BookThief.com’s story is much like the other stories you’ve heard about dot com startups (cue the sad story music). We started with an idea—providing a way for students to list and sell their used textbooks at an affordable cost—and it grew into something bigger. We hope to become the ‘black market’ for everything college students need to find in their local community. All of the people who have contributed to BookThief.com were, or ARE, college students. We have felt your pain!
We’ve all been in a position where we were looking to buy a used textbook and the bookstore didn’t have any more used books, they only had new books. We’ve also made flyers and stapled them to bulletin boards around campus trying to sell a book we couldn’t sell back to the bookstore, or the bookstore only offered us a few dollars for something that we paid far more for. Some of us did this 20 years ago and some of us more recently, but our stories are profoundly similar. This is even more amazing when you think back to the when there was no Internet. There really was no way to ‘get the word out’ to everyone on campus at once. Here we are in the Internet age and still, no way to get the word out for every college student in America. UNTIL NOW!
We heard a story the other day that made us all sigh in frustration but one that gave us initiative to move forward with a Web site that could be used by all college students in the United States and Canada. A college student was telling us the other day that she was taking a final exam last semester only to see a classmate turn in his exam early. He had left the exam early to sell his textbook back to the bookstore. He got $75.00 back (after having paid $170), but this student finished her exam a half hour later and went to the same bookstore only to be offered $40 for the exact same textbook! Are students really leaving exams early or selling their textbooks back to the bookstore when they really need the textbook to study? We hope this was an isolated incident, but we know better.
We have all faced the problem of needing a small refrigerator, couch or loft, and couldn’t afford to buy something new. BookThief.com hopes to solve that problem as well. We want to put college students in touch with college students, locally. And, we want to do it with a little humor along the way otherwise we will all kill each other before this is done.
So who are we?
Gary Chubb, Co-Founder
Gary is a 1990 graduate of Central Michigan University (he was on the five year plan too). He has had a successful career in sales and thought the BookThief.com idea had some promise; we’ll see if he was right. He usually is. Just ask Deb.
Deborah Gray, Co-Founder
Deb is a 1989 graduate of Ferris State University, a 1992 graduate of Central Michigan University, and a 2003 graduate of the University of London (Royal Holloway College). She is currently an Associate Professor of Marketing at Central Michigan University. She is smart.
Cheryl Tennis, Marketing Researcher
Cheryl is a 1994 graduate of Central Michigan University. She has a degree in social work and works as an HIV counselor for the State of Michigan. Her ability to work with people makes her a needed commodity; plus she has some incriminating photos of us.
Makoto Kern, Web Designer
Makoto is a 1997 (BS) and 2002 (MS) graduate of Northern Illinois. He came on board with his technological know-how. Makoto is the only person who doesn’t have a degree from Central Michigan University and so we are making that a requirement for continued employment...not sure how the MAC rivarly will pan out with the group.
Kenneth Ashburn, Student Marketing Advisor
Ken is soon to be a graduate of Central Michigan University. His creative brilliance gave us the tag line "The Textbook Black Market". We're holding on to him to see if anything else awesome comes out of his creative brain, because letting him go would be like killing a puppy, a cute one.
Danielle Ferrara, Student Marketing Advisor
Danielle is a soon to be graduate of Central Michigan University and has given her insight and creative expertise to the development of advertisements and posters for BookThief.com. Look for her at our BookThief.com tailgates, parties and FaceBook.
We would love to hear your ideas for making our Web site better (please email them to co-founder, Deborah Gray at pr(at)BookThief.com).
