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EX-LIBRARY

You can list an ex-library book with mild wear and no dust jacket and stamps, stickers and card pocket as Very Good. But if that ex-library book has a beautiful, vintage dust jacket in MYLAR and it is crisp, bright and tight, then you cannot list it as better than Acceptable.

This is due to the presence of the Mylar which is considered "library preparation" and - they say at half.com - a worse defect than wear, highlighting, underlining, stamps, stickers or (and?) a card pocket.

Certainly, this shocks a seller of vintage children's literature. It means that at half.com some Acceptable copies are 10x more valuable than some Very Good copies of the same title. If only one had a way to get a buyer to look at them ....

SIGNED BOOKS

A reprint can be listed as Like New as long as it has no marks or writing of any kind whatsoever, but a valuable first printing in pristine condition and signed by the author may not be listed as any better than Very Good.

A Fine/Fine signed first edition is classed with an ex-library book with <10% highlighting at half.com!

This means that at half.com some Very Good copies will be 50x more valuable than their "Like New" peers!

CATALOG HAZARDS

Half.com's catalog has numerous errors. Books identified by ISBN have incorrect titles, incorrect authors, incorrect publishers, incorrect published years and incorrect bindings. This is not uncommon at half.com, and where there is one error, there is a usually a combination of errors.

If half.com has incorrectly identified a book as a softcover, you may not leave any clue that the book you are holding is actually a hardcover, including stating the presence of a "dust jacket."

This means that if you list at half.com indirectly using any kind of indirect service or software, then you need to check the half.com page for errors before allowing your book to go there.

(Note that this rule will cause problems in the case that a softcover has a dust jacket, which we do see now and then.)

BOOK CLUB EDITIONS

These are not allowed at half.com so if you list at multiple venues, you must be s vigilant not to let them go to half.

Note that half.com does have books in their catalog which were only issued in book club editions. I see this most often with Sci Fi hardcovers, and one of them got me into trouble! Be particularly careful that you don't in any way properly identify these books as BCEs if you choose to list them as half.com's catalog page clearly invites.

CONCLUSION

If and when the half.com robot starts targeting your listings, you can lose your eBay account with no warning and great difficulty contacting anyone for reinstatement. Note that the instructions given in the suspension letter are incorrect. Replying to the e-mail as instructed wakes up an auto-responder which claims that the address suspension@ebay.com is dead and the letter you got was a spoof. (Sadly not so.)

If you are suspended for these issues, you need to make an appeal to service@half.com and put "suspension" in the subject.

This was a miserable and scary experience for a full-time bookseller, and I wouldn't want to see another one endure it. Please be very cautious at half.com if you value your eBay account.