Nowadays students are still seen hanging flyers around campus hoping that someone will call them back and buy that piece of furniture that they've grown tired of. Students complain about bookstore book prices and the difficulty of finding things they need or want for college.
But instead of these dated methods, students can use classified online markets to buy and sell their stuff within their own — now digital — campus.
"When I was in college, I always had things that I wanted to get rid of and things I wanted to buy," said Jarrad Lewis, employee of Chegg.com, one of these student-oriented Web sites.
Osman Rashid, a co-founder of Chegg, said the Web site was created in 2003 at Iowa State University after he got "tired of being ripped off by the bookstore." It started with just books, but students wanted more, so Chegg has expanded to more than 35 colleges, including Marquette. The site has also partnered with Uflipit.com, another student market that operates from the East Coast.
The Web site is a trading platform just for students, and it helps them buy and sell things among themselves.
Another web site along the lines of Chegg is ExchangeHut.com, which co-owner Nathan Lustig said was already created when he and John Tucker decided to buy it and make full use of its capabilities.
The Web site started at the University of Wisconsin and Lustig and Tucker bought it in the summer of 2005. ExchangeHut.com has grown significantly since then.
Lustig said that at Wisconsin he was one of the many freshmen who ended up without football season tickets because they were sold out. Now he owns a Web site that not only helps students find and buy season tickets, but also textbooks, electronics, cars and clothing.
According to these companies, this type of online market is the way of the future.
"Chegg is the present and future of local student classifieds," Lewis said.
Chegg.com is a Web site that works like eBay, but in order to post and buy things people have to give an .edu address, making it strictly for college students.
"Students can sell pretty much anything they want, and others can buy," Lewis said.
Web sites like Chegg also eliminate the shipping costs by allowing students to search for things to buy and sell within their campus.
"We've gotten nothing but positive feedback, the site is growing everyday," Lewis said. "We're going to make it countrywide, which is what's happening right now. Nothing's going to stop us."
Both companies are ambitious about their future and look to continue helping college students get what they need and save money in the process.
"Whenever you see a site doing the same stuff you are doing, you try to make yourself better," said Lusting about possible competition with Chegg, "It keeps both of us on our toes."