Play it Safe: A Guide to Buying and Selling on Half.com

Half.com is a great place to find a bargain, especially if you're a starving college student. Many students are able to obtain quality textbooks at a fraction of their original cost. Even better, these same students can sell that same textbook on Half.com once they're done with it. Thus, the cycle continues. The profit made from selling a textbook on Half.com is certainly more than the average student would make by selling it back to their university's bookstore. Personally, I used this strategy to obtain and sell the vast majority of my college textbooks. It was during my college career that I gained some valuable insight into the inner workings of Half.com. The community is thriving; by and large, most of the people you will encounter on the site are great.

Let me start with some advice for a potential Half.com seller. If you have sold an item on Half.com, wait until the buyer's payment has cleared before shipping the item. This may seem pretty obvious, but I've had some acquaintances get scammed by fraudulent buyers because they jumped the gun and shipped the item before their funds were secured. Personally, I will only accept PayPal when selling an item on Half.com. If you choose to do so, you can also accept a check or a money order. However, you'll need to bear in mind that the selling process will take longer if you accept these methods of payment. Not only will you need to wait for the funds to be mailed to you, but you will have to wait for the check to clear your bank. Money orders are a bit safer in this aspect. Typically, a check will take about 5 days to clear at your local bank or financial institution; if in doubt, contact them for more information on the process. It's always best to advise a potential buyer of the wait time prior to the transaction.