textbook from someone else because I needed it for a class.
Unfortunately, the first seller chose to ignore my purchase,
emails and phone calls. My
complaint, filed according the Half.com’s dispute process, went
unanswered and the mechanism prevented
follow up on your complaint. I
ended up “eating” the first book I purchased because I trusted
Half.com to resolve my dispute and they failed me by doing nothing.
Three months after the purchase, I realized Half.com had
abandoned me and it was too late to complain to the credit card
company.
This
past fall, I bought a book on Half.com and once again had a dead beat
seller. This time I
contacted my credit card company immediately and they refused to pay.
Immediately I received an email from Half.com threatening me
that if I went outside their dispute mechanism, I could be banned from
buying or selling on Half.com. I
called my credit card company to reverse the charges.
The credit card company told me this situation happens
frequently and if I wasn’t given my refund shortly by Half.com to
call back and they would. Half.com
did get my refund within a reasonable time.
Half.com is now owned by Ebay.
I
have not had any purchase problems with Amazon.com.
The
biggest problem of purchasing online is that of receipt of the goods
you buy. I’ve had
purchases arrive within a couple of days and others that languished in
the mail for weeks. Hint
– books shipped by media mail from Hawaii take 4-6 weeks to arrive.
Overall, the quality of the books, CDs, VHS and DVDs I’ve
ordered have exceeded the stated condition and I’ve been extremely
pleased.
There
are other websites and other ways to acquire media, but most are
either not well visited so the selection is very limited or else the
process of buying or selling is complicated.
