I like the creativeness and entrepreneurial spirit of today's college students. They have the ability to see a product or service that was made for one purpose and turned it around and republish it for a different need. I've been astonished the last few years and privileged to work with a number of scholars who've taken what I created as a straightforward price comparison textbook shopping tool and turned it into a lucrative revenue source.
Just over 10 years back while attending Cal Berkeley I started fiddling with this new-fangled gizmo called the Web to see if I could save cash on my textbooks. Back then the smattering of net textbook sellers typically sold new books but surprisingly their new costs were numerous times cheaper than the college bookstores used costs. The problem was going to each site and looking up the prices took an amazing amount of time. To speed things up I created a simple tool that would display everyone's price simply. The first application was a desktop app and I shared it with classmates by disk. The app was eventually ported to a internet site and extended to cover over 50 sites and all textbook formats.
The basic premise of the site, then and now, was to help save students money by finding the least expensive source. It seems a number scholars have found methods to use this low price information to offer a service or run a business that generates money.
One student with a fondness for collecting, selling and buying old books and textbooks downloaded our price comparison Android app with barcode scanner. This permitted him to get the existing selling and buyback costs on his phone at garage sales, estate sales or any place else he runs across a book for sale. He has done pretty well finding underpriced books and then selling them for a reasonable return.
Another student started a book locating service and now advertises all over campus. He has scholars sending him requests for books and the amount they are prepared to pay. He is saying that with the pricing report from over 50 sites he is usually able to find the books below the prices requested thus creating a margin to make money himself on the exchange.
A good textbook price comparison service can offer a ton of info about where it's possible to find cheap textbooks. It is ideal for scholars who want to do the work themselves to find the least expensive sources and it appears the data can also be utilized by those who wish to offer a service to scholars who require the work done for them.
Just over 10 years back while attending Cal Berkeley I started fiddling with this new-fangled gizmo called the Web to see if I could save cash on my textbooks. Back then the smattering of net textbook sellers typically sold new books but surprisingly their new costs were numerous times cheaper than the college bookstores used costs. The problem was going to each site and looking up the prices took an amazing amount of time. To speed things up I created a simple tool that would display everyone's price simply. The first application was a desktop app and I shared it with classmates by disk. The app was eventually ported to a internet site and extended to cover over 50 sites and all textbook formats.
The basic premise of the site, then and now, was to help save students money by finding the least expensive source. It seems a number scholars have found methods to use this low price information to offer a service or run a business that generates money.
One student with a fondness for collecting, selling and buying old books and textbooks downloaded our price comparison Android app with barcode scanner. This permitted him to get the existing selling and buyback costs on his phone at garage sales, estate sales or any place else he runs across a book for sale. He has done pretty well finding underpriced books and then selling them for a reasonable return.
Another student started a book locating service and now advertises all over campus. He has scholars sending him requests for books and the amount they are prepared to pay. He is saying that with the pricing report from over 50 sites he is usually able to find the books below the prices requested thus creating a margin to make money himself on the exchange.
A good textbook price comparison service can offer a ton of info about where it's possible to find cheap textbooks. It is ideal for scholars who want to do the work themselves to find the least expensive sources and it appears the data can also be utilized by those who wish to offer a service to scholars who require the work done for them.
About the Author:
Bob Jones set up cheap-textbooks.com, an internet website devoted to saving students cash. The site lets students compare textbook costs to help students find cheap college textbooks and college books.