It’s a deal

The buying or swapping of second-hand course books might be an old tradition, one that has helped millions of students save money. But this is the age of the internet, so quick transaction ought to take place on a website.

The buying or swapping of second-hand course books might be an old tradition, one that has helped millions of students save money. But this is the age of the internet, so quick transaction ought to take place on a website.

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Two city-based youngsters, Varun Gupta, 24, and Dhiraj Bajaj, 25, thought on these lines and came up with swapoye.com — a website where city students can deal in second-hand course books — four months ago.

“When we were in college, we never had enough money to buy new textbooks. We used to contact seniors, out of whom very few gave us their used books since most of them sold theirs to book dealers.

So, we both felt the need for a platform where one could easily sell or swap old books within their campuses and from their own college mates,” says Varun, a B Tech from Chitkara Institute of Engineering and Technology, Rajpura, and an MBA aspirant. Both him and Dhiraj, who is a B Tech in computer science from College of Engineering, Roorkee, had saved their pocket money to build the website.

What makes it easier to buy and sell books is the ISBN number (a 13 or 10-digit unique number of a book printed on the bottom left corner). Those interested in selling their books need to enter this number and, instantly, the book’s details will be filled in.

Just one click and your book is listed on the website. Though there are only course books that can be dealt in now, the two also plan to upload novels and books for pleasure reading soon.

The best part is that you don’t need to go anywhere, just buy it from your college mates in your college’s premises, since the website has a large number of educational institutes of the region listed on it. And you grow richer in time and money.