Half.com

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Has anyone here ordered books from half.com? I was considering this to save some money. I was wondering if anyone had any problems. Thanks.

I love half.com and use them to buy all of my books. I always check sellers feedback first though. I also make sure to upgrade shipping and try to buy as early as possible so that I don't have to worry about books arriving after start of class.

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I have bought and sold books on Half.com with no problems at all.

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I buy everything through amazon, half.com, or ebay... they're the cheapest and i never had any problems. You can also go to yahoo and type in the ISBN number and you can compare prices at various venders selling the same book.

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I bought a book from Half.com on the 22nd of August (A Pathophysiology book) and I paid 93.00 for it. Yet, I haven't recieved the book. It says it has been shipped but I haven't recieved it as of yet. But, I will tell you that one bad seller out of the bunch is not going to discourage me from buying from Half.com, as it is a great place to buy your textbooks for cheap. So take one word of advice from me to you: PLEASE CHECK THE FEEDBACK FROM THE SELLER BEFORE BUYING THE BOOK. The seller I bought it from had just one feedback as he or she was a new seller. Now he or she has -8 rating and 8 negative feedbacks. I am now trying to get a refund, but even if that is not possible, I have learned a valuable lession.

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I have bought and resold all my books on Half.com. But, I decided not to chance it with my Nursing books plus we have three independent textbook bookstores that are very competivie and I could get the books there cheaper than Half.com. If you deicide to buy your book off the internet make sure you have the following:

Title

ALL Authors

Edition

Cost New/Used (to see what kind of deal you are getting)

ISBN - MOST IMPORTANT

Make sure you find out if you need the CD with the book because alot of book is that once you type in the code the CD is worthless. Hope this helps!

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i swear by half.com . if you have a problem you can get a refund

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Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.

I only use half.com. Someone mentioned Amazon but I have always found their prices through the roof. Anyway, let me give you an example, I had to get a US Gov book and it was something like $100 at our campus book store . I bought it off half.com for $4 then resold it at my campus bookstore for $50 when I was done...

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Cheri,

Try http://www.campusi.com They will locate the texbook in many different stores (even half and ebay) and give you a list starting with the cheapest place you can buy it. I buy most of my textbooks this way.

--Marci

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I've bought books from half.com many, many times. Here's the catch: I have never, ever had a text book transaction go smoothly. Though I'll continue to buy my cheap, personal reading books from half.com, I will never buy a text book from that site again.

Here's why: Text books cost a fortune (sorry, no surprise there), so thieves get a bigger bang. I've been ripped off several times by people who never shipped the text books (which they probably never had in the first place). When you're talking $100 books, you're talking a lot of money. These were sellers who ostensibly had "good feedback," probably because they were smart enough to sell a few cheap paperbacks before they got into the more lucrative line of phony text book ads. To Half.com's credit, I was given refunds without question -- these ripoff artists tend to strike groups of people, not lone patsies -- but my money was tied up for about two months in the meantime.

The other problem: Text books are often not as described. The "like new" text I received from a seller back in August looked like it had been through a washing machine, and there was so much highlighting that the pages practically glowed in the dark. Plus, the seller did not provide the expedited shipping that I had paid extra for. Yes, I got my money back. But the whole experience was highly annoying, especially since -- in order to get a text book in time for class -- I then had to shell out $108 for a new book at the university store.

Now in the interest of full disclosure, my brother and his wife have a booming text book business on half.com, and they get fantastic feedback. Not all merchants are bad, but you should look for feedback like theirs: They have positive comments from more than 600 buyers, so they're not a fly-by-night operation.

Caveat emptor!

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I've sold books on half.com several times so you are often dealing with individuals. Half.com's policies are pretty strict if you don't ship the book. One of the biggest hassles is that the standard shipping is media mail which can be a hit or miss. I shipped a textbook right away and it took over 3 weeks to arrive! The buyer contacted me and I followed up right away with the post office. Turns out, it just took forever to get there. Sellers should really get a confirmation # when they sell that they can send you.

Half.com also doesn't give much shipping allowance which can be a problem with textbooks. They "suggest" that you charge a little more to build the cost of the shipping into the textbook.

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Ebay or amazon is better. I've never purchased textbooks off of half.com But I have purchased them on ebay and amazon and have always had smooth transactions with no problems.

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i go to BooksPrice - Book Price Comparison - Compare Prices Before You Buy to compare the prices of the book. sometimes yahoo/google search will nto include stores like alibris, etc. that are offering a better price :)

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