Half.com
offers students cheaper textbook choices
By
Jean Augustin
Daily Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
Fifty-six percent of students have avoided buying textbooks because of the
cost, according to an August 2005 survey of college students ages 19 to 25
by survey.com.
According to the same survey, almost 70 percent of students say that they are
responsible for paying for their textbooks and close to 75 percent of students
work either full or part-time during the school year, yet nearly 65 percent
still consider themselves to be “financially breaking even” or “flat
broke.”
Fortunately students have cheaper alternatives than the campus bookstore, such
as Web sites like Half.com. This fixed priced Web site was bought by eBay in
2000, who has integrated it into eBay so the site can now use it’s auction
platform and other features such as rating the sellers.
According to Amanda Boury of Kaplow Communications, the PR company for eBay, “Enough
textbooks sell on Half.com in a year to place a book on every seat of every
division 1-A and 1-AA college football stadium in the U.S.”
This site continues to grow, much to the benefit of college students, despite
a story published March 6, 2003 on CNET new.com that eBay contemplated shutting
it down in 2003 because of problems integrating the two Web sites.
Half.com makes buying and selling textbooks online easy, because students can
search by ISBN and the site will provide the rest of the information. Buyers
can pay safely with credit or debit cards, and their information is encrypted
and never shown to the seller.
Half.com has a simple step-by-step process for listing books. It helps the
seller determine the condition of the textbook through a rating system, and
also helps sellers decide on the best and most competitive price.
If a buyer cannot find the item they are looking for, they have the option
of wish-listing it. This means Half.com will notify the buyer when the item
becomes available.
Buying textbooks on Half.com is free, but the site does charge a fee for selling
books through their site, starting at 15 percent for items under $50, and reduces
the percentage with higher amount of sales. |
