DePauw students fight price of textbooks

Mid-western university Web site eliminates the middle man in textbook sales

By Jessie Forand
Staff Writer

Two DePauw University students have eliminated the middle man of textbook sales and are saving students hundreds of dollars every semester with BookSnag.com, a Web site that lets students buy and sell books directly with one another.
Zachary Koch and Ryan Tinker created BookSnag.com in January 2006.

“Someone at school must have at least some of the books we need,” Koch, a computer science major, said about his motives for creating the site. Tinker is an economics major.

Created with Macromedia Dreamweaver, the Web site is simple. Students name a price for old textbooks, and put the offer on the site by clicking “add your item” on the home page. A search bar allows users to type in the titles of the books they need and either buy the books at the asking price, or send the seller a different offer. If a book is not available on BookSnag, the site offers the user Amazon.com, another alternative to the campus bookstore.

“I saved about $200 in BookSnag shopping and online,” Tinker said. “You make about $20 more than you would by selling it to the bookstore.” A student would save about $10 buying a book from the site as opposed to a campus bookstore, Tinker said.

After the initial success of BookSnag.com, Tinker and Koch said they spent their summer vacation revamping the site, which took hundreds of hours to complete. Koch resides in Indiana, and Tinker lives in Kansas.

Photos by Meg Bookless

Even used textbooks can be as much as $60. Students get a small portion of the cost when they sell back books.

“We’re both pretty computer savvy,” Koch said.

The site’s initial cost was $500, for a server, Tinker said, but “we made it all back this semester.” Both still attend DePauw University.

BookSnag is considered to be a limited liability company, Koch said. He also said he and Tinker take no cut from book sales, and usage is free. Money made from the site comes from referring users to Amazon.com, which it does if BookSnag.com does not have a requested book. Making a profit is not the company’s main focus, Tinker said.

“We’d both be happy if our Web site saved someone money,” Tinker said.

BookSnag.com is only available at DePauw University.

“We’d like to expand it and see other schools catch on,” Tinker said, beginning with area schools, then others if enough revenue is created. “I’d like to see it take off and get to a couple other schools.”

Koch said he would like to “see how far we can take this,” and is even “willing to try it at St. Mike’s.”

Koch offered the following advice to budding entrepreneurs: “Don’t seek to make money, and you have to like what you’re doing.” Tinker said,

Despite its name, BookSnag.com may soon offer more than books in the form of “Bookschwag,” BookSnag merchandise. T-shirts are currently offered for $10, Tinker said.

“We have a good vision of what we want to do,” Tinker said, adding they had a “good fan base.”

“If it does blow up that would be awesome,” Tinker said. “I don’t want to limit myself with BookSnag.”

Chairman of the St. Michael’s business department, Robert Letovsky, said many students want to be entrepreneurs, but it isn’t always feasible.

“A lot of students have great business ideas. The challenge is being able to start it,” Letovsky said. He said students are creative and develop good ideas, but after graduation, jobs are needed in order to repay debts, and afford living costs, which causes many student businesses to fail later.

In order to help student businesses, the Vermont Venture Network holds monthly breakfasts, bringing start-up businesses together with investors. St. Michael’s holds an Enterprise Plan Competition, with monetary prizes awarded to help students’ ideas receive the financial backing new businesses need. Last year’s first prize winner, Ali Stockman, received $5,000.

The key to being successful in business, Letovsky said, is to “keep the dream alive,” to have a career and reach some level of stability, then return to the idea.

“Any time you eliminate the middle person, you have to ask, ‘what was that middle person doing?’” Letovsky said of BookSnag’s direct student to student sales.

As it turns out, the “middle man” might be helpful. Stephen McMahon, St. Michael’s bookstore manager, said textbooks are priced as cheap as possible.

“I know it’s hard to believe,” McMahon said. “If it’s on the shelf for $100, the book itself probably cost $80.” The raised price is due to things like shipping costs and staff salary, he said.

“Books are just expensive,” McMahon said.

Business is the most expensive major for textbooks, while art and journalism majors pay less, McMahon said.

The bookstore’s return policy is lenient, McMahon said, and if a book is unavailable, it can be ordered through the bookstore free of shipping. This fall, first-year students were allowed to reserve their books.

“By next fall we’ll offer it to all the students,” McMahon said.