I just posted this over at the Shelf's blog, but I figured I might as well share it here as well. A little back story: My friend Chad and I had the idea to try and solve the problem that every college student faces - buying and selling textbooks. We set out last June to try and develop a solution. All the work has led to what you can currently find here.
Also, just some advice, if you are a college student I really don't recommend launching anything during exam periods - it's amazing how little importance your exams will suddenly have.
From the Shelf's blog:
It's a big day for us at the Shelf, since June 2009 we have been working to build a system that would finally make the process of buying and selling books tolerable. We are thrilled to announce the launch of our beta version.
The focus of the this product was to fix the fundamental issues that students currently faced when buying or selling books. We started by identifying the key pains involved for both the seller and the buyer.
For Sellers:
- The act of listing your book: up until now this required posting flyers in multiple locations our filling out long descriptive online forms
- Managing those listing: it was one thing to get your listing posted, it was whole other thing to manage them. The particular problem was when you successfully sold your book and all of those listing remained in place.
For Buyers:
- Finding books: given that sellers would post everywhere it had become a real chore to find listings that were still active and of quality.
We have developed what we feel is a core set of tools that will help eliminate these annoyances for both sides. This includes one click listings and easy management of listings and orders and comprehensive search tools and book notifications for buyers.
You can find out all the the Shelf has to offer buyers on it's how page.
We are very excited to finally let everyone try it out. If you have any feedback for us, please don't hesitate to contact us. Any bugs/glitches, feature requests, comments or any sorts of questions are welcome. We want to built the best product possible, and you can expect to see more features rolled out over time.
Thanks and enjoy the Shelf!
If you are a student or know a student in your life send them on over!