SDtexty.com stemmed from one student’s idea into an entrepreneurial success. It’s a website where San Diego State students can buy, sell and trade books with each other. By requiring an SDSU Rohan email for signup, the website only allows access to SDSU students.
“The numbers tell me that about one fourth of the school have checked the site, and page hits surpassed 100,000,” SDSU business senior and website creator, who wanted to be referred to as “Texty,” said.
Texty said that at the beginning of the first semester of SDtexty.com there were approximately 400 textbooks listed on the website, now there is approximately 1,000 books listed.
The website allows SDSU students to post the title of the book and how much they want to sell it for. Texty said this has been successful because it cuts out the middleman and allows the student to make 100 percent of the profit.
It’s free of charge to post and browse the site. Texty said the site makes absolutely no profit, whereas bookstores and online retailers make a large margin of profit.
Texty said the inspiration to create the site came from his own frustration with the buyback process.
“First and foremost, this website satisfied my own needs for saving money on books. I’m stoked it’s also working out for other students,” Texty said. “My savings on books from the first semester alone were enough to cover the website’s initial cost.”
Another benefit of using SDtexty.com is that SDSU students can arrange to meet in order to make transactions, which eliminates shipping costs.
Psychology senior Marisa Johnson succcessfully sold her textbook using SDtexty.com.
“I feel SDtexty is much more reliable and safer than Craigslist because anyone can use Craigslist and the risk of being scammed is higher,” Johnson said.
Johnson said books are still sometimes cheaper to buy on Amazon or at Chegg.com, but she highly recommends selling expensive science books using SDtexty.com.
“It truly is one of those scenarios of being given the option to receive $5 today or $50 next month… Just wait until next semester. You’ll get way more for your books on SDtexty,” Texty said.
SDtexty.com started as a way for one student to save money and is quickly expanding to help many.
For more information, visit SDtexty.com and “like” the Facebook page facebook.com/sdtexty.
