Zazzie
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posted on October 28, 2001 03:35:26 PM new
Did you know that the regular booksellers on HALF.com are subsidizing booksellers from ABE.com who have signed up for the Half.com program via ABE.???
When an ABE.com bookseller signs up for the Half.com program they are advised that they will get 100% of the price they have listed the book at ABE. Half.com then increases the amount (I don't know by how much)
They also receive $3.50 to ship one book via Media mail--$1.00 for each additional.
They get $5.82 to ship Priority Mail and $1.75 for each additional-----even though the buyer still pays the amount of $2.99 for Media Mail of Hardcover books and $2.30 for Paperbacks/CDs---and the seller gets only a part of that.-----the buyer pays $4.55 for Priority.
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Zazzie
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posted on October 28, 2001 05:59:05 PM new
They'll probably have the same deal with Yahoo Warehouse---they are beta testing with them right now
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mballai
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posted on October 28, 2001 06:44:24 PM new
ABE stuff is necessarily higher priced--while I would not be surpised if it sells to people who need and want they have to offer, most buyers will pick a Half seller who doesn't pad their prices. Some of their prices are higher than new on used currently in print books.
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fonze
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posted on October 28, 2001 06:50:34 PM new
Hi.
How can I finde this ABE? What do the initials stand for. Thanks.
Mel
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mickeymouse2
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posted on October 28, 2001 06:53:51 PM new
b& m retailers ,books or non books are finding cyber going tough !!
abe booksellers will find out half,com is not going to help them move their high priced books!!
we are nimble and we are quick,we do the nimbo every day.
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Zazzie
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posted on October 28, 2001 07:16:12 PM new
If you look at the feedback for abebooks on Half.com (of which there is more than 2000)---and they have made over 2500+ sales.......most of the people think 'abebooks' is just a single entity rather than 100's of booksellers selling under one name. Feedback on Half left in about 1/4 of the sales--so the actual sales are more like 10,000
So---someone is buying the books
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imme
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posted on October 28, 2001 07:40:37 PM new
www.abebooks.com
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Zazzie
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posted on October 28, 2001 08:18:26 PM new
Okay---Sherlock Holmes at work here.
I found the same book title/ as it is listed at Abe.com and as it is listed at Half.com.
I picked a low priced book. At ABE.com it is selling at 80¢ and the bookseller charges $2.60 for media mail shipping.
The same book(and I mean the same book--identical description) has been increased in price on Half.com to $3.27 and the buyer would be paying $2.30 for Media Mail shipping
BUT--the seller would receive $3.50 for shipping Media Mail from Half.com and would still get his 80¢ for the book as listed at ABE
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mballai
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posted on October 28, 2001 08:30:04 PM new
I suppose there are some people who think that a seller like ABE gets a good housekeeping seal of approval by reputation. And there are some books that they might have which others do not--that's their bread and butter. I'm still not impressed--their overall rating is not so good and their response time is poor--one day is slooow. I doubt people will pay more for that if someone gives them a choice.
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Zazzie
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posted on October 28, 2001 08:33:23 PM new
mballi---see even you talk about them like all the books come from one place. They don't---most buyers think the same thing that 'abebooks' is a one BIG seller rather than hundreds of sellers.
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Zazzie
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posted on October 28, 2001 08:41:59 PM new
I'm sort of on a vendetta here--so please forgive me if I go on and on.
The rating that 'Abebooks' at Half.com is something else that pisses me off. This Half.com bookselling program at ABEbooks.com is only available to the USA booksellers---while hundreds of the booksellers at ABE come from all over the world....and the bad feedback that some of the booksellers at Half have gotten can only reflect badly on ABE as a whole.
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mballai
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posted on October 28, 2001 08:58:23 PM new
I am aware of ABE's structure. Most buyer's never will be. One crummy experience on Half, ABE, eBay or Amazon and many never return to those sites.
A buyer who purchases from ABE is taking a crapshoot that the seller he gets is a good one. Most are, but obviously some are not. If I were to buy on ABE's site, maybe there is some recourse, but on Half there's much less. I'd NEVER buy from ABE on HALF.
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bidsbids
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posted on October 28, 2001 09:13:33 PM new
The 10,000 sold books total sounds like a lot but you have to remember there is somethig like at least 20 million books in their network of sellers.
When abe ( www.abe.com or www.abebooks.com ) joined Half the total number of listed items on Half's home page jumped from 10 million items to 50 million items.
When eBay folds Half's listings into their own listings soon it should be interesting to see if any sweetheart deals survive the transition.
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Zazzie
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posted on October 28, 2001 09:19:21 PM new
10,000 is just a guess....it could be many more than that.
