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Half.com NOT closing


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Dear Seller,

In our last announcement earlier this summer, we said that Half.com would be closing on October 14, 2004. We have decided not to go forward with this plan and will keep Half.com open indefinitely.

Over the last year and a half, our efforts to prepare for a consolidated marketplace for Books, Movies, Music and Video Games on eBay have helped many Half.com sellers transition to eBay, especially during this past back-to-school season. Many of you have reported being successful on eBay while growing your overall sales by selling on both platforms. This has contributed to the biggest back-to-school season ever experienced on eBay. However, with all the growth in the Books, Movies, Music and Video Games categories on eBay, we have not seen a corresponding drop in business on Half.com. In fact, loyalty to Half.com has remained strong as we witnessed yet another outstanding back-to-school season on Half.com. The buying and selling activities of the eBay and Half.com communities have proven that the Books, Movies, Music and Video Games marketplace can be more vibrant with both Half.com and eBay.

We have heard from many of you that you want the Half.com site to remain open and to have the option to sell on both platforms. Your input, as well as the data and experience we have gained during the transition efforts, are the basis for our decision to keep Half.com open. There will be no substantive changes to Half.com in the foreseeable future. We encourage you to sell on both Half.com and eBay to maximize your sales, as many of you have already done throughout the transition period. Going forward, we will invest in both platforms and allow sellers and buyers the flexibility to benefit from the unique opportunities they each allow.

If you have further questions, please read our Frequently Asked Questions page or attend one of the following live interactive Q&A sessions with eBay and Half.com executives:

? Thursday, September 30 @ 10:00am PT -- REGISTER

? Tuesday, October 5 @ 4:00pm PT -- REGISTER

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As a buyer (I've never sold anything on eBay, or half.com), but as a buyer -- I'm glad to hear half.com isn't going away. I've bought lots of stuff there.

What did eBay have in mind to replace it?? More "Buy It Now" auctions??

What was their business model supposed to be, meanin post-"half.com going away" (which isnt' gonna happen now, of course).

Just curious...

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My impression was that they were trying to push people to open up Ebay "stores" where you can have buy it now items and so forth. I have sold on half.com, actually more items than I have sold on ebay. I feel it is a little lower pressure, and a good place for items that are going to stay on the shelf for a while, as it were. I think it took four months for my copy of the Pet Shop Boys Greatest Hits to sell (insert joke here), and the probability that I would have kept relisting it on ebay would have been 0.

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My impression was that they were trying to push people to open up Ebay "stores" where you can have buy it now items and so forth. I have sold on half.com, actually more items than I have sold on ebay. I feel it is a little lower pressure, and a good place for items that are going to stay on the shelf for a while, as it were. I think it took four months for my copy of the Pet Shop Boys Greatest Hits to sell (insert joke here), and the probability that I would have kept relisting it on ebay would have been 0.

Did it actually sell significantly higher than you would have gotten from your local used CD store?

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My impression was that they were trying to push people to open up Ebay "stores" where you can have buy it now items and so forth. I have sold on half.com, actually more items than I have sold on ebay. I feel it is a little lower pressure, and a good place for items that are going to stay on the shelf for a while, as it were. I think it took four months for my copy of the Pet Shop Boys Greatest Hits to sell (insert joke here), and the probability that I would have kept relisting it on ebay would have been 0.

It's my guess that this was a silent, unorganized revolt by Half.com sellers. Ebay not only wanted to fold Half.com into ebay, but also wanted to start charging a monthly listing fee to be one of their corny little "stores". People who list a couple dozen books or CDs or DVDs on half.com--probably a majority of the sellers there--said "hell with this".

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My impression was that they were trying to push people to open up Ebay "stores" where you can have buy it now items and so forth.  I have sold on half.com, actually more items than I have sold on ebay.  I feel it is a little lower pressure, and a good place for items that are going to stay on the shelf for a while, as it were.  I think it took four months for my copy of the Pet Shop Boys Greatest Hits to sell (insert joke here), and the probability that I would have kept relisting it on ebay would have been 0.

Did it actually sell significantly higher than you would have gotten from your local used CD store?

Funny you should ask!

I actually sold a whole bunch of Pet Shop Boys CD's on half.com for an average of $10/pop!!! Who the hell knows, maybe there's a bunch of people who are equally fanatical about them, or maybe they were out of print...one man's trash...but I was thrilled to get rid of them that way!

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helped many Half.com sellers transition to eBay

Good news, agreed, but dammit, "transition" is NOT a verb!!! <_<

EDIT: Sorry I blew up. :)

I agree, but...

It is now... :(

intr.v. tran·si·tioned, tran·si·tion·ing, tran·si·tions

To make a transition.

Sports. To change from defense to offense or offense to defense.

See dictionary.com entry

(edited to correct url)

Edited by Peter Johnson
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Did it actually sell significantly higher than you would have gotten from your local used CD store?

The good stuff I offer here first, then to the local record store, and then half.com.

The record store wouldn't even have looked at that disc I sold, so it was infinitely higher than I could have gotten there. ^_^

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