When you click the shipping discounts hyperlink it shows a reduced Media Mail on the second item. One of the flaws of Half is the fixed shipping costs because heavy books mean the seller has to factor a possible loss on the shipping reimbersment from Half into the price. Could get interesting.
With Half being phased in to regular ebay what impact will the free Half stores have on the regular ebay stores? Something seems out of whack here.
I see a trend of more and more sites offering free stores and shopping carts. Ioffer already does this.
posted on June 8, 2003 01:17:19 PM new
I remember they used to offer the shipping discount. This is a great idea, I do get questions for people asking for discounts on shipping, this is better than nothing
posted on June 8, 2003 01:51:49 PM new
If Half is going to be merged with Ebay, won't the seller have to pay for a store site? In other words, it won't be *free* anymore? There will be a charge for having your goods stored at their site.
posted on June 8, 2003 02:20:04 PM new
The Half.com free store let's ebay have some indirect control of the shipping amounts being paid. Ebay may prefer that to the fee avoidance high shipping charged by many sellers. It seems like there may end up being two versions of the ebay store, the one they have now and the new free Half stores.
The free Half stores will have more control by ebay but the traditional stores will be allowed to stay as well. I'm certain that ebay is planning the future merger like a chess master and is laying out all of the possible moves they can.
