posted on September 5, 2002 11:33:17 PM new
I've been on half.com for a little under two weeks, listing the accumulation of books in the house and stored in boxes in the basement.
Right from the get-go I discovered the flaws in half.com's data baes. For example, I enter the ISBN for an oversize soft cover book and the half.com listing states the book is hard cover - or vice versa.
Or other parts of the listing are in error, such as the title, author, publisher, number of pages, etc.
Or the ISBN is not in their data base.
For the listings in error, customer service told me to send them an email and the errors will be corrected. I was told quite specifically not to enter a book unless the information matches exactly, in other words if I have a soft cover and the listing says hard cover, they don't want me to list the book and say this is soft cover, not hard cover.
For the ISBNs that are not in their data base, customer service told me to send them an email with the ISBN information and those listings would be added to the data base.
Here is my question. I now have two full boxes of real nice books, mostly hard cover in Very Good to Like New condition, and the ISBNs are not in the half.com data base. I sent customer service the information they need. Does anyone know how long it takes to get the ISBNs into the data base?
Customer service told me it takes three days.
The first requests I sent to customer service are over one week old and the ISBNs are still not in their system.
I am hoping someone knows how long the process takes, if my expectations should be two weeks, two months or never, not three days.
posted on September 6, 2002 12:24:57 AM new
Most people give upsending in ISBN's after the first batch is totally ignored. If there is no hardback version listed then list it in the paperback section but describe it as a hardback. The database is so messed up that a large percentage of the items now are in the wrong area. The other day my son wanted a music CD and a seller had listed pinback buttons of the band in the music cd section and they had been there for over 3 months. ( manowar is the group Triumph of Steel is the CD )
You can list the ISBN in the description if the book is different from the one listed. There use to to a stingy 20 or 30 character limit on the description but now there is all kinds of room plus you can upload an image. Some sellers are now putting a synopsis of the book in the description.
Half.com is really messed up and ebay will have to straighten it out but lacks the staffing to do so. Enjoy it before it self-destructs.
posted on September 6, 2002 05:50:18 AM new
Like tootimes said, list under a similar item and describe the differences in a note.
Also, search by author if the ISBN doesn't bring up the book. Sometimes half.com has the ISBN listed incorrectly.
The idea that half would put ISBNs in their database because a user sends in the information is a joke, and I don't know why they even pretend to do it. First, they are not about to spend money on a low return job like this. Second, no database manager is going to change data without independent confirmation from another source. Otherwise there is no guarantee that the user-submitted information is accurate.
posted on September 6, 2002 06:14:18 AM new
have you tried amzn,its data base is more complete and it will review and add new isbn not in its data base.
some foreign books even tho it may have isbn,is not included in the data base.
but to have boxes of books with good isbn not found on half data base is a bit too much,how do they serve the abe.com booksellers??
posted on September 6, 2002 07:57:59 AM new
Some good advice for you here, hotcupoftea. Try different ways to find it if the ISBN doesn't work. I have actually listed a hardback in the paperback ISBN section when necessary (and identified it as such) and vice versa, but the kicker is that the shipping allowance will be for the paperback, less $$.
I too doubt they'll change their database for you, unfortunately, but we would all love to hear if it actually works for you.
It's been frustrating not to be able to list recent books because of their database problems. I've considered Amazon but not ready to do that yet--too much new energy required to learn a new system. But it's coming soon, I'll bet, for me.
posted on September 6, 2002 08:28:18 AM new
we once found a book that had the wrong format listed. When we entered it (Stating it was a PB)the page the customer sees came up with a different title than the correct one that was on the page we got when we plugged in the ISBN & the picture was for a 3rd book! 3 errors for 1 title. Be Very carefull! It is up to you to varify ALL their info. If you sell a book & you missed their mistake, you are wrong in the customers eyes. If you list the book & forget to mention it is a PB or HC, Half.com will not back you up even if you have the record of having contacted them. And yes they never update the system. They claim they send the info to the publisher who corrects it within 2 updates (what the period between updates is they will not say), but we recently deleted a book we had up for 2 years & the mistake was still there.
