Don't understand this Half.com seller.

[disneysteve]

I've noticed that there is one seller on Half.com who always has a sky high price compared to all the others. He has a very high feedback rating but I can't imagine why anyone would buy from him. When I was listing a book today, used copies were selling for $3.50, new copies for a little more, his copy was listed for over $50.00. And I've noticed his name on numerous other listings with similarly outrageous prices. What's up with that?

[creditcardfree]

Maybe it is some sort of drug deal. I don't know....just seems like he can't actually be selling the book at that price unless all others lower were sold out.

[disneysteve]

Here's an example:
Half.com / Books / Diabetic Meals in 30 Minutes-or Less!

Prices range from $4.25 (me) to $6.67. bwibooks is charging $43.32!

[SnoopyCool]

Does he sell signed copies of books?

[SnoopyCool]

Does the site automatically calculate your Media Mail shipping? If so... Awesome! That was the worst part of selling on eBay, IMO.

[disneysteve]

Does he sell signed copies of books?

Not that I can see. His descriptions don't say anything special. And we're not talking about popular books from famous authors. This is a diabetic cookbook put out by the ADA.

Does the site automatically calculate your Media Mail shipping? If so... Awesome! That was the worst part of selling on eBay, IMO.

Half.com pays sellers a pre-determined shipping amount per item. Sometimes it is a little less than actual shipping. Other times it is more than actual shipping so it balances out.

[MiikeB]

I could easily seeing this being a system to filter money from stolen credit cards.

Person 1 gets stolen credit card > Buys book from half.com seller for a price that is high, but still is plausible as to give him some deniability should person 1 get caught > 2 split the money

[disneysteve]

That's an interesting thought. I can't see how it could possibly be legitimate. Really, why would anyone pay $43 for a book when the highest competitor is less than $7?

[sweeps]

I assume bwibook is BWI Book Wholesalers... a division of Follett. True, they have a feedback rating of 68000, but that's going back 6 years. They probably get sales because (a) their high rating makes people comfortable to buy from them, (b) if they're backed by Follett they will likely be selling books that other people won't have, and (c) buyers can be dumb.

[disneysteve]

I assume bwibook is BWI Book Wholesalers... a division of Follett. True, they have a feedback rating of 68000, but that's going back 6 years. They probably get sales because (a) their high rating makes people comfortable to buy from them, (b) if they're backed by Follett they will likely be selling books that other people won't have, and (c) buyers can be dumb.

Point (c) would have to be overwhelmingly true for point (a) to work. The prices they are charging are often many times more than cover price on the books. For the link I posted, which is a brand new book, cover price is $11.95. Are there really people so incredibly dumb that they'd go to a discount web site and buy the same book for $43.00? Why not just go to Amazon and buy it there? I just checked. They have it for $9.56.

[simpletron]

it might just be a typo. I don't know how you enter the price on half. if the price was suppose to be 4.32, but they just double hit the three to get 43.32.

[sweeps]

Steve: True, but they didn't always have to be so expensive. They could've earned their first 50000 sales at cut-rate prices. I guess my point is that it's very unlikely there's any money laundering going on here.

I just randomly checked several books on half.com. bwibook was listed as a seller on every one of them (sometimes multiple times with different conditions: Like New, Very Good, etc.). It's probably just the mass exposure that gets them sales.

Simpletron: Not a typo. They're consistently near or at the highest price of all sellers.

[sweeps]

Another possible reason: Faster shipping?

Here is a random book I clicked on: Half.com / Books / The Book of Matthew (bwibook's "very good" book is 4 times the price of the "brand new" book. Wow!) But notice bwibook is the only one offering expedited shipping. I guess if people are desperate to get the book fast and money is no object, they'll choose bwibook.

[disneysteve]

Here is a random book I clicked on: Half.com / Books / The Book of Matthew (bwibook's "very good" book is 4 times the price of the "brand new" book. Wow!) But notice bwibook is the only one offering expedited shipping. I guess if people are desperate to get the book fast and money is no object, they'll choose bwibook.

They are charging $58.91 for that book. That does not include the shipping cost.

Amazon sells the same book for $11.86. Surely, you can get 2-day shipping from Amazon for a lot less than $47.00. Heck, if you live in the area, I'll drive it to your house for that price.

[Cylenchar]

They are hoping that people will see their price, see everyone elses and assume that the others are selling it low because it isn't in as good condition or something similiar. It's underhanded, but smart, they have to sell only one book to make what everyone else needs to sell 5 to equal.