Reported by: Erica Fox
It's a text book case of local students becoming entreprenuers. A couple of college room-mates say they got fed up with buying expensive textbooks and selling them back to the bookstore for next to nothing. So, they decided to start an online company to help students connect and save money.
"Debt. That was the first thing that I thought. 'Oh my gosh, I'm going to have so much debt leaving college,'" says Cal State San Marcos freshman Amanda Thompson.
She says she got the shock of her life buying textbooks this year for the first time.
"I spent close to $900 on books," Thompson says. "My parents reaction, they're just like, 'This is insanity.'"
That madness turned to opportunity for law student Adam Phillips and college senior Jared Herling.
"We felt like we were really getting ripped off," Phillips explains. "So, we decided to try and do something about it."
They started a website which aims to eliminate college bookstores that buy back used books for a fraction of the cost.
"They buy back $200 books for twenty to forty dollars and then, in turn, resell those books to other students at a price of about $100," explains Herling. "So what we're doing is we're cutting out that middle man."
The website allows any student in the country to buy and sell used books from each other.
"They could sell it for a dollar they could sell it for a hundred dollars," says Phillips.
"The site also compares the prices of online book retailers so students know the going rate. Since the new site launched at the beginning of this school year, Phillips and Herling say it's going amazingly well.
"We actually have, I believe, about 2000 users this month," Phillips explains.
He estimates in just a month the site has saved students about $20,000. Phillips and Herling hope they're just getting started.
"We're really hoping to completely change the way students connect," says Phillips.
Starting September 17th, students will be able to pay completely online using Paypal. It's a start up company so they're relying on word of mouth to advertise. They're putting up fliers and passing out t-shirts on campuses across San Diego.
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