For college students, the price of textbooks can be hard to manage. To combat climbing textbook rates, one Bradley undergraduate student decided to do something about the inflated prices.
College Share, a book exchange website exclusive to Bradley students, was born last semester out of frustration toward the textbook industry, according to founder Zac Cooper.
The junior entrepreneurship major said after spending $800 on textbooks during his first semester on campus, he wanted to create a way to make textbooks affordable for students.
“I felt exploited — publishers and bookstores know we have to buy textbooks for class, [and] it’s a captive market,” Copper said. “They take advantage of it to charge as much as they possibly can. It’s just not right.”
So Copper said he decided to take out “the greedy middleman.”
“Part of the reason books are so expensive is because places like Chegg and Amazon buy your books back for pennies on the dollar and then turn around and sell them to the next person for a lot more than they bought them for,” Copper said. “College Share does away with the hefty markup.”
Members of College Share set their own prices for the books they sell, and according to Copper, nearly 85 percent of books on the website are cheaper than anywhere else online.
“Not only do college students selling their books get a lot more money for the books they sell to other students, but the students buying them get the books for a lot less than anywhere else as well,” he said. “It’s a win-win; well, except for Chegg, but I think they can suck it up.”
Junior health science major Brittany Robinson said she found College Share to be “extremely beneficial” after saving money on three books she needed for the spring semester.
“From the books I bought and what they were listed at the bookstore, I saved close to $200,” Robinson said.
However, the website would be better if more Bradley students had profiles, according to Robinson.
“Obviously, the more students who are on there, the better it works,” she said.
With 300 students using College Share currently, Copper said he has “no doubt” the website’s membership will be closer to 1,000 next semester.
“Our goal was to save students money; a lot of books traded hands, and a lot of money was saved,” Copper said. “I’ll happily take that any day.”
In addition to working on College Share updates, such as adding an email notification service, Copper is also developing a website to help students study and succeed in class.
“I’ll be sticking with my goal of making college more affordable as well as easier for college students,” Copper said. ” I am looking for tutors as well as building a team for this endeavor, so if interested, please contact me.”
Students can access College Share at collegeshare.net.
