Jake Laskey

PITTSBURGH — A Cranberry Township native is trying to change the way that college students get their textbooks.

Jake Laskey is one of three people running a new website called Tradebooks. They describe it as a proximity-based marketplace where students can buy and sell textbooks using points instead of dollars.

Laskey, a junior at the University of Pittsburgh and a graduate of Seneca Valley, said the goal of the website is to help students avoid mark-up on used textbooks by eliminating websites or stores that act as a middleman.

“It’s all student to student, so there’s a mutual incentive not to make price of books incredibly high and rip off other students,” he said.

The website launched last summer and has 80 users in Pittsburgh posting 300 books so far. It was started by Web designer and Carnegie Mellon University graduate Olisa Okonkwo and computer engineer and University of Pittsburgh doctoral student Briand Djoko.

Laskey joined the team during winter break and is now chief operating officer.

How Tradebooks works is students make an account and enter what used textbooks they are hoping to sell and what textbooks they need to buy for their classes. They are then connected with other students on their campus, or in the same area, who are selling the book they need or who want to buy the book they have.

“It’s like a trade-block. You say, ‘here’s what I have to offer, here is what I’m looking to get,’ and you get notified when someone posts the inverse of that,” he said.

They hope it will save students hundreds of dollars.

Laskey gave an example from his freshmen year. He bought eight books required for his classes at the school bookstore and paid more than $400. At the end of the semester, he went to sell back the books at the bookstore and received only $113 back.

“You’re going to lose $300 or more each semester, there’s an inevitable loss of money,” he said.

Currently, the website allows users to message each other and set up a meeting in person where they can exchange cash.

However, before the fall semester they plan to launch a new subscription service. Subscribers will pay an annual fee and receive 500 points. They will then spend and receive points, instead of dollars, for exchanging books.

Ideally, those 500 points will be used to buy a semester’s worth of books, which can be sold the next semester to earn the user points to buy more books.

“Since students are constantly needing new textbooks and having no need for old ones, the credits can continually be circulated within the system. That way, no actual money is lost in the process,” he said.

The two parties negotiate a price, but since they review each other after the sale, there is added incentive not to scam other users.

Laskey said he hopes that the new service can get 1,000 users this year. That amount of use would serve as a proof of concept when pitching the service to students in other cities or when going after investments, he said.

To learn more about the service, visit Tradebooks.com.