Wikipedia
Half.com is a subsidiary of eBay, in which sellers offer items at fixed prices, usually items that have a UPC, ISBN or other kind of SKU, rather than rare, old or collectible items. The items available on half.com are limited to books, textbooks, music, movies, video games, and video game consoles.
There are no fees to list items on Half.com, but rather the company takes a commission of every completed sale. As of January 2009, the commission is 15% if the fixed selling price is $50 or less, 12.5% if the price is more than $50 but less than $100.01, 10% if the price is more than $100 but less than $250.01, 7.5% if the price is more than $250 but less than $500.01, and 5% if the price is more than $500.
The seller is responsible for shipping any item within three business days of a sale and paying the actual shipping costs. A shipping and handling fee is added to the transaction and is (partially) credited to the seller as a reimbursement. The buyer can choose either USPS Media Mail or expedited delivery. Depending on the weight of the item, the reimbursement amount may often be less than the actual shipping costs. For example, the current shipping reimbursement for any DVD sent USPS Media Mail is $2.39. On the other hand, the reimbursement amount may exceed the actual shipping costs. In this case, many sellers will offer a "free upgrade" to first class shipping, which is not much more expensive than media mail for small items such as CDs.
Half.com was founded in 1999 by American entrepreneur Josh Kopelman (Infonautics, Turntide, Comcast Interactive Capital, First Round Capital) and Sunny Balijepalli (who more recently founded ZoomIn.com). As an advertising gimmick, in December of the same year, the company paid the town of Halfway, Oregon US$100,000 and donated 20 new computers to change its name to " Half.com, Oregon" for a year.
eBay purchased Half.com in 2000 for roughly $350 million, integrating its user management system, buyer/seller feedback, and account information into eBay. Like its parent company, Half.com is not a retail site and has no physical stock or inventory. Rather, the site offers a place for individual sellers to list their items and potential buyers a central location in which to view them, offering both a standardized transaction and money exchange process. Unlike its parent, Half.com is not an auction site; sellers offer their wares at a bid price of their choosing. Like Amazon.com, Half.com plays a large role in the used textbook and CD markets. eBay planned to integrate Half.com into eBay and eventually close down Half.com. Many of the features that made listing media items such as CDs & DVDs quick and easy have been integrated into eBay, but eBay have chosen to keep Half.com running separately primarily for the textbook market.
Half.com began accepting PayPal in January 2013, ten and a half years after eBay acquired PayPal. Sellers are paid by pre-arranged deposits into a designated personal checking account.