Some students saved money on textbooks this fall by tapping into one of the Undergraduate Assembly’s new projects.
The Penn Book Bazaar, a website that allows Penn students to buy, sell and exchange textbooks, debuted late this August at pennua.org/textbook. Students register with a Penn e-mail and can post books and contact sellers to negotiate offers off-site.
To date, students have created 1,020 accounts — representing about a tenth of the undergraduate population — and posted 971 books. The site has seen 4,300 unique visitors, and page visits peaked on Sept. 8, the first day of class.
“A lot of times we pass resolutions and you don’t really know what happens afterwards — this is something that the UA basically provides, and it doesn’t cost anything to run,” said UA Secretary and College junior Cynthia Ip.
College sophomore Jon Monfred and College senior Michael Chen, who ended up naming the site, campaigned last spring with the promise of finding cheaper textbook alternatives, Chen said, and were both elected to the UA.
InterFraternity Council Vice President for Academics and College senior Jeff Lipman then pitched the idea for the Bazaar last spring, inspired by Princeton’s online marketplace for students to buy and sell their books with no middleman.
The UA passed a resolution in April to create the site over the summer, hoping that it would be useful for students this fall.
The coding project took place over the summer and required help from many different players, Chen said. Ip, who acts as webmaster, also coded the site.
“We know that the Penn Book Bazaar doesn’t really replace the bookstore or anything like that,” Ip acknowledged, but she said she hopes that the site will pressure “all book sellers in West Philly” to make their prices more reasonable.
Web traffic has slowed to a near stop, Ip said, as most students have already settled into their fall 2010 classes. Looking toward next semester, the UA identified a few possible fixes for the site.
First, books that have already been sold must be removed by the user who posted them, which has proven to be a faulty system for removal. One option being considered is sending automated e-mail reminders.
The UA also found that because textbooks aren’t listed under each crosslisting for the respective course, some students may not find what they are looking for if they only look under one of the class’ course codes.
UA President and College senior Matt Amalfitano wants to push PennKey access to the site for the convenience of students.
“Our early success definitely leaves us, at least me, feeling more confident about taking matters in our own hands in the future,“ Ip said.
College senior Dacy Knight posted several of her textbooks for sale during the first week of classes. She wrote in an e-mail that though only two student contacted her about buying her books, “in theory, I like the site.”
“I’m hoping that as more people sign on, it will reach its potential as a book-selling tool and I’ll be able to sell the rest of the books I posted […] It definitely made the book-selling process easier and is much more efficient than list-serves,” she wrote.
UA Academic Affairs Director and Wharton junior Faye Cheng made use of the website herself and sold five books. “I’m able to sell books at much better prices than the bookstore would ever offer, and the people on the buying side are still getting a bargain for books that are in great condition — it’s a win-win situation for both the buyer and the seller,” she wrote in an e-mail.
This article has been edited from its print version to reflect that Jon Monfred and Michael Chen campaigned on a platform of cheaper textbooks. Jeff Lipman then came up with the specific idea of a Book Bazaar.
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