I'm wondering which one is a better service and cheaper to buy from. Typically, we've used Amazon to buy books. We've been able to find many books for cents on the dollar. The other day, I had a friend who told me about half.com. It's ran by eBay, and you can not only buy books, but rent them as well. I'm curious if someone that's used both services has an opinion on which one is better? I don't know that I find renting to be an attractive option. You can go to your local library and rent a book for free. Any thoughts or opinions?
I prefer Amazon. Half.com is a nice idea, but I don't think it's very viable and seen as Amazon has been around longer my money goes to them. As you said, you can pick up some fantastic deals on any given day as well!
I believe when buying online it's always good to play safe. Half.com may claim to offer better deals but then as yet they have no track record so while they try to build a reputation, I'd stick with Amazon.
I agree with the previous posts. I feel better spending my money at Amazon because they have a better reputation since they have been around longer; half.com is relatively new, so I will have to wait awhile before I buy anything from them.
When we're talking about 1 cent books, I guess I don't care about "seller ratings." I've had equal success with both cites. Half.com has been the cheaper option on more obscure books. Amazon tends to have higher shipping costs, so a 1 cent book is a minimum of $4 with shipping, when most people know how cheap it is to ship media mail, but whatever. Amazon tends to have a much broader selection of everything, but half seems like it had better selection on text books when I needed them. I've never sold on Half.com, but done tons of selling on Amazon. They take a high commission, but you can't really beat the number of people who will see your item if they are looking for it.
I usually buy my books off Amazon because that's the only online store I would shop at. Amazon provides excellent customer support, and people do know what they're doing by answering your questions. The return policy of Amazon is alright, although I don't usually return books I have purchased online. One thing I like about Amazon is that it offer reasonable prices on most of the books I want.
You might be able to use bigwords.com, and they'll look up for you which site has the cheapest price for that particular book. The site's meant for textbooks, but the search engine should be able to work for any book with an ISBN.
I've never used half. com. The concept seems ok but they don't have a lot of books that I am sometimes looking for. Amazon inspite of it's somewhat high shipping costs is still fairly cheap and much more reliable.
