It’s that time, buying and selling textbooks, and it always seems to cause some hassle for students. One SMU student has started a business that might ease the textbook pain this semester.
This is the back of senior SMU student, John Dean’s car. He’s running a company out of his trunk and it can save you money.
“That ones worth a lot,” John Dean, Founder of Textbook Valet, said.
It’s called Textbook Valet and it’s a service for buying and selling textbooks.
“What I did was kind of come up with a way for people to get the discounted prices online as well as have the convenience of like the on campus presence.”
He’ll come to you, on your time, with cash ready.
“I just felt like this would be the easiest way, I mean he came right to my doorstep,” Meredith White, a Junior at SMU, said.
“Yeah I’m here,” Dean said.
He’ll wait, and wait, and wait for you.
“17, 18, 19, 20,” Joseph Lafferty, a Junior at SMU, said as he counted off his books for Dean.
He’ll take them all. And while many students have heard, “well this book is outdated,” from the campus bookstore, “John doesn’t actually say that,” Lafferty said.
Instead, Dean valets your books to and from companies and websites that buy almost any book and it saves you the pain, literally.
“My arms didn’t get sore like while I was waiting,” White said.
An app on his cell phone scans the books into a real-time pricing database. He then gives customers a percentage of the highest price. He has asked that we keep that exact amount private since he is in the process of patenting this idea.
We took this book to the SMU bookstore and they offered $25 dollars. Textbook valet will pay $65 dollars for the same book.
“I have used the bookstore to sell books back, and when I did that, the money they gave me was quite slim. I felt like I got ripped off,” Lafferty said.
But not anymore, students have had enough. Textbook valet has served nearly 100 students since it began in July 2012.
“So that’s how I beat the bookstore,” Dean said.
You can buy or sell books from textbook valet and reserve a time for pick up or delivery on its website, www.TextbookValet.com.
