Half.com Offers College Students A New Way to Earn Cash

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CONSHOHOCKEN, PA--(COLLEGIATE PRESSWIRE)--Sept. 14, 2000--Millions of college students will earn their way through college working part time jobs on-campus, and delivering pizza. But a few students are tossing in the hat for a new way to earn cash…Internet style. By selling pre-owned CDs, books, movies, and video games on a Web site called Half.com, they’re making their own hours and some decent cash.

This summer, Michael Abolafia, a senior at the University of Maryland, made over $2,000 selling most of his old movies and CDs on Half.com. Since heading back to school this fall, he’s sold an additional $300 worth of stuff. With all the money he’s made, this year he will finally be able to go on Spring Break with his friends, instead of visiting his grandparents with his mom.

It started quite innocently for the senior Terrapin. He bought a batch of inexpensive DVDs on eBay. After he watched them, he went back to the Internet to sell them. That’s when he found Half.com. Half.com (www.half.com) offers people an organized online marketplace to buy and sell high quality, previously-owned goods for incredible price discounts.

“I couldn’t believe how simple it was. One day I listed a bunch of CDs and movies and the next thing you know, I’m sending them out to different people all over the country,” said Abolafia. “I wish they had Half.com when I was a freshman. I would have been able to take a lot more road trips.”

The selling process is simple for Abolafia. He lists the items he wants to sell by entering its ISBN or UPC bar code number. He then selects the item’s condition, sets the sale price and the item is listed. The site automatically surrounds the product with cover art, product descriptions and reviews.

Half.com sends Abolafia an email to notify him when there is a buyer for an item, and to “pick, pack and ship” it. The email tells him the name of the buyer, the address and the method to ship the item. Once a month, Abolafia gets a check from Half.com for all the items sold during the last period. Half.com even includes a shipping allowance for the items sent out. There are no fees to list an item. The only costs are the 15% cut of a sale that Half.com takes after an item sells.

“I’m on my computer everyday checking e-mail and I also head to the student center everyday to see if mom has sent me another care package,” said Abolafia. “I’m probably making more money selling on Half.com than I would doing a work study for 20 hours a week, and I’m doing it in a lot less time.”

Abolafia has had so much success on Half.com that he signed up his fraternity, Alpha Sigma Phi, to use the site as a way to raise funds for charity. “We’ve just begun, so it is a little early to measure the success, but it is a great way to do something for a good cause, as well as to help some of my fraternity brothers learn about e-commerce”, explained Abolafia. “I hope it will be a tradition that will continue long after I am gone from College Park.”