posted on September 6, 2002 08:36:09 AM new
I recently listed a music CD at Amazon that was not in Half's database. I listed it at $6.95 and after I was done a note poped up that said if the item sold my fees were going to be $2.06 ( commission of $0.99 plus 15% of the sales price ). Sheesh
posted on September 6, 2002 09:32:07 AM new
Here is the email I received from customer service about not listing items if the data is incorrect:
++++++++++
Should you ever notice a error in our catalog, please reply to this
email with the ISBN in question and I'll get it fixed for you. Please do
not list items if our cataloged item does not match your item exactly,
as the shipping price is affected. Also, some buyers purchase items via
our pre-order feature, which buys items for them automatically when they
are listed, so the buyers never get to read the remarks you enter.
++++++++++++++++
And here is the email about getting ISBN info entered into the data base:
**********************
Thank you for taking the time to write me at Half.com Customer Support
in reference to ISBN 1-85170-952-5, which you would like to list on our
site.
I am sorry, however, if the item is not in our database, it may not be
listed until it is added. I will forward your information though to our
catalog team so that it may be added soon. You can expect to see the
item within 3 days.
Thank you for your patience. Also, I am sorry for the delay in
responding to your email, as our inbox has been overflowing with emails
recently.
*************************
Has anyone had anything added to the data base through this "catalog team?"
Some of the books I have, there are no equivalent titles in other versions or print dates listed. Some of the books, a paperback version only is listed, and if I list a large hard cover there, the shipping charges will be insufficient by a larger amount than typical.
For the most part, my sales on half.com are when there is an exact match, in that the book I listed fits the data base information accurately. If I take boxes of books and list them with different versions of the title with different ISBN numbers, I can just see them sitting there forever, unsold.
posted on September 6, 2002 09:45:43 AM new
I have been thinking of using half.com so this is a great thread I appriecate the input. How long do sales take? Is it really 15% fee??? may not be worth the trouble!
Thanks all
posted on September 6, 2002 10:59:36 AM new
Hi hair2dye4,
The 15% fee is worth it if you price the book accordingly. The process of listing, selling, packaging and shipping is fast. To me not having to take photos, write auction text and deal with customer correspondence makes the 15% worth it.
However I see many sellers who are paying to sell their books. It is odd and I haven't figured out why they are doing it. For example, you have a large heavy hard cover book to list and you know that the weight of the book exceeds the half.com shipping allowance by at least one dollar. Yet for that book there are sellers who have it listed for seventy-five cents, and state that the book is hard cover and is the same ISBN that you are holding in your hand. If you do the math, if the book sells there is seventy-five cents less the 15% fee (eleven cents.) The seller will receive sixty-four cents plus the shipping allowance from half.com However the book is large and heavy, costs one more dollar to ship than half.com gave the seller, so the seller is now at sixty-four cents minus one dollar, and is in the hole thirty-six cents. Now add the seller's time, use of paper and packaging materials, and the loss exceeds thirty-six cents. And if the seller purchased the book specifically to resell on half.com, ha, then the loss is even higher.
posted on September 6, 2002 11:01:37 AM new
Very, very few buyers pre-order any books and if they do they are looking for rare books at low prices.
The 'catalogue team' I believe is a seperate company that sells the databases ( and updates ) to companies like eBay's Half, Yahoo's Used Goods and Amazon.
Like some posters have suggested in this thread, try several ways to find the book in the database. Title, author, ISBN, subtitle, etc. Both ebay and Half have links that send you to each other's search results. If an item is not on Half it is an excellent candidate for eBay auction. Further research your book on sites like http://www.abe.com to see the relative value of the book before placing it on ebay auction.
And Good Luck.
P/S ... many of the sellers of heavy books at 75 cents are either unaware that they will lose money on the transaction or they are trying to build their feedback. It's worse at the similar Yahoo Used Goods site. There are seller's listing heavy books at .16 as there is no .75 minimum there.
[ edited by robertsmithson on Sep 6, 2002 11:07 AM ]
