Half.com expands to list used electronics.
April 25, 2001 10:35 PM   Subscribe

Half.com expands to list used electronics. The site (owned by EBay) now allows sellers to list used electronics, computers, sporting goods, and trading cards, but receiving a defective or damaged computer will prove to be much harder to rectify with Customer Service than receiving a scratched CD or DVD. Not to mention the postage cost...
posted by nyukid (4 comments total)
 
.. not to mention the provenance of used electronics. Granted that there probably won't be too many boosted stereos on the site to begin with, but I think a general policy against buying used electronics (especially car stereos) is a good one.
posted by argybarg at 10:49 PM on April 25, 2001


Half.com works with books, CDs, and videos because it's ordinarily hard to find someone who wants to sell a used copy of an item you want to buy. It is not even slightly difficult to find used computers or electronics, especially since you are generally not as picky about what particular model of computer or stereo you buy as you are about getting a specific bit of media. In other words, I don't think Half.com really offers you anything compelling for buying or selling these types of items. I don't buy enough sporting goods to know for sure whether that market will work out, but it seems kinda marginal to me. Selling trading cards? You'd never offer a valuable one at half price, therefore the only ones listed for sale will be ones nobody wants anyway. I think they're spending a good chunk of money to expand into markets where their business model just doesn't make much sense. It's good to see that the market downturn hasn't stopped companies from making dim-witted decisions like these.
posted by kindall at 10:59 PM on April 25, 2001


Half.com doesn't require that your items be used, or be no more than half price. These days it's pretty much just a fixed-price eBay. Indeed, a number of the products on their front computers page are brand new, and the prices are ~retail.
posted by aaron at 7:09 AM on April 26, 2001


Eek. Then it's far worse than I thought.
posted by kindall at 12:14 PM on April 26, 2001


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