Maybe the immenient demise of the sweetheart deal is one of the reasons that ABE is setting up shop over at Yahoo.
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keziak
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posted on October 29, 2001 04:14:38 AM new
I notice we don't hear much about the pending merger of eBay and half.com. As a bookseller this move is a source of concern or at least interest to me. I wonder if ABE will end up with its own "store" in eBay stores?
keziak
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nowwhat
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posted on October 29, 2001 04:25:39 AM new
Allibris is even worse than ABE. I bought something from an Allibris seller because I had it on pre-order. Never would have done that had I known who the seller was. They cancelled the order and then the book showed up weeks later.
By the way when Allibris first started on Half.com they received very negative feedback, surprise, surprise. Now the interesting part is that I left negative feedback and when I went back to look at Allibris feedback later my feedback was gone. I left it again and again it was removed. I did this 3 times until they finally left it. I contacted Half about it and never received a response. So I think some of these large sellers may be getting special treatment regarding feedback also. I know they have lots of negs but from my own experience I can tell you they don't all stick. Now they may have just done that in the beginning so that they didn't look quite so bad. I'm not sure, but something was definitely fishy. I think I'm going to remove my books from Half soon because I'm having better results elsewhere.
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GreedBay
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posted on October 29, 2001 05:19:02 AM new
I've been an ABE bookseller since the day they opened their doors, which was before eBay or any other online auction venue existed in its current form. The vast majority of people do NOT understand how ABE works. It's NOT a crapshoot, the record of ABE booksellers speaks for itself, even though there's no "feedback forum". The vast majority of negs ABE's received on Half are caused by the fact that Half management didn't make Half customers aware of what every fixed-price website, every department store on the Web, and every mail order house AND THEIR CUSTOMERS know and take entirely for granted. The items listed on Half through ABE are SUBJECT TO PRIOR SALE, which means that even if a seller on ABE would update their sometimes-thousands of listings daily, the updates go through servers that don't do it instantly and sometimes take days or more to do so. These books are listed on ABE's core site, and probably in at least 2 or 3 other programs that ABE runs including Barnes & Noble's. This is the way fixed-price venues have been operating since time immemorial. If it's sold, it ain't there, and if Half.com doesn't have the wherewithal to understand that and convey the simple concept that an order placed there has to have its availability confirmed, that's Half's problem.
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nowwhat
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posted on October 29, 2001 05:28:44 AM new
greedbay ~ Not having a book because it has been sold is one thing but not informing the customer that it's sold is another. Not confirming orders and waiting for Half.com to cancel is what I have a problem with.
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mballai
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posted on October 29, 2001 07:33:19 AM new
It's precisely the extra layers of management that make this untenable and as far as I'm concerned, why I would not bother with them. Transacting businesss requires the shortest possible cycle time.
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GreedBay
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posted on October 29, 2001 07:46:35 AM new
Nowwhat-
With all due respect, let me tell you how the system works, and in the vast majority of cases it has NOTHING to do with "not telling" a customer something.
ABE has an agreement with Half. In the agreement, all books listed a certain way by participating dealers (ISBN, etc.) will be uploaded to Half. When an ABE dealer gets a Half order, they are notified through ABE's system. They confirm the order, or cancel it. Then on the next email batch, that confirmation or cancellation goes to Half.
This isn't instantaneous, and in some cases, it can take days. This is what the companies agreed to, this is what happens. There is never any way for a dealer to contact the customer directly, just as there isn't on a Half order that goes through their site.
This doesn't happen with direct ABE orders to booksellers, because ABE dealers are supplied with contact information when they receive the order, and contact the customer DIRECTLY, which of course, Half PREVENTS someone from doing. Mballai may be right about layers of cyberpaper, and anyone knowing about that who doesn't want to wait could justifiably not want to deal with ABE through Half, but this is neither the dealers' faults, or ABE's.
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wowwow85
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posted on October 29, 2001 07:49:41 AM new
there are different sellers here-those who dabble in cybersales from home,full time or part time;those who have brick and mortar shops and would like to increase sales via internet and those who close their brick and mortar shops and now 100% online.
many sellers list their items on multiple websites and neglect to update /remove the item when sold or missing or damaged ,so it is not just a server problem .
many cases are just negligence.
amzn expects sellers to have inventory on hand and ship within 2 days of notice.
yahoo let the shop confirm sales after order is received.
if abe.com sellers now sell on abe.com,half.com,and yahoo warehouse,they will have to be more diligent in updating their inventory.
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nowwhat
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posted on October 29, 2001 09:09:11 AM new
greedbay ~ I don't see how this is not ABE's fault if they agree to a system which does not work for them. Customer service is obviously not utmost in anyone's mind.
