OFF: Farvergflungen merchandise

[Paul Mather]

On Fri, 20 Apr 2001, K Henderson wrote:

=> Hey, I just discovered there's another thing within Ebay that sells items at
=> a fixed price (as opposed to auctioning), and there's copies of these three
=> available also, for about $7-9.
=>
=> It's called www.half.com (can be searched through regular Ebay) - I'd never
=> seen that before today.  Shows how observant *I* am.
=>
=> I assume it works the same way as 'Buy It Now' in Ebay...in fact, seems
=> rather redundant, dudn't it?

Half.com was a separate company until eBay wisely acquired it.
Half.com predates "buy it now," and is slightly different.  "Buy it now"
can be used on any auction item; half.com lists only items that bear a
UPC code.  With half.com, sellers can list used items at a price at
which they're prepared to sell them, with the proviso that---and here's
the big clue to the name---it is at *least* half the UPC list price.
So, in a sense, sellers on half.com are overtly bidding against
themselves in a way, unlike regular eBay auctions in which the bidders
compete.  Also, "buy it now" can only be used before an item receives
any bids, which can be a hassle if someone puts in a minimum bid,
meaning you have to wait out the auction until it expires. :-(

The advantage of half.com is you can buy something immediately, without
having to wait several days for an auction to end, and even then maybe
frustratingly get sniped out of an item right in the last seconds.  I
think that's what motivated the addition of "buy it now," in part.
(The other, bigger motivation being the increased turnover in auctions
for eBay by them completing faster.)  You might be able to get items for
cheaper on eBay; I don't remember if a study showed higher average
completed auction prices to be higher on eBay than on half.com, though.

Cheers,

Paul.

e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

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