Bearcat Exchange, a website created by students Nicholas Ferrara and Rohit Kapur, is trying to change the way students at Binghamton University buy and sell textbooks.
Ferrara, a sophomore majoring in economics, and Kapur, a sophomore majoring in management, met last year after living in the same building in Hinman College. After discussing how they both found the process of buying and selling textbooks to be difficult and expensive, the two decided to come up with a solution.
“You either buy from the bookstore and pay a very large price to buy it online, or you go on a very long Facebook page where the textbooks aren’t organized or searchable,” Ferrara said. “Also, no one attempts to remove the ones that were already sold, and it’s just very inconvenient. We thought it’d be a lot easier to create a website to facilitate that in a more efficient manner.”
On Bearcat Exchange, BU students can anonymously name the price of their books and other students can message the seller to make the transaction. The site lists available books, which can be filtered through a keyword search bar. Both sides can communicate via email and if they agree on a price, they can meet in person to complete the sale.
The site was created and completed over winter break, with Ferrara working on structural aspects and Kapur working on design.
After launching on Jan. 17, Ferrara and Kapur began by messaging individual students who were posting in Facebook groups looking to buy or sell books to tell them about Bearcat Exchange. They later handed out business cards advertising the site.
According to Ferrara and Kapur, 264 textbooks have been listed, more than 760 people have accessed the site and 60 percent of buyers were contacted about their listings, but they hope that those numbers increase.
“We knew that everyone has used books,” Kapur said. “It was just a matter of finding people.”
According to Ferrara and Kapur, the feedback from users has been positive. Jared Cohen, a freshman majoring in business administration, said he was impressed with the control he had over prices and how quickly he was able to sell his old books.
“I said, ‘Why not just try this website, what is there to lose?’” Cohen wrote in an email. “I didn’t think I’d get many responses but within 5 minutes of posting a few textbooks I had 2 buyers immediately.”
Emma Roseval, however, feels that her textbook needs are already taken care of.
“I currently rent my textbooks through Chegg; it is cheap and I love that they provide you with the packaging slip for when you return it and they are also really great about reminding you when it’s due,” said Roseval, a senior majoring in human development. “I would consider using a textbook site that’s just for Binghamton students, but I am satisfied with how I already get them so it probably wouldn’t capture my attention.”
Ferrara and Kapur said that they will continue to look for structural changes to improve the site’s efficiency. But Shelby Cohen, a sophomore majoring in accounting, said that using the site was already simpler than searching Facebook for possible buyers.
“Posting my book on it was much more efficient than posting it on Facebook or asking around,” Cohen wrote in an email. “It was much easier than experiences I’ve previously had selling textbooks. It required minimal effort and was much better than the bookstore or Facebook.”