Student-run Web sites fight against university’s book-selling practices

With OrangeExchange.com, Syracuse University students Jae Ahn and Dean Muscio have joined in the fight to weaken SU and Follett's bookstores’ grasp on the textbook market.

Nationwide, university student-run textbook swapping Web sites such as OrangeExchange.com have been emerging and gaining steam. From George Washington University and the University of Texas to Baylor and Columbia, these sites offer students a new way of exchanging used textbooks for money without going through a university middleman.

Matt Mandell, a junior psychology major, teamed up with a friend at George Washington University in Washington to create the national book-swapping portal VarsityText.com. Students from about 150-200 universities were actively trading 68,000 textbooks on the site after only seven weeks, Mandell said.

"The key thing is creating awareness," Mandell said. "One advantage is that we can unite people nationwide."

In Texas, textbook swapping has spread to state and private universities alike — primarily because local sponsors help finance the sites.

Shariq Ghani, a junior information technology student at University of Texas, Arlington, founded Ezbookswap.com in early December 2002 for UT-Arlington students. The site received 1,800 hits on its first day of operation, a number that climbed to 8,000 in less than a month, Ghani said.

Ghani attributed his success to three weeks of intensive advertising. He promoted Ezbookswap.com through fraternities, flyers and by negotiating with deans of colleges on the campus. He hopes to make the site available for the entire UTexas system by the end of the year.

In Waco, Texas, Baylor University student Robin Harris developed BearSwap.com during the summer of 2002. One thousand Baylor students enrolled on BearSwap.com upon its launch in December 2002.

Currently, 1,300 students are registered to sell books on the site, which averages 140 to 150 hits a day, Harris said.

Harris, a junior entrepreneurship major, said he attracted sponsors by advertising through an e-mail list and allowing local businesses to advertise on the Web site.

"Unless you focus locally," Harris said, "it's not going to work as well."

Even so, the University of Michigan joined DogEars.net, a network that allows 10 colleges to swap books with one another.

"We have nearly 1,000 registered members on," said Pete Woiwode, communications chairman for the University of Michigan Student Assembly. "With nearly 20 sales taking place every day,"

Though many university students claim that online textbook swapping has been an overall success, some obstacles still keep textbook swapping sites from reaching parity with institutional university bookstores.

For example, trading textbooks online can cause shipping delays.

"We'll try to get as many books swapped, but some students would rather buy from the bookstore," Harris said. "Some would rather change their money for time."

Many professors also insist on teaching their students with the most recent textbook editions.

Founders of book swapping sites, including Ahn and Muscio, admitted there is a financial crunch of purchasing and owning a domain name, or Internet address, as well as the necessary computer equipment.

"We're losing money, as of now," Ahn said. "My mom is paying for the domain name."

Some swap sites have responded by charging transaction fees, such as Mandell's VarsityText.com, which charges a 99 cent fee for every trade made through VarsityText.

Others, including OrangeExchange, are still weighing their costs against the possibility of losing users if they start charging.

"We considered charging, but you need a strong base of users," Harris said of Baylor's BearSwap, adding that charging would discourage people from using the site.

To help cover its costs, OrangeExchange may charge users a small starter subscription fee, which could be 25 cents per year or $1 for four years, Muscio said.

Currently, book-swapping pioneers find themselves competing with institutional campus bookstores.

"At the beginning of the textbook campaign the campus bookstore was irate," said Aziza Hasan of the Student Senate at Bethel College, a DogEars.net member college in North Newton, Kan. "With some time and communication they became more empathetic towards our cause," Hasan said.

One official at the SU Bookstore said student-run book swapping is natural, but that the university bookstore is there to meet students' demands for convenience.

"You're always going to see some kind of textbook swapping," said Kathleen Bradley, division manager of text and trade books at SU Bookstore in the Schine Student Center. "I think we still have a service we need to provide students."

Bradley said many students depend on, or prefer, the university bookstore because they do not have cash, or have financial aid packages connected to a bursar/bookstore account.

OrangeExchange co-founder Ahn said he and Muscio were manning a table in Schine advertising the site when an SU Bookstore official came up to them and introduced herself.

"She asked us how business is going," Ahn said. "I don't think they're happy about it, but they can't say anything. Next year, it's going to be interesting."

Ahn and Muscio, both junior information studies majors, said they decided to build OrangeExchange during their freshman year.

"My roommate paid $90 for a textbook and the bookstore was willing to give $3, but the resale value was $70," Muscio said. "That right there is why we started this site."

In the first few weeks of operation, 380 students from SU and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry registered to sell books through OrangeExchange, with each selling about five or six books, Muscio said.