Is it against half.com's policies to list a game case with no game?

SaraAB

SaraAB

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I have a question and was wondering if anyone knows the answer. I haven't been able to find the answer on the half.com website. Does anyone know if its illegal to list just the case and manual of a game instead of the full game??

There are some sellers listing only the case and manual on half.com for certain games. This is a problem because you can now preorder games at half.com which means you set a price for the game you want and when someone lists a game at that price or lower it gets charged to your credit card and automatically shipped to you. I have several pre-order's set up and I do not want to be shipped just a case and manual when I want the full game. I have the condition on the games set to very good or higher so I am guessing that would help but what is to stop unscrupulous sellers from listing a case and manual and having my preorder filled with that instead of the full game?? They often list the case and manual at very low prices which would fill any preorder set up for said game since half.com fills a preorder if a game comes up at the price you set it at or lower.
 
Man, I must have been away from half.com for a really long line. They do pre-orders now?

That just makes a whole new line of troubles that can come out of the massive fraud that already takes place on there.

Wish I had the answer for you, but I would be interested to find out too what the exact policy in fine print is on listing case and manuals.
 
There's nothing explicitly against it, however in half.com's Item Description section of their Listing Policy page it states the following:

Item Description
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Items must be listed by the ISBN or UPC printed onto the product by the manufacturer. An item may not be listed if it is described in a "materially different" way from its ISBN/UPC product information, except as it applies to the quality of the item. An item is considered materially different if the ISBN/UPC is in any way different from the ISBN/UPC product information and cannot be listed on Half.com.
Click to expand...

Considering that the ISBN/UPC is used to identify the media itself, using a game's UPC to list an item that's just the case and/or manual and not containing the actual media would make the item "materially different" than what is described by the UPC. That's why you can sell cart/disc-only games that have no packaging whatsoever.

So yeah, it's almost certainly against half.com's policies, but I've seen people listing cases and manuals for so long that I doubt anything is ever done about it. It's a fantastic site for college textbooks but for games it's just a mess. Most people don't describe the condition of their games, even when they do they still arrive in terrible shape, and because of the "set it and forget it" listing style there are so many deadbeat sellers who never ship out their items.
 
Well I have had 2 preorders filled at the price I wanted with no trouble, I do set the condition of the game to very good or higher and I noticed most of the manuals and cases alone are listed under the "acceptable" category.

Hopefully someone doesn't start listing case and manual only as "like new" condition, though as someone here stated that would likely fall under the materially different clause and I would get a refund.
 
I see so many policy violations all the time, yet they don't care. So many sellers on Half.com list used games under brand new saying "only played 1 time" or "opened but never played"

I have reported them but they never get pulled yet I always seem to get in trouble on Half and EBay. One time on Half I listed a DDR game that was not a bundle (it was under the correct UPC for just the game). I said "BRAND NEW, GAME ONLY NO DANCE PAD INCLUDED" because I figured some people were just going to assume a dance pad was included. The listing was pulled because they took it to mean disc only. Or the time I was selling a DVD on EBay with the word feedback in the title of the DVD so it was part of the name of the actual item. EBay pulled that because you can't use the word feedback in a listing title.
 
[quote name='SaraAB']I have a question and was wondering if anyone knows the answer. I haven't been able to find the answer on the half.com website. Does anyone know if its illegal to list just the case and manual of a game instead of the full game??[/QUOTE]
http://pages.half.ebay.com/help/popup/ratings_games.html
All ratings require the disc/cart. If someone fulfills a pre-order, and ships just a case, you can get your money back. (Remember that half.com is an ebay company, and ebay's buyer-friendly.)

EDIT:
How this looks from the seller's side:
I click "Sell my item", choose the quality, enter a description, then on the next screen, I set my price. If there's a preorder, I can choose to sell immediately, or just list as normal. I'm not forced into fulfilling the order or anything. (Usually, I just roll my eyes at the absurdly-low offer.)
 
[quote name='SaraAB']Well I have had 2 preorders filled at the price I wanted with no trouble, I do set the condition of the game to very good or higher and I noticed most of the manuals and cases alone are listed under the "acceptable" category.

Hopefully someone doesn't start listing case and manual only as "like new" condition, though as someone here stated that would likely fall under the materially different clause and I would get a refund.[/QUOTE]
I believe that eBay and Amazon both have a rule now for sellers that requires incomplete games to be listed as Acceptable, no matter what.
 
The problem is many sellers don't follow that rule at all, I see listings especially for DS and GBA games that are listed as like new or very good that are listed as cartridge only.
 
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