Textbook Rental

nuncoop · 11-12-2008, 08:38 PM

As the title implies, I'm basically considering the idea of starting a textbook rental service for students like myself. Being a student, I know what it's like to have to pay hundreds of dollars each term for books that I'm probably only going to use once in my life. A service like the one that I'm proposing doesn't exist in my area, so I would be breaking new ground. Everyone that I've talked to so far has said that they would be interested if the service was provided. Of course, I would feel bad about undercutting my campus bookstore, but it is a service that they have chosen not to provide. There are a few things that are confusing to me, such as online transactions, bulk sale of books, discounts on shipping costs for business, and the such. I feel that I have the basic Idea down, but it is the details that I am not too sure about. Essentially what I'd like to do is make it an online service, following companies such as Chegg and CampusBookRentals. This would allow me to reach a far greater group of people, than simply focusing on my own campus. The students would be able to look up their textbooks via ISBN, click to order them, receive them and then return them at the designated time. That is all I've got so far. Again, I have no idea where to begin, so any input at all would be greatly appreciated

awayoflife · 12-29-2008, 01:14 PM

Firstly, dont be sorry that you will be undercutting the campus bookstore. The idea is good in principal, you can receive the cost of renting the book and the deposit. if you have another business the money can be transferred to the other business for expansion etc. However one major problem would be the books not being returned constantly, being damaged and delivery/ collection. However it is a good idea, good luck

adum · 12-29-2008, 03:25 PM

start up costs might be pretty high for something like this, you're going to have to have a big inventory of books in order to get more clients, and books are pretty expensive. I'd look on Amazon for the best prices and buy books from people at the end of semesters.

Another problem is that courses change what books they use and books get outdated, which would leave you with books that nobody wants to rent and you might lose money off them. You'd probably have to rent a book out like 4 times in order to make money off of it, and by then the book might be no longer used.

rogercbryan · 12-29-2008, 07:19 PM

Won't work... books only last 2-6 semesters... you would need a price point that is unreachable based on needed volumes, lack of control over returns, damage... blah blah blah... move on

Realbigsource · 01-12-2009, 07:38 PM

Good idea....I sell books and have access to over a million title...for a business like yours you will need to have a list of book distributor and you will need some funding to get it off the ground....

If you going to take it online, it will cost you a harm and a leg...you going to need storage and millions of title on hand.....

What I would do is start with one college locally, then onces things looking good I move on to the next college in your area and at the same time provide a online present only for the college you cater to.

You will keep expanding in your state till you suppling all the schools in your state, then you will move to the near by state. Continue the processes till you can afford to go big, maybe an investor will see what you doing and fund your operation...

Whizzkid-000 · 02-12-2009, 03:19 PM

Hey i have just found out about this che gg.com website and although it sounds like a good idea, i cant help but think as to why the students cant just borrow the needed books from their universities?
Surely they would rather borrow the books from the university than pay out for them?

jmdbiz · 02-12-2009, 04:48 PM

books nowadays are expensive (textbook) .. I can provide you books for a cheap price. About 3-5% cheeaper than amazon if you ever get your business rollings. I also sell books on my website.

I used to sell on amazon too, but until they withheld my money for review of my account.... And i needed the money to purchased the books since I do drop shipping.

either way, back on focus... let me know if you get your business of the ground. I can sell you books for a cheap price.

mthomas · 02-12-2009, 05:01 PM

I think it sounds like a good idea. Even if textbooks only last about 2 semester (which is only the case for SOME classes). What you can do for the "outdated" textbooks is rent them for a steeper discount. The students who are especially money conscious will have no problem borrowing the older editions. Besides, very often there is little difference between the new and old edition and the professor often doesn't know the difference anyway.

This may be an expensive venture to start like other members mentioned, and don't forget the web design costs--which will be more expensive because it will require database programming.

One other thing to keep in mind is the pricing. You don't want it too cheap where you have little profit margin (keep in mind that you will need to recover the cost of the purchased books within one to two semesters), but at the same time you don't want it too expensive where a student can easily buy a used book for cheaper. You can probably get away with charging a higher price than you would think rentals should be, but don't make it too expensive.

I would start out by looking into where and for what price you can buy textbooks in bulk. Figure the average per-book cost to you, and determine you pricing from there.

Whizzkid-000 · 02-12-2009, 06:08 PM

As i said before...whats stoping the students from just borrowing the books from the library??

Grandmarnier · 02-12-2009, 06:23 PM

Because libraries wont carry 100 copies of the same textbook for a class. And most students will not be responsible enough to renew them every week, or two weeks...whichever it may be.

Whizzkid-000 · 02-13-2009, 05:33 AM

Yer i guess so, ive been stung quite a few times with late fees!!

But surely youd need like $xxx,xxx to start up something like this?

As well lets say theres like 50 classes (there will abviously be more than that) and every class requires 3 essential books? and the average book price you could get for cheap was $70-80? and there was atleast 100 people in each class (I'm just working with the bare minimum here)

So to buy all the books for one class will cost $240 for one person... Times that by 100 to cover everybody in that class $24,000!
Then $24,000 x 50 to cover each of the classes? So $1,200,000....

Am i wrong here or does it seem like this idea (in general) has a huge potential to fail?
So how are a new startup like che gg.com able to operate for 4,000 university campuses?? Im totally lost

maximus20895 · 02-13-2009, 11:08 PM

there is already a site like this so it is a proven business structure. You just need to find their site and see what you need to do better than them.

Whizzkid-000 · 02-14-2009, 12:01 AM

Yes it may be proven but what im trying to get at is the fact that you'd need a lot of start up capital to start aventure like this probably a couple of angel/investors?

Mediamind · 02-19-2009, 11:28 PM

there is a site that already does this called campusbookrental.com. I just had my books shipped from them and they are in perfect condition and arrived on time. Maybe you can check out their site structure, see if that helps you any.

Cheers,

Mediamind

Whizzkid-000 · 06-10-2009, 11:54 AM

Hey sorry to bring up an old post but i am still curious as to how a business like this could be viable? and how would a "startup" acquire the large amount of books necessary to service its customers? Or would they order a book from a supplier were a "student" orders the book from the startups website? I need some answers as was thinking of doing this myself...