What should a customer do? Let's say I'm looking for a book and find one on Half.com that's listed by an ABE seller. I place the order and several days later it is cancelled by Half. Do I now have to wait around for several weeks just in case the book shows up or am I allowed to try to find the book elsewhere without worrying about ending up with two copies. I do not think ABE or Allibris should be selling on Half.com. But that's just my opinion.
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mysticalrose
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posted on October 29, 2001 09:29:46 AM new
<b>nowwhat</b> You wrote: "I think I'm going to remove my books from Half soon because I'm having better results elsewhere" Just curious; where is "elsewhere"?
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GreedBay
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posted on October 29, 2001 09:43:52 AM new
---greedbay ~ I don't see how this is not ABE's fault if they agree to a system which does not work for them. Customer service is obviously not utmost in anyone's mind. ---
I guess you didn't get my point. eBay/Half.com recruited ABE in yet another attempt to dominate the fixed price arena. If the system doesn't work for them, it's an offshoot of Half's system not working, but one step removed. Half.com's customer service is an absolute JOKE, and on top of it, Half prevents any direct communication between seller and customer. If they didn't, this system could and would work MUCH better, as would Half. I'm noone's cheerleader, but I'll tell you from having been with ABE for many years, neither ebay nor Half can TOUCH their customer service.
---What should a customer do? Let's say I'm looking for a book and find one on Half.com that's listed by an ABE seller. I place the order and several days later it is cancelled by Half. Do I now have to wait around for several weeks just in case the book shows up or am I allowed to try to find the book elsewhere without worrying about ending up with two copies. I do not think ABE or Allibris should be selling on Half.com. But that's just my opinion.---
Easy answer to the first question. Bypass Half, and look DIRECTLY on ABE. I think you'll find that you'll be very satisfied with the aspects that didn't satisfy you when you looked at ABE's books on Half.
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Zazzie
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posted on October 29, 2001 10:00:09 AM new
I have also been an ABE bookseller for many years. Started with them almost the day they opened the door.
I keep getting angrier and angrier at them for getting into all these different bookselling programs that increases the price of the books to the customer and impedes the customer/bookseller relationship.
ABE should be spending their resources getting people to find ABE---not spending it getting them to find the books elsewhere.
Plus the fact that ABE (a Canadian Company) though the booksellers are from around the world---is developing all these programs for the exclusive use of their USA booksellers.
[ edited by Zazzie on Oct 29, 2001 10:03 AM ]
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nowwhat
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posted on October 29, 2001 10:20:40 AM new
greedbay ~ When I gave my example I wasn't speaking for myself. I would never buy a book from ABE on Half.com because the price is marked up too much and because of the aforementioned problems. The only way it could happen would be through a pre-order sale, which as I mentioned previously happened to me with Allibris.
Unfortunately most people do not understand that not all Half.com sellers are individuals. I have no problem with the ABE site just with some of their recent ventures.
mysticalrose ~ I was talking about Amazon. Very easy listing like at half.com.
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GreedBay
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posted on October 29, 2001 10:33:39 AM new
Zazzie-
Which ABE programs are you referring to? The only one they've added a surcharge to is the Barnes & Noble program, it's B&N that raises the price on their site.
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Zazzie
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posted on October 29, 2001 10:41:25 AM new
The B&N surcharge doesn't bother me/ ----the point I'm making that instead of ABE spending it's resources to get customers to come directly to ABE and buying from the booksellers--they seem to doing everything to get customers to go elsewhere where they will have no direct contact with the actual bookseller until the book arrives. .
All these programs they join up increases the price of the books to the customers---and in the case of the HALF.com program makes it appear that ABE has riduculously high priced books ----and bad feedback. This can only reflect all of ABE's booksellers---not just the USA sellers that have access to the Half.com program and soon the Yahoo Warehouse program
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wowwow85
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posted on October 29, 2001 10:41:47 AM new
zazzie said,
ABE should be spending their resources getting people to find ABE---not spending it getting them to find the books elsewhere.
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i agree,abe.com is a big site ,intl in scope.
it should let the buyers come to their site instead of goung thru half.com
but then many big discount booksellers sell on amzn marketplace paying amzn 15% commish,why??
it is just very hard to drive traffic to your site,there are just a few sites which have most of the traffic-ebay,amzn and yahoo
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GreedBay
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posted on October 29, 2001 11:13:57 AM new
Zazzie-
You have a point, but there doesn't seem to be many ways that ABE can actually grow and compete if they don't try to expand into other existing markets. I thought Half was a HUGE mistake for them (even though I'm in the program), because Half's way of doing business is horrid, and IMHO we're about to see some of those horrid principles incorporated into ebay, as they change direction, integrate Half, and look to dominate the fixed-price market, checkout, Bilkpoint, and all.
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