Entrepreneurs seeking to tap into the $7 billion college textbook industry by claiming to offer cheaper, easier Internet-based alternatives to the campus bookstore have clamored to join the online marketplace in recent months. Five textbook vendors have launched, upgraded from beta-mode or began offering expanded services since July.

The textbook industry, which has long criticized used and alternative book vendors for stripping its profits and inflating textbook prices, has also taken to the online marketplace, bypassing retail middlemen and selling electronic versions of many textbooks directly to students.

Though many traditional campus bookstores sell textbooks online as well, trade groups representing them said stores and managers remain wary of purely online operations...READ ON

Students save cash by using BookThief.com
Professor, alumnus co-create book exchange Web site
By: Angie Favot

A new crook is in town.

But instead of stealing money, it is helping students save it.

BookThief.com is a national Web site that charges 99 cents per listing for students to buy and sell textbooks.

Deborah Gray, associate marketing professor, and CMU 1990 alumnus Gary Chubb created the site that went live Nov. 26. "We decided to start the Web site as a means to help students save money in buying and selling their textbooks," Gray said. Users can list up to five classes and the books needed. The site will alert students when their book requests are available. The Web site also features the capability to buy and sell furniture, appliances and lofts - and even post upcoming parties.

"Books are our core competency, but anything that college students would want to buy and sell can be listed," Gray said. Chubb said because the listings are localized, it gives students more options to exchange books... READ ON

A Textbook Black Market
The Mass Media
UMass Boston's independent student newspaper

BookThief, a web site founded by two Central Michigan University alumni, hopes to force college bookstores to compete based on price-locally, at each campus. BookThief hopes to give students a viable alternative to buying and selling textbooks at their campus bookstores, offering classified-style listings for 99 cents. BookThief also allows students to list and buy furniture, lofts and appliances, and post ads for leasing and subleasing apartments. With the cost of textbooks having risen at twice the rate of inflation over the last two decades, BookThief hopes to help students avoid the cost and time associated with buying online or in their college bookstore. For more information, visit www.bookthief.com...SEE ARTICLE

New Site Encourages Student Book Sales
Heather Murdock
The Daily Campus - University of Connecticuit

A new Web site that claims it can reduce the cost of textbooks for college students nationwide by creating competition for campus bookstores was launched early last week.

BookThief.com has made itself available to 3,200 schools, according to a press release, and it is designed to allow students to buy and sell books to each other on their individual campuses. For 99 cents, a student can post an ad to sell their used book. Buyers, who don't pay to read ads, can contact the seller directly to arrange a meeting to finish the deal.

The process works like the Facebook Marketplace, a site where users can post items like sports tickets for sale, and then meet to exchange cash for the item. Unlike on Facebook, however, the books are listed by subject, and it takes only a few minutes to find out if a specific book is for sale on campus... READ ON

Web site gives bookstores a run for their money
By Caroline Blanzaco
James Madison University - The Breeze

College bookstores beware — bookthief.com, a national Web site designed to bring textbook-buyers and sellers together, is letting students pick their prices. 

The Web site serves as a national database where students can buy and sell used textbooks to fellow classmates.  Referred to as a textbook black market, the site is used by 3,200 colleges communities across the U.S and Canada so far and plans to eventually encompass all campuses nationwide.

Its goal is to provide a service that will bring competition to the college textbook market and consequently force bookstores to lower their prices.  “As a financially independent student paying for my own books, it can be really tough sometimes with prices being so high,” freshman Liz Lahayne said.  “It’s a relief knowing that someone is trying to help us."

Some students think the Web site could affect bookstore revenue. 

“Lower prices mean competition for bookstores, and they’re going to have to soften their prices too if they want to continue making a profit,” sophomore Amanda Nessenbaum said.  The college textbook market has become a virtual monopoly because of a lack of competition, and book prices have risen as a result, growing at double the rate of inflation over the past 20 years, according to the Association of College Bookstores...READ ON

BookThief.com - The Textbook Black Market
KillerStartups.com

BookThief.com hopes to upset the textbook market by forcing bookstores to compete based on price, locally. Once called a ‘broken market’ in a study commissioned by Congress, the used textbook market has had little competition for too long. Collectively, 18 states have current or pending legislation aimed at reducing textbook prices. BookThief.com isn’t a real textbook black market of course, but the Web site hopes to give students a viable alternative to buying and selling textbooks at the campus bookstore. For the price of a download (99¢), students can list used textbooks on their campus; they pay nothing to search listings. There are over 3,200 colleges and universities listed on BookThief whose goal is to connect students at the local level. It’s not an auction site—students list a textbook for sale and provide their name and contact information (basically a targeted classified). The potential buyer contacts the seller, agrees on a price and arranges a meeting. Instead of making a trip to the bookstore, you meet your fellow classmate at the coffee shop. BookThief will allow students to avoid the cost and time associated with buying or selling used textbooks online by providing a local, secure, spam-free venue. In addition to listing and buying textbooks, BookThief.com will offer students the opportunity to list and buy furniture, lofts, appliances, and post ads for leasing and subleasing.

According to the Association of College Bookstores, the used textbook market is valued at 1.6 billion dollars with approximately 44 million used textbooks changing hands each year. Textbook prices have risen at twice the rate of inflation for over two decades. BookThief.com hopes to change the competitive level on a national scale by making the site available to every college and university in the United States. This will be the 'black market' for everything college students need to buy and sell on their local campus. Most importantly this Web site will give college students a way to bypass the campus bookstore...READ ON